Political Economy

US foreign service jobs – questionable value of the US embassy workers

Most US foreign service workers are glorified postal workers who are living out a fantasy of living abroad on the tax payers dime. I have been an expat for a good part of my life and every time I ever dealt with an US consulate abroad it was nothing more than arrogance and paperwork.

I am not against the people themselves nor the US, but the waste of the US government investment in the US foreign service. Although they are on a much higher level than the US military, which is financial a sink hole. The military destroys, the foreign service can work to promote trade and economics, but in my opinion needs to be scaled back to a minimum. Too much fat and VIPs walking around in suits.

The US embassy should outsource most of their functions like visa applications. They need to put everything online, their websites are filled with broken links and a navigational maze. They really are not hiring the best and the brightest. Objectively speaking the US consultat general could be run with a skeleton crew. Instead I see them spending large amounts of your dollars on wine and cheese parties.

Why I have a disdain for the politics of the foreigner service

I had a very serious incident happen to me about a year ago, and they were more concerned about covering their own butts than helping me as an US citizen. I am sorry to say that but it was true. I only got traction on the incident when I wrote the President of the country I resided and the top Ambassador. But it was a violent attack and a cover up, yes a real web of lies. So much for public service. Enough said on that.

In my experience they certainly do not do diplomacy, please.

US embassy jobs
Consulate workers are not friendly boy scouts who want to lend a helping hand to US citizen in the name of public service, but rude, inefficient, living a life of entitlement and privilege, and a waste of your money

What I observe at the US embassy

I see them skate off work at 3:30 pm in the afternoon and hitting the expat pubs hitting on local girls. It is a very cushy job to say the least. They get a lot of vacation, top medical coverage and their families attend the best local schools and they are surrounded by a high level of security. I am sure you do not live the way these guys do? And yes they have a nice fat pension plan complements of your family.

They have high priced tutors teaching everyone the local language, something I had to learn myself. I could go on, but the main point is I do not think they add any value to you.

If you are wondering how to get a job working for the US embassy read up on this US foreigner service jobs.

I am not sure what they really do besides cut ribbons and shake hands with local VIPs who the average working guy could care nothing about. There exists countless matrix like workers there just watching the clock. Maybe there are CIA operatives and people like that working there but the average worker the the consultant has a sweet government job. I would never be a government worker, I think I would rather beg on the street.

Most of the functions could be done online or outsources. I wish I had the opportunity to be a business flow process consultant.

Economics of the US embassy

I know they have ridiculous economic programs which try to establish ties between companies in the US and abroad, but this is so lame compared to the private sector. If a company wants to do business abroad they have their own consultants on the ground. I work for such a company and they have real experts and are a model of efficiency and cost you nothing.

Why this is ridiculous? It is all on your money. Every worker there takes about five US workers to support via taxes. Give the money to me directly and I could start a private company and create jobs. Rather than that scenario, US foreign service workers congratulate themselves on being masters of the universe and smoke cigars rolled in hundred dollar bills, your money.

I have mostly met very rude people there. The ones who get the job get a pump for their egos and a title to boot. If you want to really service the US go back home and start a company and create jobs.

Getting a visa at the embassy

Keep your head down and do not make direct eye contact as it could be a sign of aggression. Basically you give some 20 something guy who has not too much experience in the real work real power over people’s lives and you get a very rude postal worker working at the embassy. I did not have any great experiences here. I think before someone works at the embassy they should have to prove themself in the real business world. To get a visa you have to jump through a lot of stressful hoops, they do not make it any easier.

I have seem them deny families of US citizens with my own eyes, which I could not believe. The US government has no problem separating families based on income. If you want to know more about read up on US visa requirements. Even if you are married to an US citizen with children for many years you can not come to the US unless you have a reasonable level of US-based income. You could be a lawyer in the UK but it does not matter.

One area that needs to really be cut fiscally is the US foreign service as it seems important but it is not.

 

 

 

 

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Mark Biernat

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Comments

4 responses to “US foreign service jobs – questionable value of the US embassy workers”

  1. Adam

    “I would never be a government worker,”

    Congratulation that is a vital sign of sanity.

    “I see them skate off work at 3:30 pm in the afternoon and hitting the expat pubs hitting on local girls”

    Correction: To skate off work you first have to work Parasites don’t. They have a “Position” not a job.

    “If you are wondering how to get a job working for the US embassy read up on this US foreigner service jobs.”

    You need to pass a special aptitude test that consist of drinking wine and champagne wile eating Camembert and Blue cheese for several hours with out trowing up then you graduate as an EMBASSY SEAL.

