The Foreign Service Journal, October 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2012 23 and USAID between 2008 and 2012. We asked for comments on a range of topics focused on the Foreign Service career, culture and life. Our initiative was not designed as a scientific survey, but rather an informal way to take the pulse of the new Foreign Service generation. Here we present a picture that has been distilled from the candid and thoughtful responses of some 60 individuals of diverse backgrounds from a wide variety of career tracks at State and USAID. (More extensive material from this “sound- ing” will be available online at www.afsa.org/fsj. ) A careful read through the information we received yields a number of broad observations about the new generation: • They joined to serve their country: the concept of “public service” is alive and well in the Foreign Service. • A majority of them have lived overseas before. • They bring to the Service a vast array and depth of profes- sional and life experience—though it is not experience in nation-state diplomacy—which they hope will be utilized. • They are tech-savvy and comfortable with social media, less so with traditional diplomatic writing. • Work/life balance is critical to them, and spousal employ- ment opportunities will determine whether many remain in the Service. • For the most part, they knew what they were getting into before joining the Foreign Service. • They are less inclined to see divides or hierarchies between FS generalists and specialists and between Foreign Service Americans and Foreign Service Nationals/Locally Employed Staff. • They are astounded by the extent of agency bureaucracy. • They are disappointed by mid-level (mis)management. • The elements of the system they see as needing the most improvement are the annual evaluation process and the assignments system. Who Is Generation 3.0? Overall, the new generation may not be all that different from previous groups of entrants going back a few decades. New hires tend to be of various ages, averaging in the low 30s; well-educated; from diverse backgrounds and professional set- tings. They bring a broad base of foreign language knowledge and overseas experience. Making the Foreign Service look more like America will continue to be a major challenge for State and USAID recruit- ers, but progress is being made. The male/female ratio seems to be balancing out, with some State Foreign Service officer classes having more women than men. Certain specialist tracks continue to attract more men than women, including diplomatic security and construction engineering. The number of minority new hires fluctuates; for State, it tends to rise when Pickering fellowships and other programs conclude and participants (many of whom are minorities) join the Foreign Service. The single most common characteristic new hires share is previous overseas experience, although most join without exposure to nation-state diplomacy. Many who join USAID come in with development work experience. To get a sense of demographics, we asked each respondent to describe his or her orientation class in terms of diversity of gender, ethnicity, race, age, work and educational background, FOCUS THE NEW FS GENERATION Entry-level officers from Embassy Dhaka at the National Parliament of Bangladesh, where they toured the building, library and reading room on March 20. From left to right, Marita Lamb, vice consul; Brigid Ryan, vice consul; Gregg Tripoli, political officer; Anastassia Littlefield, political/economic OMS; Felicia Genet, TDY from USAID Sudan Office of Transition and Conflict Mitigation, Khartoum; Ogniana Ivanova-Sriram, vice consul; Venkatesh Ramachandran, assistant GSO; Gayle Shayman, RSO OMS; Matt Steed, vice consul; Mikkela Thompson, management OMS; (above) Maychin Ho, USAID Office of Acquisition and Assistance; and Kerry West, USAID Office of Acquisition and Assistance. Mikkela Thompson and USAID’s New Entry Professional program. It was absorbed quite swiftly, primarily due to extraordinary staffing needs in Iraq and Afghanistan. The new elephant is currently being digested. But before it is completely absorbed, we want to take a look inside the boa. We want to get a sense of what the new hires of Diplomacy 3.0 and the DLI see. What do they expect from this career, and are those expectations being met? What are the resulting new strengths and chal- lenges for the Foreign Service? To find out, AFSA sent out a request for input via our AFSAnet listserv to members of the For- eign Service who joined the State Department