Amb. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the Director General, visited Savannah earlier this month to discuss the Foreign Service, including advice for applicants.  Thomas-Greenfield has spent most of her career living and working in Africa.  Before returning to Washington, DC, she served as Ambassador to Liberia.   An open and straightforward diplomat, her career did not follow a traditional route to the top job in the Foreign Service. 

Indeed, Thomas-Greenfield spent many years working in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, including a tour as the Regional Refugee Officer in Nairobi, covering a number of countries including Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda and the Great Lakes countries.  During her tenure, she witnessed the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and helped coordinate U.S. aid efforts to hundreds of thousands of Rwandans who fled the and into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Thomas-Greenfield’s career highlights an important point that still holds true in the Foreign Service; namely, there is no one path to make it into the senior ranks.  In Linda’s case, she followed one of her passions — humanitarian and refugee issues — and did well, leading to jobs with more responsibility and ultimately the 7th floor of the State Department.

In April, she visited Savannah State University during a recent trip to the southeast.  I have summarized the key points of Amb Thomas-Greenfield’s remarks in Georgia:

• in 2012, 22,000 applicants took the Foreign Service Exam, but the State Department hired only 425 FSOs;
• Under Hillary Clinton, the Foreign Service grew 21 percent, reaching an estimated 14,000 diplomats.

Diversity is Essential

During her presentation, Thomas-Greenfield, a 31-year veteran, complained that the Foreign Service needs more diversity, explaining that white men from generally elite eastern universities still dominate the Foreign Service.  The Director General said that minorities and women have been underrepresented in what is supposed to be a more open and inclusive U.S. Government.

• The Foreign Service is made up of approximately 5 percent African-Americas, while Hispanics and Asians represent about 4 percent.  Women are 40 percent of the Foreign Service.  (Remember that up to 1972, women who married were forced to quit the Foreign Service.)

Thomas-Greenfield went on to describe the importance of U.S. diplomats who typically precede the U.S. Armed Forces in any conflict.  She spoke about the loss of Amb. Chris Stevens, killed in the September 2012 attack in Benghazi.  Underlining the dangers of diplomatic work, Thomas-Greenfield also told the packed crowd that diplomacy is the cutting-edge of U.S. foreign policy and remains critically important.  She said that counter-terrorism, human rights and nuclear proliferation are top concerns.

• Thomas-Greenfield also listed the most important attributes for a successful U.S. diplomat — communications skills, especially writing (italics added)
  

This is an ideal opportunity for anyone enrolled in an undergrad or graduate program this fall.  Many colleges and universities will offer credit, I understand.

There is no better way to experience the Foreign Service than to travel overseas to work in an embassy or consulate.  While it’s unpaid, it’s worth the investment…

On other blogs, I’ve seen 20-somethings complain that they can’t compete with those who’ve had previous international careers or others with a lot of development or other experience.  This is the way to even the odds.  Ask for a letter of recommendation from your FSO boss.  She’ll be eager  to help, especially if you worked hard and did good work.

The Department notice starts here:

Hello:

We are now accepting applications for the U.S. Department of State 2013 Fall Student Internship Program (unpaid).

Click here (https://state.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/336405300) to go directly to USAJobs to start the Gateway to State online application. Please note that the deadline to submit completed applications is March 1, 2013.

This program offers U.S. citizen undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to participate in 10-week, unpaid internships that provide intensive educational and professional experience within the environment of America’s principle foreign affairs agency.

The unpaid internships are available at many of the over 265 U.S. embassies, consulates and missions to international organizations around the world, as well as at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. and other locations throughout the U.S. Participants gain first-hand, hands-on experience, and learn the realities of working in – and with – Foreign and Civil Service professionals who are at the forefront of America’s diplomatic efforts.

As an unpaid intern, you may have the opportunity to:

• Participate in meetings with senior level U.S. government or foreign government officials;
• Draft, edit, or contribute to cables, reports, communications, talking points, or other materials used by policy makers in furthering U.S. foreign policy objectives;
• Help organize and support events, including international and/or multi-lateral meetings and conferences on critical global issues;
• Contribute to the management and administration of the Department of State and America’s foreign policy; and
• Engage directly with U.S. or foreign audiences to promote U.S. foreign policy and improve understanding of U.S. culture and society.

So consider spending your Fall 2013 with the U.S. Department of State, witnessing and participating in the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy, working closely with the U.S. diplomats and civil servants who carry out America’s foreign policy initiatives. You’ll not only have an experience of a lifetime, you may even earn educational credit.*

* Applicants who are selected for a U.S. Department of State Student Internship Program (unpaid) can contact the selecting bureau, or the central Student Programs office, if they require further details about the program to support their request for academic credit.

