Pros
- Compared to State, it's a tight knit-family and community - Because you serve in places where there's a US business interest, there aren't many true hardship posts - It's a role where the government invests in you as a professional instead of you as a position - Countless resources available to you to do the job effectively - Compared to other bureaucracies, seems to be plenty of opportunity and freedom to invent and think outside the box - Though it's a public servant role, the services are paid, so typically only work with customers and stakeholders that are truly serious - For a variety of reasons, the path to promotion is fairly quick, especially compared to other foreign service agencies - Nested within a broader agency with many different offices, presenting lots of opportunity to collaborate and put forward impactful work - The culture is business professional and casual - people write the way they talk and talk like normal human beings, not a stiff bureaucracy full of nonsense - The bidding process is transparent and straightforward - no hand shakes or brown nosing required - Locally employed staff are typically seasoned professionals and more often than not are an absolute pleasure to work with - Get to hang out with and help passionate CEOs interested in growing their businesses on a daily basis
Cons
- At the ends of the day, it IS still a bureaucracy, so you might occasionally run into a naysaying bureaucrat here and there, but fortunately they are few and far between