05/25/2026
A challenging transition for the sector’s seasoned professionals (DEVEX.com)
“When you start talking about HIV commodities in sub-Saharan Africa, that doesn’t translate well into the health department of a county in northern Florida.”
— Kent Benson, former foreign service officer, USAID
More than a year after the first wave of layoffs at the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, many professionals are struggling to find jobs despite their years of experience in senior roles as chiefs of party, directors of implementing partners, or senior technical advisers.
Kathleen Borgueta, who has worked in the sector for more than two decades, has been repeatedly advised to scale back her experience to improve her job prospects — something that’s been a “tough pill to swallow.”
This tactic did help Cate Klepacki, a former humanitarian assistance adviser at the U.S. Agency for International Development, land a job, but it’s an entry-level role to get by as she studies for a master’s degree.
Some of those affected by the layoffs have found their next role with U.S. state governments. Benson, a former foreign service officer and leader in the agency’s bureau for management, is one of them — but it took 180 applications and a pay decrease. It isn’t easy, he said, to translate USAID experience to a local-level job.
It’s also proved trickier than some had hoped to take their leadership skills into the private sector. Global development has its own language, and most professionals didn’t network outside the sector, explained Benson.
The narrative pushed by the Trump administration that USAID was corrupt and inefficient has damaged perceptions of those who helped lead the agency, explained Luke Zahner, a former USAID and U.S. State Department staffer. Nevertheless, his partner, an ex-USAID country director, found work with a strategic design consulting firm that values his overseas experience in crisis contexts.
Others have been forced into early retirement — not the career finale they had in mind after decades in the sector. Then there’s the emotional toll of last year’s events, particularly for those who were tasked with dismantling the teams they had built and trained. Only when his contract came to an end in September last year did Benson recognize he was traumatized after terminating 5,500 local staff and repatriating thousands of overseas personnel.
