The Foreign Service Journal, March 2006

to foreign policy in a large sense … and the department does not care a whit for its employees.” “I don’t know what Iraq service has done for my career,” writes an FSO from Baghdad, “other than make me question why I joined the Foreign Service when I’m sitting in a windowless room during a mortar attack on the embassy compound.” What experience did you have getting your onward assign- ment from Iraq? One of the more contentious issues surrounding Iraq staffing is the question of onward assignments. A per- ception that serving in Iraq will help get you a choice onward assignment is widespread, and that perception is not disavowed by the bureau memos and cables seeking volunteers to bid on Iraq positions. Comparison of input from those who served in the earlier period, 2003 and possibly 2004, and those who are serving in Iraq now or recently left the country, appears to indicate that early service in Iraq did help people get a top-choice onward assignment, but this is becoming less and less true as more people cycle through. Many respondents who have served recently or are serving in Iraq now do not think they are getting any boost from Iraq service. And indeed, career develop- ment officers are in a tight spot because there is an inherent conflict in trying to take care of those coming out of Iraq while choosing the best qualified person for each job they need to fill. “I got my first choice,” says one entry-level officer serving in Baghdad, representing the minority view. “The theory that we get better jobs because of our ser- vice is simply not true,” writes an officer who served in Iraq in 2004. “Word on the street in Iraq now is that service there does not generally help you with your onward assignment (except for entry-level officers),” writes a political officer who served in Iraq for 15 months. “There are simply too many people who have served in Iraq. Also, those who decide how to fill posi- tions consider that (and rightly so, in my opinion) the most important thing is not that you have served in Iraq, but what your skills are.” “Serving in Iraq has made me a better Foreign Service officer,” says an officer serv- ing in a regional embassy office. “I’ve had great exposure and incred- ible assignments. But in terms of a follow-on assignment, I only got what I probably would have gotten anyway at this point in my career, a small desk in a not-so-important part of the world.” “The vaunted ‘Baghdad advan- tage’ in bidding was nothing but a mirage in my case,” writes one offi- cer who was still struggling to find an onward assignment in mid-January. He notes that “I cannot, in good faith, tell bidders who may be interest- ed in my job that coming to Baghdad will help with career development and onward assignments.” “The experience has not been good,” writes an offi- cer from Baghdad. “I have bid on [many] positions, but have yet to receive a handshake. Most of the slots I bid on have been offered to others.” The experience has been “disappointing,” writes another officer serving in the embassy. “No assistance from the department is normal, but serving in Baghdad with no time to lobby is not normal. Had I been fore- warned that I was on my own, I would have lined up a job before departing for Baghdad.” “One of the biggest problems now is that people who serve in Iraq, while publicly praised, are privately frightening to managers who don’t want to hire some- one who might put a hole in their section,” explains an officer who served in Iraq from 2003 to 2004. “I was actually told by someone [outside the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau] when bidding that they were hesitant to hire me because they thought I might go on tempo- rary duty somewhere. One guy I know who went to Iraq twice was quietly told not to look for work in that [non-NEA] bureau again.” One FSO serving in Baghdad writes that “only the high-profile untenured officers were given their top choices. This is my second hardship tour in a row. It is clear to me, at least at the untenured level, that the process has absolutely nothing to do with service ren- dered.” A diplomatic security agent in Bagdad points out that “Contrary to promises to assist us with onward assignments, when it came time to make good on that F O C U S M A R C H 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 33 “The vaunted ‘Baghdad advantage’ in bidding was nothing but a mirage in my case.” — An FSO in Baghdad