US Department of State Reviews

Pros

-- good salary/benefits
-- job satisfaction
-- job security

Cons

-- bureaucratic pace and thinking

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on fewer goals and initiatives. There are too many unfunded initiatives that are worthy but disconnected, even incoherent

Pros

Incredibly diverse, meaningful, global work. Thought leadership and policy making top notch. Opportunity to learn new languages, cultures, and implement foreign policy.

Cons

Management skills not so well developed and rewarded. You won't make policy, but will implement it, whether you fully agree or not.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to what employees are saying on the internal professional collaboration platforms, such as Sounding Board, Corridor, etc. Not everyone is just complaining.

Pros

You get to work on important issues, many of which regularly make the international news. Whichever country you work in, you're automatically at the top of the society. You'll have the opportunity to meet with the agenda-setters and decision-makers.

Cons

The State Department is an extremely hierarchical, bureaucratic organization. It often takes weeks to get anything substantive done, and reasonable proposals get bogged down in the bureaucracy. Also, you pretty much have to do something illegal to get fired, so there are a bunch of people who don't seem to work that hard / are incompetent.

Advice to Senior Management

Build a flatter organization and empower lower-level people to make more decisions. Try to reduce some of the bureaucracy. Also, don't overstaff, and feel free to fire incompetent/unmotivated people.

Pros

For one, you're serving your country. You're given, from week one, assignments that "mean something." You're given an opportunity to develop skills and work with people that you probably wouldn't have anywhere else.

Cons

Internships are unpaid, which can cancel out a lot of smart, hard-working students that just can't afford to work for free!

Pros

State Department is divided into several "cones" or divisions. You'll probably be satisfied if you go in as a political, economic, consular, or public diplomacy officer. Just not a management officer.

Cons

Don't ever go into anything that deals with internal management, especially if you're in the civil service or foreign service specialist. The bureaucracy is suffocating. Management is incompetent, and to get anything done, working through layers and layers of red tape is just simply exhausting. People actually take pride in finding loop holes around the regulations in order to get something done.

Advice to Senior Management

Why are there any financial or general service specialist in the foreign service when any generalist with no prior financial management or procurement can also take the job with a bare 2 months of training?

Pros

Free overseas housing is a huge benefit. In a lot of foreign countries you are given a large, spacious, apartment to live in. There is also a generous amounts of time off, since local and US holidays are celebrated. For good or for worse, expectations in the workplace are very low, which makes it a low stress environment.

Cons

Opportunities for promotion are limited and determined by a review panel in Washington who typically do not know you or the work you perform. This makes the decision process seem arbitrary. Information Management Specialists are also the slowest group in the Foreign Service to be promoted. While the Foreign Service is great for singles, families tend to have a harder time. In a lot of countries spouses cannot work, which forces the family to live on a single salary. That salary is typically lower than what the other other agencies (FBI, DOD, DEA, etc...) in an embassy pay. The job description is a bit deceiving. Most of your time will be spent proving tier 1 technical support, supervising several telephone operators, and physically doing the diplomatic pouch (aka, mail).

Over the past 10 years the benefits have dwindled. Rental cars are no longer authorized when traveling for work, business class plane fare is no longer offered, and there have been considerable pay cuts in the last few years.

It is not a bad job, but it is very different from what it used to be.

Pros

great travel and benefits (education, health) for your family

Cons

lockstep career advancement -- really no room for rapid advancement for exceptional work or out of the box thinking.

Advice to Senior Management

not worth all the tests/clearances required

Pros

Good work/life balance, good international travel opportunities, decent pay, great benefits (especially when posted abroad), great access to important/interesting people

Cons

*It's a bit of a cult
*coworkers
*you're often reminded that you are in fact just another bureaucrat
*State hasn't fully embraced technology

Advice to Senior Management

I think the Secretary is great and I'm sure her top staff are also very good. However, as you move down to middle management, the talent pool is very hit or miss.

Pros

very interesting work
possible to make a meaningful impact
exposure to the best and worst issues/places in the world
travel and overseas living

Cons

can be dangerous
promotions and job assignments made by relationship (can degenerate into a rumor mill)
totally top-down, and you have to deal with Hill staff
your kids may be fluent in 3 languages by age 18 but won't know their cousins/grandparents

Advice to Senior Management

protect the assignments process from becoming a popularity contest; provide exposure for employees to corporate counterparts as early as possible

Pros

Very responsible, competitive, kind and friendly people.

Cons

Highly dependent on political relationship.

Advice to Senior Management

Do you best at work, much people value the effort