    “Even if you are married to an US citizen with children for many years you can not come to the US unless you have a reasonable level of US-based income”

    I wonder what happened to “Give me your tired, your poor,
    your huddled masses yearning to breathe free……..

    Since it now take about nine years for the modern immigration bureaucracy do do what could be achieved in three months 30 years ago its more like:

    Bring me your certified checks and your lawyers and get line until you go Bananas or change your mind. If you are poor we have a new test its called jump our new borders walls and join the illegals.

    Reply
    1. Mark Biernat

      Funny comments but it is true and we both know it. I am not writing these things to be negative at all. It is just amusing that the wool has been pulled over so many people’s head regarding such things.

      Many American think the people at the embassy are VIP doing high level work. They are not. It is a joke. People who are I have been an expat for a good part of my life and see it is one branch of the US government that flies beneath the radar in terms of budget cuts. They need to be audited and considered for budget cuts.

      In one word transparency. But this agency is the most undemocratic transparent branches of the US government.

      People just assume it is important. It is not. I have had friends work there and they said it was a job like know other, they had power and did not really work or do anything. It is a life of luxury and prestige.
      My socialist friend is trying to get back in the foreign service after trying the private sector, she really is a socialist and can not find work in the private sector.

      My other friend said what he saw there disgusted him and will never do it as a career and left. Ands works as an entrepreneur and travels the world even more, but this time not on the tab of the US tax payer.
      For example, the economic advisor to our region is giving speeches to high school students and getting awards for that. I mean I will do that for free, no problem. But he gave a speech to high school students about working a summer job in the USA and gets his face in the news paper. Gee wiz why do we have to pay for that?

      I saw a picture of one French embassy guys going to a champagne ballet ball with his wife. I see VIP guys in business suits and high security having drinks at the local places. Their life has nothing to do with the reality.

      A while back, I met an embassy workers wife and she was bloated with an air of superiority and almost giddy with ego and sputing nonsense in her head. She felt did not even need to talk to me. Gee wiz little does she know her husband is just living off of resources of hard-working tax paying people like me.

      So I do not mean to sound negative – but I think a lot of people assume this is an important job. It is not it is on par with the postal workers. Well Postal workers actually do something and are largely privatized in many ways. The foreign service is a cushy job for people who can not find their way in the real world.

      Reply
    2. Mark Biernat

      Good point about immigration. I am not for a free for all in terms of immigration but if someone is married for many years to a US citizen and has a family, that family should be able to come to the USA not based on income (potential tax revenue) but, just come and live. What if they are frugal or farmers and can live off the land and not measure their economic value in terms of the dollar or they will get set up once they here. They might live and get help from their family. I know when my family came to the USA way back when there was no requirements and everyone fended for themselves. But the US government should not be allowed to break up a family based on income. What a citizen is, is something beyond the US dollar, it is a little sick if you as me to break a family up based on the US dollar as a measure.

      Reply
  2. Adam

    “Give me your tired; your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

    Many Americans who are critical of illegal immigration have ancestor that came to America when the good Doctor looked at an immigrant coming out of a boat at Ellis Island and said open your mouth, let me see you eyes and then said, next one please.

    Obviously in today’s world that would be to simplistic but in more than one way criticizing illegal immigration is focusing at the consequences of the real problem which is the immigration department bureaucratic nightmare.
    Blaming Illegal Immigrants will not fix immigration but fixing legal immigration will.

    Lets be realistic government does not tend to fix problems they have created since there jobs depend on those same problems.

    “Illegal” is the word but does any media bother to ask why now ? Why so many illegals?
    Why does the immigration department need several years to do what it did in about three months a few years ago?
    Was immigration even a problem 50 years ago?
    When immigration worked Immigrants came to America for an opportunity not a free lunch.

    I know immigrants that work like hell and are very productive and contribute much more to the growth of America then the spoiled bureaucrats and there benefits and pension funds.

    Instead of Government harassing all the sardines wile the criminals sharks simply bypass the net and come right in. I say, stop the prohibition on legal immigrants and document all illegal immigrants and then the Government could finally do its real job and concentrate only on the real dangerous criminals as it should as protectors of our freedom.

    Its so stupid that now some productive farm that where in California have moved to Mexico exporting vegetable to the US.
    In a free market Immigrants will only come if and when there is an opportunity and a need so it can only be beneficial.

    In Europe and to some large extent in the US now Government have put in place such a welfare state that it distorts the free flow of immigrants. It is inconsistent to refuse immigration status but to offer the welfare state advantage for the same people.

    Don’t come in but if you are here we give you all the benefits.

    Reply

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