re: "The Importance of Making a Good First Impression"

NoDoubleStandards at Calling a Spade a Spade ("Rants of a Foreign Service Officer on the things that matter to you -- and matter to you not at all") had some great suggestions for first-line consular managers.

Money quote(s):

"As the wave of anticipation which began with the first day of A-100 crests with the arrival of Flag Day, for those who did not choose consular as their cone, one of the greatest hopes among junior officers about to be assigned to their first posts is this: will I luck out and avoid a consular tour my first time out?"

If anything, not getting consular assignment the first time out puts an entry-level officer at a major disadvantage the first time they are the embassy's duty officer at their first post, having had minimal preparation for dealing with late night calls from distressed American travelers, &tc.

Consular experience will stand every FSO in good stead throughout their careers for just that reason.

".... the reputation consular work still has as salt mine labor, where only sadomasochists spend the bulk of their careers. For everyone else, it's a purgatory one must endure before entering the "promised land" of work in your chosen cone.Think about what a challenge a consular manager faces when she receives a first-tour officer at post full of disappointment that he didn't at least score a rotational job: unhappy, unmotivated, perhaps, and looking to make this a relatively painless two years that will fly by quickly."

The challenge these new FSO's bosses have is to turn the "fly by quickly" and "relatively painless" expectation into something closer to "how do I make the most of this experience."

"(P)eople choose cones based on their own personal interests, their motivations and their personalities. A consular manager can't be expected to convert all his FAST officers into clones of Maura Harty. That said, if a consular officer doesn't appreciate with appropriate gravity the formative role he fills in the careers of the State Department's future leaders, he does us all a great disservice."

"The political section won't want to hear this, but ACS is hands down the most important work done overseas. How many congressionals do you get over botched or insufficient political reporting? And visas? These officers are the first line of defense in protecting our borders. The work consular officers do directly impacts American lives and the security of our nation in tangible -- not theoretical -- ways."

&

"(T)he accolades I treasure most are those I've received doing work that was extremely challenging for me -- jobs where I really felt like a fish out of water.

As officers who recognize the importance if the work CA does, we need to appreciate that the stint of every FAST officer who does consular work matters. Not one should leave their obligatory consular tours vowing never to have a thing to do with consular again. We need to be forward-thinking, understanding that those first two tours often set the tone for an entire career and leave lasting impressions of consular managers and consular work."

I agree about the accolades. When an experienced PD officer (one of the old-timers who came over from USIA) whom I'd worked with as a control officer encouraged me to bid on Public Diplomacy jobs because he thought I handled PD well, that made my month.