Pros
-Interesting subject matter -Experience in the NGO world -Cool coworkers -I think everyone is well intentioned
Cons
-Management is very good at talking about all of these lofty ideas and I think they believe them but they have generally not taken management classes and lack the innate ability to inspire, so they are grasping at straws for how to guide the organization. That would be maybe okay if they were also aware of that problem and were more willing to integrate feedback. As it is, any suggestions/criticisms are not met constructively but rather returned with an explanation of why management is right and you are wrong and how you came to this misunderstanding. It is very disempowering and also strange to have someone impose their thought process on you. -Burnout at impressive rates. I saw numerous optimists became incredibly jaded to the entire MO of the organization. When an organization premised on improving QoL for people around the globe actively decreases QoL for its own people, you start to wonder whether you want to be associated with it. -OEF talks about all of the buzzwords (diversity, empowerment, etc.) but I would encourage you to take a look at their US-based staff. The turnover in the non-white portion of the staff is higher than for the white portion and I feel confident that part of that is OEF's failure to actually translate the buzzwords into action. OEF is on its (I think) 3rd iteration of a gender empowerment committee because the first two died out when they were generally ignored. I don't think that's what we should mean by "iterating."