What is the Foreign Service?

I have gotten this question a lot. It seems that not too many people have heard of the Foreign Service and truth be told I hadn't either until just a few years ago. After realizing that I wasn't completely in love with my job in television production anymore, I started looking for a career in the international relations field. I was hoping for a more fulfilling position where I might actually be able to make a difference and contribute something to society other than mediocre television programming - no offense of course to my many good friends who are incredibly talented and manage to make fabulous television. That is when I came across the U.S. Department of State website and its descritpion of the Foreign Service. After reading about it and doing a little research, it was like the skies opened up and the sun finally shown down upon me - so cheesy isn't it?? But that is really how I felt - like I had finally found the perfect career.

Back to the original question: what is the Foreign Service? Check out the State website (www.careers.state.gov) for the most detailed explanation. But in summary, I will be working at a U.S. Embassy somewhere in the world assisting Americans abroad and helping to implement American Foreign Policy. Every two years we will get assigned to a new post and in between each assignment we will be back in DC for training. We will find out our first assignment in April and then we will know when and where we are going. We could potentially be in Arlington for up to a year if I need to learn a hard language like Russian or Chinese - but we will see! That is the most exciting part - the unknown...