Completely enjoy serving my country and being a mentor to young men and women who are also seeking to serve their country. Work days are filled with rewarding challenges; opportunity to break paradigms and institute new processes using new technologies. The DoS has a culture of commitment to teamwork and positively representing America to the world. The most difficult part of the job is ensuring products get to the end user in minimal time. The most enjoyable part is working with other and exceeding customer's expectations.

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3 stars

Foreign Service Officer (Former Employee) - Washington, DC - January 27, 2023

What is the best part of working at the company?Opportunity to see the world, some. Jobs are quite interesting. What is the most stressful part about working at the company?Extremely competitive culture, expectation of ridiculously long hours with no compensation, strangling bureaucracy, not feeling valued as an employee What is the work environment and culture like at the company?People caring more about getting promoted and recognition rather than caring about the intrinsic value of the work, all sorts of rules and regulations seemingly designed to make your life difficult

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U.S. Department of State insights

Based on 331 survey responses

What people like

Ability to meet personal goals
Ability to learn new things
Clear sense of purpose

overall great place to work

Systems Analyst (Former Employee) - Washington, DC - January 24, 2023

overall great place to work. they have a great work life balance policy. I enjoyed my time there.After the pandemic, they really started focusing more on work life balance.I would work there again

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Expect a new boss every two years

Analyst (Former Employee) - Washington, DC - January 22, 2023

Overall, it is great to be a public servant. The retirement benefits are good. The work can be tedious but there are enough good projects to keep you going. Expect a new boss every two years.

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Contract

Passport Support Associate (Former Employee) - Washington, DC - January 19, 2023

Contractor empolyee not offical worker. They were GREAT it was my contracting company that gave me a hard time. Should be paid more for the work that is expected.

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Passport Specialist (Current Employee) - El Paso, TX - January 5, 2023

Decent place to work and benefits are good. Fairly easy to get the grade increase. Focused on quantity and quality. Being able to help applicants is refreshing

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Sense of accomplishment and doing something important

Management (Former Employee) - DC, Tokyo, Moscow, Dubai,Valletta, Rome, Qatar, Riyadh and Beijing. - December 19, 2022

Some days are mundane and tedious but others jam packed and a fast tempo. Living overseas is a unique challenge for myself and family but extremely rewarding. My children grew up differently than most kids in the US. Their views and thought process are different. They are now grown and doing quite well for themselves.

Pros

Travel, support

Cons

Sometimes long hours and occasionally high pressure situations

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Solid Internship

Intern (Former Employee) - Washington, DC - December 11, 2022

Really enjoyed this internship experience. Team was encouraging. Many opportunities across the Department for professional development. Would recommend to any students interested in international affairs and the federal government.

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5 stars

Re-employed Annuitant (Current Employee) - Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs - December 5, 2022

What is the best part of working at the company?The mission. Connecting with other countries and cultures to discover areas of overlapping policy and human interests and build on them to better serve our country and all of mankind.What is the most stressful part about working at the company?It's a bureaucracy! You have to maneuver within the parameters of a very regulated organization.What is the work environment and culture like at the company?Open, getting much more sensitive to issues of inclusion and barriers like unconscious bias.What is a typical day like for you at the company?Getting the work done whether in person or virtually. Far more flexibility on when hours are worked since COVID.

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5 stars

Supervisory Passport Agent (Former Employee) - Honolulu, HI - December 4, 2022

What is the best part of working at the company?Travel, diversity and culture. What is the most stressful part about working at the company?Long travel flights and airport delaysWhat is the work environment and culture like at the company?Diversity, trainings and flexibility. What is a typical day like for you at the company?Typically days were Monday to Friday overseas

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Jobs at U.S. Department of State

See more jobs

Student Trainee - Passport : Pathways Internship Experience Program (IEP)

Philadelphia, PA

3 days ago

Foreign Affairs Officer

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4 days ago

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Washington, DC

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Foreign Service Consular Fellow - Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, and/or Spanish Proficiency

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30+ days ago

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San Francisco, CA

4 days ago

On of my favorite assignments

Executive Assistant (Former Employee) - Washington, DC - December 2, 2022

I have nothing but great things to say about the department, managers, and staff there. It broke my heart to leave them, and I miss them everyday! I was a contractor, so I didn't get to stay long but if they ever open a permanent position and cover parking, I will fly back!

