The Foreign Service Journal, October 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2014 29 Amore prosaic factor that can aect specialist morale at post has to do with the Vienna Convention. the ability to have language training. When I rst came into the FS, specialists very rarely were considered for that. Now almost everyone gets some opportunity for some language.” But one Financial Management O cer, who wishes to remain anonymous, feels more can be done. “All department personnel must be able to function in the countries they serve in. Language [instruction] has grudgingly been given to specialists, but [it is] still unnecessarily di cult to obtain.” IMS personnel have strong opinions on promotion oppor- tunities. Neeru Lal serves in the public a airs o ce within the Bureau of Information Resource Management. She came in as an IMS but is now an Information Technology Manager. When it comes to promotion for IMSs, “you can go all the way to senior FS, but only as a manager.” She adds: “We don’t appreciate highly technical skills—if you want to be a technical innovator, like a programmer, you aren’t able to do that past FS-3. Once you reach FS-2, you must demonstrate e ective managerial and leadership skills.” But Jesser asserts that “if people have really good technical skills, they will be utilized well. If you lead a section, you can still be innovative. I’m a manager, but I still work with technical programs. So I think we value technical skills quite a bit.” Many we spoke with, especially in security and information specialties, cited bottlenecks in promotion, with few positions o ered at the higher grades. One IMS posits, “A lot of people who might have retired by now have not, because of the poor economy.” IMS Terry Pozcak says, “I have read over the CDP, and like most career things in the department it does a poor job of capturing the di erence [between the] IT specialty and other careers.” It might help with promotions over the long term, Poz- cak acknowledges, but he’s not optimistic: “It takes an average of 10 years just to get to FS-3 for IMSs. When you compare the FSO promotion statistics to the IMS promotion statistics, it is a very gloomy picture and highlights how [little] the department values IT talent.”