Please visit http://careers.state.gov/students/programs for more information about the Fall 2013 Student Internship Program (unpaid), and to start the online application process via USAJobs. Please note that the deadline to submit completed applications is March 1, 2013.

We appreciate your interest in a career with the U.S. Department of State.

Visit our forums if you have any questions, or to search for topics of interest. The forums can be found under Engage on the careers.state.gov website. You can also search our FAQs for more information.

U.S. citizenship is required. An equal opportunity employer.

• Can you take orders?

• Can you put U.S. Government policy before your own?

• Can you handle life overseas?

• Can you take out the trash?

CAN YOU TAKE ORDERS?

1. My first boss in the Foreign Service was a wonderful guy – open, smart, fair.  He showed me the ropes, taught me how to be a good consular officer and instructed me in the ways of the Foreign Service.

He taught me two important things:

• the Foreign Service is a hierarchical institution and your boss is your boss, whether he’s a fool or a saint, and
• the Foreign Service is nearly identical to the military except you don’t wear uniforms.  If you think it isn’t as strict (or at times constricting) as the Armed Forces, you’re going to “crash and burn.”  He passed this wisdom to me in 1989, when I was on my first tour in Ecuador.   It hasn’t changed. I don’t care if you’re a boomer, a Generation Xer or a Millenial.  Can you take orders (even stupid ones)?  Ask yourself that.

Note: In a later post, I will share what I’ve told FSOs and others I’ve mentored over the years – pick your next assignment not on region or language or responsibilities.  Pick it because your boss is a good manager.

 CAN YOU PUT U.S. GOVERNMENT POLICY BEFORE YOUR OWN?

2. During my career, the U.S. Government has approved policies that I didn’t agree with.  Remember your job is to represent the United States to the government, citizenry and others in your host country.  Your job is to explain and defend U.S. policy whether you support it or not.  Your personal feelings don’t matter.  You may think so and your mother may think so, but you’re overseas to represent the United States.

There have been some who could no longer agree with that core precept — and they’ve resigned.  I remember at least two FSOs who quit over our policy in Bosnia.  I’ve heard that many quit in the 1960s to protest our policy in Vietnam.  (The Dissent Channel is a way to object to a policy at your post that you think is ill-considered or downright dumb.  It is used rarely, but deserves a fuller discussion in a later post)

For what it’s worth, I disagreed with the USG’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and for I considered to be excesses in the Global War on Terror.  Still do.  I had a choice.  Accept the policy and move on or give in and do my job.  I gave in.

I defended what the United States was doing.  Many disagreed.  I was in Kampala at the time and some (many?) Ugandan government officials and fellow diplomats threw brickbats and mocked me for defending a bully. However, I toed the line, followed the approved talking points and kept my cool.  You have to ask yourself whether you can do the same. 

And don’t think you can simply tell folks that, “Well, the United States thought there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and the war was a mistake or an error or a gross overreaction. I don’t support it.”  No way.  You signed up to work for the State Department and you don’t get to cherry pick the policies you like – renditions, predator/reaper drone strikes, water boarding.  Can you grin and bear it?

 CAN YOU HANDLE LIFE OVERSEAS?

Congressmen and women, usually during election campaigns, love to criticize the “cookie pushers” in the Foreign Service who they say spend their days lunching with chums and nights waltzing from cocktail parties to soirees.  Frankly, their attitude is misinformed, even laughable.  It makes for a good soundbite, but little more.

During his or her first tour, even the most social FSO discovers that the lunches and especially evening receptions are incredibly dull affairs.  They are work, plain and simple.  You work a reception to squeeze bits of information and gossip from other diplomats, host government officials and other guests.  Occasionally the information you pick up helps to corroborate your thinking.  However, more than likely the tips are unimportant, pointless trivia.

Despite what Congress likes voters to believe.  If you’re working these parties, you will have 12-14 hour days.  Unlike your diplomatic colleagues, US diplomats arrive to work early and spend the full day on their normal jobs.  At the close of business, FSOs will head to these “parties.”  Depending on the social whirl of your posting, you will be attending these events three or four nights a week.  Although Political and Economic Officers tend to work these receptions, Consular, Management and Public Diplomacy Officers also receive invitations and are expected to attend.

Ask any FSO whether they like these events.  These affairs may seem glamorous from afar – on Capitol Hill or Main Street – but cocktail parties are work, important efforts to be sure, but holding little allure or thrills.

