Working for the State Department?
Your family gets to go with you. Not like a military set up where you go away and your family is in another country the whole time. Taking kids with you from place to place is good for them learning other languages and cultures is great. And it also will give them a leg up into getting into college later or a full-time job. LIke the one guy said above there are other options to the state department. Have you ever considered working in the intelligence community or federal law enforcement, you could live internationally or stay in America and travel from time to time. With the languages you already speak you would be paid more. Trust me on that.
What is it like working for the US State Department?
This discussion with Arsalan Suleman, U.S. Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, sheds a lot of light on what the job of someone who works at the US state department entails - Ep 40: U.S. Special Envoy to Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Arsalan Suleman, Explains His JobHope this helps!
How can I work for the state department?
ApplyThe only place you can start your application is on USAjobs.govYou can click this link here: The Federal Government’s Official Jobs Site And go right to the state department job openings.Applying for a federal job is slightly different from a normal job. Read the requirements and application instructions carefully. If you don't submit exactly what they're asking for they'll throw your application away. Reformat your resume to highlight what they're looking for and answer all the questions carefully and they'll quantify your application point by point with the other applicants and give you a call for an interview if you're in the short list.
What does it take to get a job with the State Department?
Depends on what you want to do. If you're doing computer/law/technical work, you should be able to find something. Frankly, I don't know too much about finding non-policy work in DC. If you want to do policy work at State, you almost have to be an FSO (foreign service officer) or political appointee. Most of the civil servant jobs are given to PMFs...so start applying for the presidential management fellowship. You can also try to find out who their contractors are (for example, Diplomatic Security uses a lot of contractors). Being a contractor is a great way to wiggle your way into becoming a federal employee. Please note that if you're graduating from undergrad, rather than grad school, you probably won't get any offers. Not because you aren't good, but because of the competition--many people with masters degrees and previous work experience also want those jobs. If you want to do foreign policy and have at least a masters, there's a lot of different agencies you can look at--Dept. of Energy; Dept. of Defense, all the different intelligence agencies, Dept. of Commerce, Dept. of Homeland Security, USAID, even Dept. of Agriculture. My advice is to cast your nets wide, and not limit yourself to getting the "dream job" right out of school. Come to DC, get any job in a field you're interested in, and network like crazy.
What's it like to work at the State department and what are the best jobs there?
Working at the State Department is like working in most Washington bureaucracies, long hours, short deadlines, and overworked colleagues - with the added bonus that you’re working on issues with international impact. There are, in my opinion, no BEST jobs, it all depends upon what interests you, and in the State Department, you can find a job related to almost any subject you can imagine.
How do you get recruited to the U.S. State Department?
They do not actively recruit like other Government agencies. When I made the decision to leave the Military I was looking for another job in the same field and had actually been offered a couple positions by several Contractors when I received a call from a former team member. I flew to Virginia to meet with him and he told me about his job with State and it sounded perfect for me. I applied and had an interview within 2 days and at the interview they had a file on me that was 2 inches thick and offered me the position with an hour. Years later I found out that my friend had been told to contact me and I had been vetted before I had even applied.When we had an opening on any of our teams we all had people in mind to fill the spot and submitted them. They were vetted and then you were asked to contact them and get them to apply. It sounds pretty clandestine but 99% of our teams came from a SF background and it is a pretty tight group. It is not hard to convince somebody to join when you get twice the pay and our deployments usually lasted a week or two and you are based out of our embassies when you are deployed. It was hands down the best job I ever had but the average Operator is in the field for 8 years and I lasted 11 years and was totally burned out and was ready to leave.The best advice I can give you is to spend a lot of time networking, you never know who you will meet. Apply and follow up on it.Good Luck!
What are the best majors for a student wanting to work for the state department?
It depends on the type of job that you’d like to have there. The State Department website has a lot of good information. Careers
Do the CIA and the State department have an interagency rivalry like in the movies?
In Washington there is a saying: “where you sit is where you stand.” It means your institutional position is determined by the institution where you work. Broadly speaking, State has traditionally focused on maintaining U.S. national security prerogatives and position within the very complex international framework that has evolved over the last century and in some cases even over longer periods. Other agencies in the United States feel fewer constraints as they survey their field of action, partly because it’s State’s responsibility to remind these other agencies of said constraints.