Pros

Environment, Training, Comradery, Teaching manangers and Execs.

Cons

Parking not covered as a contractor! NOT the DOS fault

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1 star

Supervisory Special Agent (Current Employee) - Charleston, SC - November 17, 2022

What is the best part of working at the company?The diverse roles available to all agentsWhat is the most stressful part about working at the company?Promotions are political and agents are required to move every few years.What is the work environment and culture like at the company?Among agents, it is good but with the rest of DOS - toxic.What is a typical day like for you at the company?Depends on your position at the time. Domestically, working criminal investigations, or protecting a dignitary.

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Very political but good pay for the area

Passport Specialist (Current Employee) - Charleston, SC - November 16, 2022

Overall, I enjoy working here. It’s stable, the pay is great and the benefits are great. There are some mangers who are just TERRIBLE to work with, but you just suck it up and deal with it and pray/hope you get reassigned to a new supervisor after a year

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Nothing Good to Say

IT Specialist/Government Technical Monitor Lead (Former Employee) - Washington, DC - November 11, 2022

-Unprofessional place to work-I learned that government employees and contractors had no protection-Contractor focus to hire Senior Management girl friends with lack of experience. No HR support-Toxic work environment all level of staff are affected by it.-I was support other functional areas due to lack of knowledgable new hires.-Enjoy having onsite parking, which was not easy for others to receive. Lead two panel voting boards and enjoy the job tasks.

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GOV Contracting

Functional Property Management Specialist II (Current Employee) - Springfield, VA - November 9, 2022

Ups and downs, can be great with the right leadership. Flexible at times and tries to work with you, but again dependent on leadership. At times can be stressful.

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I was a virtual intern

Project Co-Coordinator for the US-Japan POW Friendship Program (Former Employee) - Virtual - November 7, 2022

I got valuable experience through my internship, which involved interviewing former POWs and writing bios for a trip to Japan. Everyone I worked with was supportive and helpful.

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Productive, learning and hardworking experience, but not with a lack of humanity or social life.

Market Research Manager (Former Employee) - Santo Domingo - October 27, 2022

Working at for my former employer was interesting; i learned a lot of things, met interesting people, experience a culture based on hard work and respect for hierarchy. The hardest part of working there was that there were not space for making mistakes, no unity and the work gets heavy and monotonous.

Pros

Good wage, a lot of learning experiences

Cons

short breaks, presure, lack of empathy, lack of unity.

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5 stars

Foreign Service Officer (Former Employee) - D.C. and 9 countries - October 8, 2022

What is the best part of working at the company?Learning about/interacting with/understanding other cultures.What is the most stressful part about working at the company?Traveling/moving every 2-3 yearsWhat is the work environment and culture like at the company?Competitive... very competitive What is a typical day like for you at the company?no 2 days are the same when you work in foreign countries. if you crave sameness, stay away!

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You have to be very serious about your job; lives depend on it.

Program Specialist (Former Employee) - Harry S. Truman Building which is also called Main State - October 2, 2022

Each day when I enter my building, I know what my work assignments will be, except for taskers. Taskers are assigned, time sensitive, short requests for information from senior management. Taskers and interaction with colleagues show how important my work is in terms of a quantity of statics and quality of actions taken. The workplace culture is positive. The hardest part of my job are taskers. The most enjoyable part of my job is seeing how the secondary school students have changed due to their participation in our programs.

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Amazing colleague and opportunities to live all over the world and learn.

Foreign Service Officer (Current Employee) - Overseas - October 2, 2022

The regions where the action is happening (emerging economies such as in Africa) have the fewest resources. Interesting work is not enough without the resources and support needed. Hours that we are working are going into those for the private sector. Salaries have not kept up with DC cost of living, disincentivizing working in headquarters, which hurts you at the senior levels.

Pros

Security, international travel

Cons

Under-resourced bureaus, inconsistent hiring practices, salary packages need to be reconsidered at this point, losing work-life balance

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Never the job...always the people

Supply Distribution Specialist Lead (Former Employee) - Washington, DC - September 26, 2022

By far one of these easiest jobs Ive ever had yet one of the worst environments to work in. The managers obviously got their positions handed to them and it shows.

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