Likewise, if you’ve never left the United States, you may not like leaving behind the comforts that you expect – round-the-clock electricity, potable water from the tap, vegetables and fruits that need only to be rinsed, not bleached.  It’s very likely your will be pulling some tours in the developing world where life is challenging, even though you can afford household help and a gardener. You’ll weather frequent bouts of stomach troubles, thanks to giardia and amoebas, but there are more serious diseases too.

I contracted cerebral malaria in Zambia during my second tour – even though I was taking the then-recommended anti-malarials.  They finally cured the malaria using Quinine — the drug the Army used to cure my uncle’s malaria in the South Pacific during WWII!  I knew someone in Uganda who came down with West Nile Fever and was hospitalized for weeks.  Others react badly to the anti-malaria prophylaxis.  It’s not widely publicized but FSOs come into contact with strange infectious diseases that render them sick, battered or dead.  In the Developing World, the only thing more dangerous than disease are car accidents.

If you’ve visited London, Paris and Amsterdam and found them attractive as posts, well, there are more posts like Kinshasa, Bujumbura and Guayaquil.  Many FSOs like the tougher posts – there’s hardship differential pay (from 5-25 percent) tacked on your monthly salary.  But don’t expect the attractions – museums, opera, theater — of Europe when you’re in Sub-Saharan Africa or the “Stans” of Central Asia.

Peace Corps Volunteers, field employees of NGOs and military personnel all have an edge in roughing it over the typical FSO.  Think hard about living with chronic brownouts and a ready supply of anti-venom in the refrigerator.  It’ll save you a lot of pain and the Foreign Service a lot of money.

CAN YOU TAKE OUT THE TRASH?

You’re a diplomat.  You’re the Third Secretary of the Political Section at the American Embassy of Upper Slobovia, damn it!  But when you start out you’re also the low man or woman on the totem pole.  Scut work falls to you.  It’s the hierarchy thing again.

As a junior officer (“entry level officer”) you will pull the all-nighters at the airport waiting for Senator So-and-so’s plane to take off.  You’ll be pressed into carrying visiting VIP’s luggage, gifts and purchases he made at the local souvenir market.  You will be ignored or lectured by said VIPs (although a few are genuinely nice people).  The VIPs will be late to meetings, early to the Ambassador’s Residence and ignorant of local customs (the sole of your shoe on the floor; not in the Sultan’s face, Mr. Senator.  Don’t shake the Muslim woman’s hand in this country.  And chat with the Foreign Minister first about his family, his farm, his health before you berate him and his country’s miserable human rights record.)

And all the blame will fall on you.  Suck it up, smile and count how many days you transfer to your next Embassy.  Where you’ll be Second Secretary and won’t have to endure this torture.  Ha!  It never goes away.  Can you deal with that?  Answer honestly before you take the plunge.  Everyone will tell you great things about the Foreign Service, and I do too.  But there are downsides and you should consider them as well.

CRAP SHOOT

Seriously, it’s kind of a crap shoot picking your Cone without knowing something about Career Tracks, or at least knowing something a bit more than what’s described on careers.state.gov.  If it were an ideal world, you would all have State Department mentors assigned before you make this decision has to be made.  Some of you will or have already interned at Embassies and Consulates overseas.  Others have learned as former Peace Corps Volunteers or staff members at overseas NGOs what officers in the five Career Tracks actually do.  You, who are so fortunate, at least have a clue what you’ll be doing.  For the rest of you, well, you always can ask me.  Fire away.  This post with some admittedly abridged descriptions of the five Cones will at least, I hope, put you in a position to the right questions.  Meantime, I’ll also provide the names of books that can help you.

BOOKS WILL HELP; MOVIES WILL NOT

No Hollywood movie has ever/ever accurately portrayed the work of a Foreign Service Officer.  I’ll devote a post to this later.  Screenwriters and directors routinely cast FSOs as schemers with the power to overthrow foreign governments or wiener-ish dweebs who go out of their ways not to help American Citizens in trouble.  The movie Midnight Express is one such movie, depicting the consul in Istanbul who deals  with Billy Hayes, a convicted hashish trafficker, as slimy, unctuous and dismissive.  In fact, my first boss in the Foreign Service was that consul, and I have never found a more courageous, straightforward and caring individual in my career.  He laughed about the movie, saying Midnight Express was wrong on so many levels that he watched it only once and thought it more a comedy than drama.  Midnight Express, like so many others,  was a smear job, a pathetic attempt to score points by depicting the consul as a weak, mealy-mouthed bureaucrat.  I guess it’s no surprise that the screenwriter was Oliver Stone, the lucky man who never fails to take complicated, nuanced issues and distill them to black and white.   But I digress and I promised you more information about the Econ, Consular and Management Career Tracks.

