The Foreign Service Journal, November 2006

20 years, and then become embit- tered that you didn’t get a DCM slot because it went to the guy who served in two war zones while you went from Rome to Rio. You also don’t want the flip side of the coin: finding “Amb.” before your name, but bemoaning the fact that you missed so many school plays or never got around to learning the guitar or taking vacations at the beach. In each case you made a choice that affected your career and your family. Be sure you know what you’re aiming for and what sacrifices it will take to get it so you don’t regret what you did or didn’t do. The final tip is one passed along by a colleague: To be successful, you must know your country and you must know your country. That is, you must know the country you are posted to, but you must also know the United States. We usually do OK on the first part. We do what we can to internal- ize the culture, history and current events of where we’re going. But we often don’t think about the United States. Of course we know it, we think; it’s our country. Yet often we haven’t spent time really understand- 20 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 6 F S K N O W - H O W No longer will people ask, “Really, for which state?” when you tell them where you work. The question is, do you know what you’ll find when you arrive?