The Foreign Service Journal, March 2022

64 MARCH 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Early-career officers offer suggestions for engaging and preparing future American diplomats. BY M . J . CRAWFORD AND KEOME ROWE INVEST INTHE NEXTGENERATION Ideas fromthe Entry-Level Groupat MissionPakistan M.J. Crawford is a political officer at U.S. Embassy Islamabad. She was previously posted to Moldova and Russia and served on voluntary temporary duty assignments to Afghanistan and eastern Ukraine. She joined the State Department in 2016 as a Charles B. Rangel Fellow and is originally from Flint, Michigan. Keome Rowe is a public diplomacy officer at U.S. Consulate Karachi. He previously served as a press officer at U.S. Embassy Islamabad and a consular officer and staff assistant at U.S. Embassy Beijing. He joined the State Department in 2016 as a Charles B. Rangel Fellow and is originally from Plano, Texas. W ith so many world events shaping our personal and professional lives—from global pandemics to climate change— investing in the next generation of diplomats has never been more important. Happily, despite the challenges, profes- sional development for early- career generalists and specialists is still an option during a global pandemic—missions only need to get creative and stay focused. Here we offer our thoughts and suggestions for engaging and preparing America’s next generation of diplomats based on our recent experience as co-chairs of Mission Pakistan’s First, Second andThird Tour [FAST+] Officers’ Group—which includes more than 30 Foreign Service generalists and specialists from several U.S. government agencies at Embassy Islamabad and consulates in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar. While many of the concerns of early-career officers will be the same at any post, other concerns may be particular to the post. For instance, at Mission Pakistan, a particular concern centers on the fact that assignments for entry-level officers last only one year, shortening the necessary time it takes to develop relationships that could produce long-termmentors. As a response, the mission established a formal mentoring program pairing entry- and mid-level officers with volunteer mentors across the embassy and consulates. Seasoned Foreign Service employees residing on the embassy and consulate com- pounds also serve as informal mentors to early-career employ- ees by making themselves available to discuss career advice, pro- FS KNOW-HOW