ECONOMIC OFFICERS

Econ officers are a sexy bunch, well, no not really, but they do work in a “substantive” Cone.  Honestly, when I joined the Foreign Service, Pol and Econ were the only really “serious” Cones.  But even then Econ trailed Political in attracting the bidders.  It’s crazy when you think that Economic Officers are the ones most likely to find employment when they retire, quit or otherwise bail out of the Foreign Service.  If you opt to bid on this route and you’re still in school, take more classes in micro and macroeconomics.  Those working in the private sector will also be in a position to do well.  The key is to  “hit the ground running” (one of the Foreign Service’s most overused expressions).   Economic Officers do similar work as political officers, reaching out and developing networks, trying to get a handle on a range of issues — from a country’s monetary policy to its stand on Climate Change, from a country’s export and trade policies to a U.S. company’s complaints on the Rule of Law in the country’s court system.  You draw on multiple sources, from government ministers to the local World Bank resident representative, and then report your findings and analysis back to the Department in cables.

WIKILEAKS

The wonderful thing about Wikileaks, should one ever admit that the treasure trove of “front-channel” cables are in fact real State Department reports (still strictly verboten for FSOs and other Department personnel) are the accolades from outside observers.  Many media outlets, including The Guardian in London, no big fan of the U.S. Government,  acknowledged that not only was the reporting detailed and accurate, but the prose was excellent, even sublime.  Overseas, fellow diplomats and many government officials agreed that the quantity and the quality of embassy reporting was truly incredible, and at least for the diplomats had their capitals wondering what they did all day, if the Americans were producing so much information.

GOOD WRITING IS ESSENTIAL

The Wikileaks scandal leads me to another point that is so important.  In the Foreign Service, you will be judged by your analysis and perhaps more importantly your writing skills.   You must write fast and accurately.  If you don’t, practice hard now.  There is no greater skill for an American diplomat.  The State Department’s writing tradition is as strong as the U.S. military’s oral tradition.  To be a good officer in the U.S. Army or any of the other services, you must be a good briefer — focused, to the point, preferably with  PowerPoint slides.  In the Foreign Service, to be a good officer you must be a clear and succinct drafter.  Cables and more and more emails are the grist of an FSOs life.  Coming in with strong writing skills will put you ahead of your peers for tenure and promotion.

CONSULAR OFFICERS ARE NOT LAWYERS

Regrettably there are too many lawyers working in the Consular Cone.  I agree that the work lends itself to legal thinking and practice.  Just about all U.S. visa law — pertaining to nonimmigrant and immigrant visas — is set out in the Immigration and Nationality Act.  When politicians talk about immigration reform, they are discussing possible ways to amend the INA.  But if lawyers gravitate towards consular work because it resembles legal work, well, that’s (in my opinion, of course) is not a good thing.  Lawyers make lousy visa officers for a number of reasons:

•  Lawyers find it impossible to deal in the gray area that exists in the law.  There is only one right answer and if it takes three days/three weeks/three months to hash it out, well, so be it.  With today’s workloads, hundreds of thousands of visa applicants receive a two-minute interview.  There is simply no time to deep dive into the nuances of the law.  Harsh, yes; accurate, absolutely.  The goal of  visa work is to process applicants — talk to them, discuss their circumstances and make a decision.  Fast.  There is no dilly-dallying in visa work.  The law is clear.  An applicant is deemed to be an intending immigrant, until and unless he can convince the interviewing officer to the contrary.  In short,  you’re guilty until you prove yourself innocent.  Lawyers generally can’t deal with the fact that a visa section resembles more a McDonald’s at lunchtime than a law office on main street.
• Lawyers by and large make lousy managers.  Visa Sections around the world, especially in “Visa Mills” like Seoul, Mexico City, and Manila may have 20-30 FSOs and more than 100 local employees, handling hundreds of thousands of applicants.  Management is the name of the game.  You as the manager have to keep things moving, juggling the cultural differences, language hurdles and insane pace of the job.  I’ve seen some, but not many lawyers succeed at this.
• Most lawyers that I’ve come across in the Foreign Service are not funny.  If you don’t have sense of humor, the Foreign Service is not for you, especially consular work.  You’ve got to keep your FSOs and your Foreign Service Nationas (FSNs) –now called LSE’s, or Local Service Employees — happy and laughing.  High morale is essential in consular work.  It’s important in every section of the embassy, but bad morale kills a Consular Section faster than any other office.

