5 ms·

The pay starts pretty low, but they apparently have many job openings: https://careers.state.gov/work/foreign-service/specialist/career-tracks/diplomatic-courie

by Fezzik 8y ago

The pay starts pretty low, but they apparently have many job openings: https://careers.state.gov/work/foreign-service/specialist/career-tracks/diplomatic-courier/ https://careers.state.gov/work/foreign-service/specialist/ca...

Someone1234 8y ago
Honestly even with "75% travel" I'm surprised they're struggling so much to find people. Seems like a lot of people want to travel, and would love to spend part of their 20s doing so. Would be interesting to know just how dangerous it is though, particularly for relatively low pay. The article covers some plane crashes, but doesn't really explore the question in detail.
- Spooky23 8y ago
  Government jobs in the field are usually kneecapped from a career perspective. My guess would be that once you have the clearances for awhile, you can make a lot more money working for some contractor.
- packetslave 8y ago
  I would imagine the requirement for a TS/SCI clearance cuts down on the number of candidates that make it through the hiring process substantially.
  - Someone1234 8y ago
    That's a good point. I doubt I could get that clearance for example.
    - techsupporter 8y ago
      Depending on how strenuous the clearing agency is, a lot of people are knocked out for seemingly banal reasons. I work with people who have to have clearances for various projects and people have been knocked off of those teams for: - Being a dual citizen (and, far worse, holding a passport from the other country) even if they were born citizens of the US and the other country - Having traveled to several countries, like China or Russia, for reasons other than a short tourism stay - Being married to a non-US-citizen, even a permanent resident - Owing a lot of money on student loans - Parents being born in or citizens of the "wrong" country - Psychiatric or psychology counseling for certain conditions - A history of regular gambling From what I can tell, the investigators want someone who was born in the US to parents whose ancestry can both be traced to the Mayflower and who does nothing except stay at home and read National Geographic while sitting by the fire next to an equally-suitable spouse.
      - mason55 8y ago
        It’s all about how easy you’d be to bribe. If you owe a lot of money or gamble a lot then that’s viewed as you being susceptible to selling secrets. They don’t care if you like to go out drinking
      - refurb 8y ago
        They are looking for indicators someone is at risk bribery. Sure, just because you have dual citizenship doesn’t mean you’re not loyal, but it flag someone who might be.
  - dawnerd 8y ago
    Combine that with the cost of even applying (having to travel to DC, etc), time away from family/friends and the low wages... easy to see how this would only attract a small dedicated set of people. Not going to lie though, it would be really interesting to do a tour just to see how it all works.
- wahern 8y ago
  Maybe my perception is tainted by the contemporary narrative but it seems Americans have dramatically turned inward over the past 15-20 years. Yesteryear, even when snooty Europhiles were lambasted, most Americans respected world travel, especially for work. It fit into the traditional American story of traveling to the frontier to make your living, leaving your comfort zone. These days people do all they can to stay put, eschewing travel or relocation, both internationally and domestically. The dearth of truck drivers also seems to reflect this cultural shift.
  - maxerickson 8y ago
    Truck drivers get shit pay relative to the lifestyle. It's not some cultural shift.
  - cm2012 8y ago
    More Americans travel now than ever before. https://travel.trade.gov/research/monthly/departures/ https://travel.trade.gov/research/monthly/departures/
    - wahern 8y ago
      Those are unique departures, not unique citizens. By my calculation the number of overseas departures relative to population has steadily increased: 6.3% in 1997, 8.5% in 2007, 9.2% in 2017. (Those numbers exclude Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean.) And only 2008, 2009, and 2010 saw a YTD drop. However, according to this article (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-d-chalmers/the-great-american-passpo_b_1920287.html https://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-d-chalmers/the-great-...) the percentage of unique travelers is decreasing (or did decrease) per year. That is, an increasingly selective cohort is traveling more. There's also the question of what percentage of citizens traveling are immigrants. The number of foreign born citizens has been steadily increasing over the above time period. The MMGY Global's report, mentioned in the article, is $3k. I'm not that invested in my post (not to the tune of $3k) so I can't actually look at the data myself.[1] I suspect you may be right and that my impressions are wrong; but it's not at all clear-cut. [1] Especially more recent data as numbers during the Great Recession may have been anomalous.
- 706f6f70 8y ago
  > Seems like a lot of people want to travel, and would love to spend part of their 20s doing so. I think a lot of people in their 20s want vacation travel, but business travel loses its lustre quite rapidly. The extremely odd subset of the population that legitimately enjoys business travel usually ends up in consulting which is more rewarding and has a better career progression.
samstave 8y ago
>"WE ARE NOT ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR THIS POSITION AT THIS TIME"
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- neuronexmachina 8y ago
  Yeah, there's plenty of open positions that the State Department needs people for, but they can't actually accept applications for those positions because of the current Administration's hiring freeze: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/06/07/pompeos-pledge-to-lift-hiring-freeze-at-state-department-hits-big-snag-diplomacy-tillerson-congress/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/06/07/pompeos-pledge-to-lift-...

by Fezzik 8y ago

Someone1234 8y ago

Honestly even with "75% travel" I'm surprised they're struggling so much to find people. Seems like a lot of people want to travel, and would love to spend part of their 20s doing so. Would be interesting to know just how dangerous it is though, particularly for relatively low pay. The article covers some plane crashes, but doesn't really explore the question in detail.

