There is no one path in the Foreign Service. Generalists like myself and specialists, who may work as IT, office management, medical, or security experts, will naturally have different jobs and pathways for example security personnel have more domestic assignments that are in more places around the U.
There are those who may spend most of their career overseas, rarely spending time in Washington. Others may spend more time in DC. Some prefer hardship posts β going from Monrovia to Haiti to Caracas and Tegucigalpa. Still, others like to alternate their hardship and plum postings. I have mostly pursued postings in locations often considered more challenging though any post, even in the most developed and beautiful of locations can have its challenges.
I also wanted to experience different aspects of the Foreign Service life. I went to posts with language requirements Ciudad Juarez, Shanghai, and Conakry and without Lilongwe. I went to posts that allowed for a consumable allowance to bring in additional foodstuffs and other disposable goods Lilongwe and Conakry. I extended at one post Lilongwe which resulted in doing a mid-tour home leave.
And now, I have added another foreign service experience: curtailing from a post. I never thought I would curtail from a tour. I knew Guinea would not be a walk in the park, that it would have challenges, of course. Honestly, for me, that was part of the appeal. But Guinea proved much harder than I expected. It is difficult to pinpoint any one thing that led to the decision as it was a combination of so many things. I pushed through the first 16 months of it in Lilongwe. Then it was back to the U.
The French language training had not been good for me. Perhaps it was the combination of online training, teachers whose style did not work for me, and pandemic fatigue, but when I headed to Conakry at the end of June , I was mentally drained. Timing is an important factor in life, and I now believe that arriving at the beginning of summer was an unfortunate one for us. After this experience, I do not think I would want to do that at any post, though in a hardship, difficult-to-staff post like Conakry, I think it was all the worse.
