Ever wonder how people go about getting to work in an embassy in a foreign country? Are they all diplomats? What did they study? There are a lot of different jobs that need to be done at embassies and consulates, and the government has guidelines on how you can get involved.
You’re not technically required to have studied anything specific since you just need to take the FSOT to be considered as a candidate, though it certainly doesn’t hurt your chances if you just happen to be the perfect person for the job.
Go For The Right Major
Your first instinct to study something that seems specifically geared toward government work like international relations or political management isn’t bad, but that’s not all that the government is looking for to represent them internationally. Economic advisors need a lot of skills that you’d acquire studying business rather than pure economics since their responsibilities revolve more around promoting US economic interests with foreign businesses and governments than about building economic models. Beyond that, a lot of other degrees, like history, anthropology, or geography, are less directly applicable but provide a great academic background for this type of work.
Great Majors to consider include: International relations, political management, or business
Apply For Grants To Go Abroad
Getting government grants to pursue academic work abroad is time-consuming and difficult, but it’s well worth the work if you can manage to snag one. The state department actively courts promising grantees to work with them in the future. Besides this, you’ll usually end up in close contact with your local US embassy, which means you can get started on building a network of professionals in the foreign service before you even try to get hired. Additionally, these types of grants give you some hands-on experience in what it’s like to drop everything and move to another country for a while, which means that you’re more likely to stay on if you do join the foreign service.
Good Grants to Pursue: Fulbright, English Language Fellowship,
Learn The Right Languages
Surprisingly, being highly fluent in the language of the country that you want to work in isn’t always the best thing for getting placed in that country. You should learn the language when you’re there, of course, but it’s better to not have any strong attachments that could constitute a conflict of interest before you go. It’s often more advantageous to think in terms of diplomatic (or neo-colonial) languages. For example, if you want to be placed in Belgium, it would be a good idea to learn French rather than Flemish, because that will make you more versatile, without compromising your effectiveness in that placement.
Great Languages To Learn: French, Russian, German, Arabic, Spanish
Micha Boettiger is a translator and writer who focused on language, education, and career development topics. He’s lived, gone to school, and worked both in the US and Europe and is currently situated in Serbia where he’s plying his trade. You can find him on twitter @theharaldherald