Spooky23 8y ago
Government jobs in the field are usually kneecapped from a career perspective. My guess would be that once you have the clearances for awhile, you can make a lot more money working for some contractor.
packetslave 8y ago
I would imagine the requirement for a TS/SCI clearance cuts down on the number of candidates that make it through the hiring process substantially.
- Someone1234 8y ago
  That's a good point. I doubt I could get that clearance for example.
  - techsupporter 8y ago
    Depending on how strenuous the clearing agency is, a lot of people are knocked out for seemingly banal reasons. I work with people who have to have clearances for various projects and people have been knocked off of those teams for: - Being a dual citizen (and, far worse, holding a passport from the other country) even if they were born citizens of the US and the other country - Having traveled to several countries, like China or Russia, for reasons other than a short tourism stay - Being married to a non-US-citizen, even a permanent resident - Owing a lot of money on student loans - Parents being born in or citizens of the "wrong" country - Psychiatric or psychology counseling for certain conditions - A history of regular gambling From what I can tell, the investigators want someone who was born in the US to parents whose ancestry can both be traced to the Mayflower and who does nothing except stay at home and read National Geographic while sitting by the fire next to an equally-suitable spouse.
    - mason55 8y ago
      It’s all about how easy you’d be to bribe. If you owe a lot of money or gamble a lot then that’s viewed as you being susceptible to selling secrets. They don’t care if you like to go out drinking
    - refurb 8y ago
      They are looking for indicators someone is at risk bribery. Sure, just because you have dual citizenship doesn’t mean you’re not loyal, but it flag someone who might be.
- dawnerd 8y ago
  Combine that with the cost of even applying (having to travel to DC, etc), time away from family/friends and the low wages... easy to see how this would only attract a small dedicated set of people. Not going to lie though, it would be really interesting to do a tour just to see how it all works.
wahern 8y ago
Maybe my perception is tainted by the contemporary narrative but it seems Americans have dramatically turned inward over the past 15-20 years. Yesteryear, even when snooty Europhiles were lambasted, most Americans respected world travel, especially for work. It fit into the traditional American story of traveling to the frontier to make your living, leaving your comfort zone. These days people do all they can to stay put, eschewing travel or relocation, both internationally and domestically. The dearth of truck drivers also seems to reflect this cultural shift.
- maxerickson 8y ago
  Truck drivers get shit pay relative to the lifestyle. It's not some cultural shift.
- cm2012 8y ago
  More Americans travel now than ever before. https://travel.trade.gov/research/monthly/departures/ https://travel.trade.gov/research/monthly/departures/
  - wahern 8y ago
    Those are unique departures, not unique citizens. By my calculation the number of overseas departures relative to population has steadily increased: 6.3% in 1997, 8.5% in 2007, 9.2% in 2017. (Those numbers exclude Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean.) And only 2008, 2009, and 2010 saw a YTD drop. However, according to this article (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-d-chalmers/the-great-american-passpo_b_1920287.html https://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-d-chalmers/the-great-...) the percentage of unique travelers is decreasing (or did decrease) per year. That is, an increasingly selective cohort is traveling more. There's also the question of what percentage of citizens traveling are immigrants. The number of foreign born citizens has been steadily increasing over the above time period. The MMGY Global's report, mentioned in the article, is $3k. I'm not that invested in my post (not to the tune of $3k) so I can't actually look at the data myself.[1] I suspect you may be right and that my impressions are wrong; but it's not at all clear-cut. [1] Especially more recent data as numbers during the Great Recession may have been anomalous.
706f6f70 8y ago
> Seems like a lot of people want to travel, and would love to spend part of their 20s doing so. I think a lot of people in their 20s want vacation travel, but business travel loses its lustre quite rapidly. The extremely odd subset of the population that legitimately enjoys business travel usually ends up in consulting which is more rewarding and has a better career progression.

samstave 8y ago

>"WE ARE NOT ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR THIS POSITION AT THIS TIME"

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
neuronexmachina 8y ago
Yeah, there's plenty of open positions that the State Department needs people for, but they can't actually accept applications for those positions because of the current Administration's hiring freeze: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/06/07/pompeos-pledge-to-lift-hiring-freeze-at-state-department-hits-big-snag-diplomacy-tillerson-congress/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/06/07/pompeos-pledge-to-lift-...