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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You will love it or hate it (or both in the course of day!) which will directly relate to three things:

1. The nature of your job. If I was admin or program office, I would have been miserable. I got to do interesting work that used all of my training and background and worked with really smart people who were experts in their field. Still, I chafed at feeding the demanding bureaucratic beast and dealing with politics (internal, external, and global).

2. Your Bureau/Mission/Office. Some are hot messes that you want to stay away from from strucural, leadership, or political scrutiny perspectives.

3. Your team.  There are some amazing people, toxic messes, and looney (or ignorant, or power hungry, or smart) politicals. Do your due diligence and choose where you land wisely. I found people who were 1,000% devoted to their work, brilliant and so interesting to talk to/work with, working 60 hours weeks, and doing amzing things around the work. Then there were those who were barely functional or had given up and watched cat videos at work all day. This relates closely to #s 1 and 2.

To the PP: Glick is not in charge. Barsa is acting Administrator. I left the agency before I got to know his corridor reputation, but what I hear from those who remain does not bode well.

[/quote]

Thank you! Any thoughts on the area of Crisis, Stabilization, and Governance?[/quote]

Under this administration and Barsa, this will suck. But, a lot sucks these days under this administration.

You also asked about career/growth potential. Assuming you're hired as Civil Service, you will have to take a number and get in line for office directors to retire or die to get promoted to that level. Then, if you've been with the Agency 30 or 40 years, you may get to the Deputy Assistant Administrator level. If you're hired as a institutional contractor or some kind of DG Fellow, you will pretty much remain doing that until a PSC or Civil Service or FSL slot opens up, and then be competing with the other 5,000 institutional contractors working for the Agency for that slot.

For Foreign Service, some backstops are so understaffed that within a few tours you've moved to FS-1. But promos and stretch roles are even more politically charged and related directly to kissing Mission Director/Ambassador ass, so if you're at a post where you don't gel with them you can get screwed. And, because there are so many staffing gaps and you're just seen as a cog in a wheel, decisionmakers don't think twice about assigning you to posts you didn't even bid on, regardless of what it means for your personal life.

Great Agency with a great mission. You feel like you make a difference. But that shine gets lost in the bureaucracy (it takes over a year just to get a RFP/RFA on the street), and political churn and politicals (worse than anyone can remember under this administration ) and some of the toxic staff. [/quote]

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