The Foreign Service Journal, June 2004

J U N E 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 33 he Foreign Service today resembles Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s boa con- strictor that swallowed the elephant, as a huge influx of employees hired under the State Department’s Diplomatic Readiness Initiative and the USAID New Entry Professional program begin to work their way through the system. Approximately one-third of all current State Department Foreign Service employees and one-fourth of all USAID employees have been hired since 1998. There is great hope that the “digestion” of so many new employees will result in greater health and vitality for the State Department and USAID, both of which suffered severe staffing cuts in the 1990s. The “new generation” is, of course, not a generation at all, but a highly diverse group of employees. So why try to say anything about them as a group? Because, as a group, they make up a large portion of today’s Foreign Service and the future of the Foreign Service depends on them. Most incoming A-100 classes at State are still composed of more men than women, but by a much smaller margin than a decade ago. The January 2004 class actually had more women than men. The median age for State A-100 classes during the past few years is 30 or 31, and the age range of most classes runs from 22 to 56. In most classes, about one-third to one-half are married. Most new hires come in with extensive work experience, which is not a particularly new phenomenon. In order to gain a sense of the “new generation” of employees and their expectations from the Foreign Service, we sent out a survey to a recent A-100 class and to the 7,500 subscribers to the AFSA e-mail listserve, asking for input from new hires who entered the Foreign Service between 2001 and the present. The purpose of the survey was to collect anecdotal input about issues of concern to those who have come into the FS in recent years: the sur- vey was not a scientific study of their views. We also held a focus group for new employees studying at the Foreign Service Institute: five female State Department officers who entered the Service in 2003 attended to share their views and those of their peers. The survey drew responses from 57 Foreign Service employees from State and USAID, including many joining as a second career. The respondents were about equally split between men and women. The group included 34 married employees, 18 single employees and five part- nered employees. Seven respondents were from USAID and seven were specialists. All but a few of the respon- dents are currently serving overseas, most on their first Foreign Service assignment, and a few on their second. About half the respondents said we could use their names and half preferred not to be identified by name. Overall, the new hires expect to be treated as profes- sionals and not as “junior officers.” The term “Junior Officer” is being replaced by “Entry-Level Professional” (State) and “New Entry Professional” (USAID) in the lex- icon, which will be welcomed but not necessarily accom- panied by a concurrent change in the realities of being an untenured employee. The degree to which family satisfaction with the Foreign Service and spouse employment opportunities Shawn Dorman, a former Foreign Service political officer, is associate editor of the Foreign Service Journal and editor of the AFSA book, Inside a U.S. Embassy. B Y S HAWN D ORMAN N EW H IRES AND THE F OREIGN S ERVICE T HE NEW GENERATION IS READY TO CONTRIBUTE . H ERE ’ S WHAT THEY NEED IN RETURN . T S P E C I A L R E P O R T