Does anyone here work as a Foreign Service Officer?

Question

I'm thinking of taking the exam and considering the job. Any input on the facts of life involved with it beyond the State Dept's info on their website?

Answer 1

I do (but not for the US government).

Learn how to write well. *Very well*. Don't even think you are literate in the sense that allows you to communicate with the degree of nuance found in foreign policy circles.

Nobody will care about your PhD on international politics or your command of French if you cannot write a simple briefing paper that can be comprehended in one reading.

If you are over thirty-five years old and therefore probably completed your undergraduate degree without using a word processor (and thus are more likely to be used to writing drafts), you may have an advantage.

Answer 2

hmm. Going for Baroque looks to have missed Public international family. i'm confident somebody is grousing someplace, yet different than that, you will possibly desire to take heed to him. And to me, too, of course . easily, distant places service generalists can do something on the embassy, different than for the professional jobs. the experts can only do their pastime. which could be greater trouble-free could count on your historic past, training and adventure. So, take a glance on the distinctive specializations and notice if any charm. and take a glance on the distinctive generalized officer categories, or cones, and notice what appeals to you. then, decide what academic direction works superb in accordance with what you love to do, and what you will do if the distant places service would not artwork out. on an identical time as generalists can do an more desirable style of jobs, the better up the foodstuff chain you circulate, the fewer probably it extremely is you will artwork outdoors of your section. in my opinion, criminal Justice isn't an obtrusive direction to fulfillment interior the distant places service, yet then, in case you bypass the checks besides, it in all probability won't count. And in case you do no longer bypass the checks, it additionally won't count what you majored in. Languages are very functional, of course, as is any adventure distant places.

Answer 3

Study foreign relations, diplomacy, government, international law, French language and history of nations.