Career Development

1) Bid on a Special Assistant position.  These positions are only one year and expose you to a broad range of issues at the strategic level.  Among other benefits, you will leave with a new network and skillset that strengthen your ability to navigate the bureaucracy of DS and the Department.

2)  Bid on an excursion tour with the IA/external agency.  Such an experience will help you understand that national security picture better and put you head and shoulders above your peers, both DS and the rest of the Department.  

3) Bid on an excursion tour as a Consular Officer or GSO.  These too will give you better resource management skills and a broader perspective on Department operations.  

4) Bid on an excursion tour to INR, INL, or CT.   Another experience that will give you a broader understanding of national security and put you head and shoulders above your peers, both DS and the rest of the Department.  

5) Volunteer to serve as an EEO Counselor at Post.  

6) Volunteer to serve on a BEX panel domestically.  This is your opportunity to influence the future of this organization through the hiring process.  

7) Volunteer to serve on a promotion panel.  I am confident this experience will lift the cloak of secrecy from the process and convince you of its legitimacy/fairness. It will also expose you to all types of writing and work which will evoke some reflection and give you ideas moving forward.  

8) Write/write/write!  Write cables about your work.  As much as I preach this, I failed to do it.  I never found (or should I say made) the time to write cables about security issues in the countries where I was serving.  It is part of our job.  We are the SMEs and cannot allow other cones to write authoritatively on LE/security issues they often are not well-informed about, don’t have adequate access to and/or are unfamiliar with much of the fundamental information that underpins many issues in this field.

9) Innovate, create, and implement.  There is a ton of people doing solid work in the Department and that is honorable, but if you want to influence the future of an organization, develop yourself personally and professionally, and have fun doing it, then you need to break the mold and push the envelope.  Do something that no one else in DS has ever done.  Do something that has a legacy effect.  Do something that changes how your FSO and IA peers think about DS agents. 

10) Get a masters degree.  This one should not need an explanation, but I’ll provide one anyway.  The value (indirect and direct) of an advanced degree should not be under-estimated.  Also it will give you a much better understanding of national security and foreign policy.    

11) Start mentoring.  If you have a few tours under your belt, you’re no longer “new.”  In fact, with the high turnover at upper levels through voluntary and involuntary retirements, you belong to the experienced core of the organization and emerging leadership.  Think about the obstacles and pitfalls you encountered when you joined and how your experience, advice, and guidance could help new agents avoid them.  Think also about what type of agents you want working for you in the future.