Customer Reviews

The Foreign Service in Two Thousand One

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'Most successful applicants probably never consciously question the underlying assumption that the appropriate reward for succeeding in a "general excellence" competition is a relatively low-paying government job with often only limited responsibility over most of its career span.'

I read this in preparation for writing the exam, but now I think of the test only as a personal challenge. With the constant moves, difficulties of raising a family abroad, assumption of an 'at-home' spouse, limited decision making ability, two years of McDonalds-like consular work, poor remuneration and terrible morale I could not seriously consider the Foreign Service as a career. Besides the above complaints, this volume also lists inter-agency rivalry and miscommunication, incompetent political appointees, the lack of options for FSOs to move between the FS and the private sector, and limited clout on the Hill as major problems. All of which leave the reader with the impression that the State Dept is more akin to a poorly-managed Soviet enterprise than a dynamic, innovative American organization.