Essay Example on From High School to Foreign Service: My Career Path

For the past years, since completing high school and joining the University, I have developed an interest in the duties and responsibilities of a Foreign Service Generalist. I intend to complete my undergraduate in that area. Besides, I aim to rise to the management level under the same profession in the future at the United States of American embassy and represent my country (Plan, 2019). I have held several discussions with experienced professionals about the occupation and even discussed my career choice with my relatives who seem to support the idea of me pursuing the career and developing professionally over the years.

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As a Foreign Service Generalist, I will interact with local governments and envoys of various countries and offer useful resources for our citizens living or traveling abroad. Since the career requires that I select one of the five career paths that include public diplomacy, economic, consular, political affairs, or management, I intend to pursue public diplomacy (Warner, 2019). My interest has always revolved around serving as a public diplomat. From my understanding, over 60% of the work entails handling reports, such as gathering information, proofreading, reading, and writing. It, therefore, follows that reading and writing remains one of the core requirements of a person serving as a Foreign Service Generalist in US embassies.

Strong communication skills remain essential for people with the ambition of entering the profession. Foreign Service Generalists get posted to positions abroad for specific periods with stateside stints occasionally (Plan, 2019). The job demands that I handle issues concerning members of our home nation, including negotiations with local governments regarding companies' business ventures from our motherland planning on investing abroad, such as manufacturers, producers, and other kinds of business ventures.

Besides, I must provide information about the host nation, issue replacements for local passports, and provide temporary visas. The career requires hard work, one of the strengths I possess. Furthermore, the career demands one to possess the ability to analyze a host nation critically, write an appropriate opinion of the state of that country, and have it thoroughly validated by executives concerned with decision-making on international relations (Lequesne, 2020). Besides, the officeholder must give a good account of the nation to enable these executives to shape and execute the different relationships between the two countries. I believe I possess these qualities since I have excellent analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.

Although there exist no requirements on education to become a Foreign Service Officer in US embassies, after graduation, I believe I will stand a great opportunity of getting hired as a Foreign Service Generalist at US embassies spread across the globe to start my career journey. Besides, the career requires courses such as English, foreign language, economics, commerce, public speaking, international history, and geography (Bruce, 2019). Another requirement involves passing the Foreign Service written exam, offered once a year in major cities and at US embassies and consulates abroad. I intend to sit for the reviews immediately after my graduation to stand a better chance of securing the job.

Besides passing the written exams, an applicant must take an Oral Assessment test, a complete physical exam, and a thorough background security check (Angers, 2018). Fluency in English and a foreign language gives applicants an added advantage. It remains vital to note that the career requires strong communication skills, from excellent written to spoken words, reading and proofreading skills, and report writing. My dream job, therefore, remains Foreign Service Generalist at any of the US embassies.

References

Angers, K. (2018). Struggles over legitimate diplomat hood: The United States Foreign Service, the State Department and other government agencies in contemporary American diplomacy. www.papyrus.bib.umontreal.ca/xmlui/handle/1866/20595

Bruce, J. R. (2019). Career dynamics in the US civil service (Doctoral dissertation, Duke University). www.dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10161/18710/Bruce_duke_0066D_15022.pdf?sequence=1

Lequesne, C. (2020). States and their Foreign Services. In Global Diplomacy (pp. 125-138). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. www.link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-28786-3_9

Plan, I. A. (2019). Department of State. www.public.gaotest.org/assets/700/697411.pdf

Warner, D. W. (2019). Bridging cultural challenges: Examining how US Foreign Service Officers can navigate overseas assignments utilizing cultural intelligence (Doctoral dissertation, Fielding Graduate University). www.search.proquest.com/openview/3803b4642c735a044fa4da4683a1084d/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y