We called them Cones when I joined the Foreign Service in 1988.  At some point, the HR folks changed the name to be more in touch with the times so they became Career Tracks.  It’s a better description, but HR has apparently also decided that you need to pick your Career Track before taking the first exam — the written test.  As I recall, when I took the test, they scored us on how we did in each of the Cones, or Career Tracks, and then told us to pick our Cones.  I picked Consular, but that’s not important right now.

First, let me list and describe the five Career Tracks:

• Political – dubbed “Pol,” as in she’s the pol off (political officer).  Political is considered the most glamorous Track, at least in political officers’ minds
• Economic – known as “Econ,” or E-con.  The second “substantive” Cone or so political and econ Tracks were considered when I joined the Foreign Service
• Management – used to be called Administrative, and is still referred to by many older FSOs as Admin.  HR and M (Under Secretary for Management) decided a few years ago that “Administrative” didn’t give the full breadth or importance of a Management Officer’s work.  So it became Management.  All FSOs manage, of course, but only Admin Officers are called Management Cone managers.  Go figure.
• Consular – where some of the best State Department managers are found.  From Day 1, Consular Officers are called upon to manage local employees and their colleagues in visa and American Citizen Services sections in Embassies and Consulates around the world.  The number manages continues to increase as consular officers advance in the Service.  Every FSO has work as a consular officer before they are eligible for tenure (more on that later).
• Public Diplomacy – called “PD” by FSOS.  When I joined, there wasn’t a separate Public Diplomacy Cone; all PD functions were run by a separate agency, the United States Information Service (USIS).  Around the turn of the century, State Department leaders (also known as the “Seventh Floor,” the highest floor at Main State decided that USIS should be merged into the State Department from whence it came some decades before.  There are still some bad feelings among long-time USIS officers, but although they had to give up their bigger houses and china, their budgets continue to remain outside the main embassy budget and each regional Bureau in the Department now has an extra Deputy Assistant Secretary from the PD Cone.

I’ll give you the skinny on Career Tracks.  The lion’s share of bidders still pick the Political Cone, which is still seen by many as the Foreign Service Officer Track.  Political Officers network with locals, glean information, complete analyses and reports (known as “cables”) to send to the Embassy.  Pol Offs frequently work closely with the Ambassador and Deputy Chief of Mission (the number two in an embassy).  She is called D-C-M, for short).

A Pol Off’s job should take place — in my view — outside of the Embassy, meeting with contacts, groups and others who have information that is important to an Embassy and ultimately the U.S. Government.  The only time a Pol Off should be in the Embassy is when he or she is drafting reports to send to Main State.  A Pol Off’s job is to schmooze, and if you like people and making contacts and going to receptions and other social events, then this is a great job.  Ironically, Political Officers in the Foreign Service are frequently introverts, which is not the best personality type for this intensely social field.  Some get over it.  Some do not, and it shows in their work.

George Kennan, perhaps the most famous FSO, admitted in his memoirs that he himself was very shy, but when he was a Pol Off representing the United States, his introversion disappeared.  He was doing his job as America’s representative, not as George Kennan, and he could in effect step out of himself and do his work.

Besides the glamour of meeting with political, labor, military and other types of leaders, Pol Offs — especially junior ones — usually get saddled with the myriad reports demanded by the Department — Human Rights Report, International Religious Freedom Report, Trafficking in Persons Report, and so forth.  Either mandated by Congress or demanded by one of the functional Bureaus or specialized offices at Main State, these reports can be drudgery.  To be sure, some are important.  Others, well, let’s just say they’re less important.  Ironically, the number of reports has increased as the number of Foreign Service Officers in the field has declined.

If the Political Cone attracts most applicants, I believe, Public Diplomacy comes in a close second.  PD is attractive work, whether you’re  the Information Officer (IO), an Embassy spokesperson.  Or you the mission’s Cultural Affairs Officer  (CAO), in which you organize public programs in music, art, books, etc.  American artists still make global tours, and the CAO organizes their visits. In the early 1960s Louis Armstrong did a number of foreign programs, and you can still find recordings of his trips.  For instance, I have a CD of Armstrong’s concert in Elizabethville in the Congo (now Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo).  CAO’s also coordinate Fulbright scholars, International Visitor Programs (IVP) and other foreign visitors to the United States.  These are plum programs because they frequently last for several weeks and show foreigners a cross-section of American life.  Their themes can range from democracy, law enforcement, justice and equality, minority rights,  youth, women in government, etc.  The USG has sponsored these programs for decades and they pay dividends as participants have risen to the top of their professions, becoming important contacts with generally positive views of the United States.

This post is too long already.  I’ll discuss the Economic, Management, and Consular Career Tracks tomorrow.

Cheers