Are you doing a management job at an office somewhere? Do you like what you do, but wish your sole purpose wasn’t making someone who’s rich even richer? Maybe management is the cone for you. You can work with traditional job duties in exotic places. Management coned officers don’t spend a lot of time making foreign policy, but they serve their country every day in a different place providing the foundation upon which the rest of the mission is built.
I have never been a management officer. There, disclosure. There are quite a few management-type jobs that I would love to do; I can’t help but feel HR or budgeting experience could only help any supervisory position. The entire embassy relies on the management cone to keep everything running. Management coned officers tend to do General Service, Human Resources, Financial Management, and other duties.
HROs and FMOs do pretty much what their correspondents in the business world do. General Service Officers (GSOs) are a bit more unique to the State Department. They’re in charge of motor-pool, housing, and all the obscure things that keep our little outposts of America running.
The one downside to the management cone is that it is less focused on foreign affairs than the other cones. For some, that’s not really a negative, and there are always out-of-cone job options. This job is perfect for people who like what they do and just want to do it somewhere else, for someone else. I could be wrong; management-coned folk who know more than me are welcome to correct me in the comments!
Entry Level. Entry level officers will probably be assigned jobs as assistant GSOs. You will be managing! Many first tour GSOs have 70 or so local employees working for them. It’s a great way to see how the embassy works.
After Tenure. Tenured officers will do the duties I described above. At a lot of small and medium-sized posts, management officers can have several functions. The head of management at an embassy is the Management Counselor. With the current trend toward moving to new embassies all over the world, management is getting a lot of attention right now in the service.
The Exam. The job-related knowledge portion of the test focuses heavily on management skills. This cone tends to have a shorter post-oral exam waiting period.
This post is part of my unofficial Guide to the Foreign Service Exam.
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These are great, helpful posts. I’m currently in a first tour management job (not GSO-specific) and I’d only add one caveat to your description.
While I would say it is true that management work overseas is in many ways similar to what you might do domestically for a corporation, embassy life is quite different. There is often little divide between personal and professional life at post so in addition to making sure the embassy is running smoothly, management officers are often involved the personal lives of embassy employees. Obviously, there are positives and negatives to this.
If it were logistically possible, I think every EL officer should have to do a year of management as well as a year of consular. I think it would be eye-opening for others to know what management is actually doing to keep the mission going.
Shawn - a former FS brat friend of mine once said that even if only one family member is in the service, the whole family gets involved in some way or another. One of his posts was Botswana, and when diplomats with kids would visit, he was charged (as a freshman in HS) with accompanying the visiting dip’s kids on safari. It does seem to seep into your life, from what I have heard from him.
Your article says:
This cone tends to have a shorter post-oral exam waiting period.
I guess that means you can expect to get called off the register sooner? Assuming you make it that far…
Thank you for creating this forum. It’s tough to find straight up honest answers from someone who is actualy familiar with the FS. I’m planning on registering and taking a shot at the test soon and can’t decide between the Management or Economic track. While my resume would be better suited for the Economic track, I’m more interested in the Managment track. Would it hurt me that I’ve never been in a position to manage more than eight people? Some of what I’ve read elsewhere says entry level Management FSOs could be managing 70 people.
I am debating whether to do the Management Cone despite preferring the Political Cone. I feel like I have to choose the Management Cone because at this time it is easier to enter the Foreign Service through this cone. Does anyone out there know if a Management FSO actually interacts with foreign officials and can eventually become Ambassadors in the future. Because to me if a person is just doing office management work and taking care of vehicle maintenance one can never be a high ranking Foreign Service official. Any thoughts?
Alvin -
From what I have seen management officers are not exactly rubbing elbows with foreign officials. Seems to me they are in a lot of meetings all day long, mostly with people from other sections about a variety of matters. To me it would seem on the boring side. If you want the traditional role of a diplomat I would go for Pol even if it’s a longer wait. They are more the movers and shakers of the Department. Unless you are just dying to get in at any cost. My two cents.
I am currently an employee of DoS (hence the reason I am keeping anonymous) and have read over the comment. My two cents: if you are just wanting to get into the department, do not assume you will have an easier time by picking a cone that has less people on the register. If you do not have the experience, you will not pass the exam and therefore will not be put on the register. If you want to be a Pol Officer due to your background, that is the one to choose. The examining officials will know if you are making something up or if you truly have the experience. If you like analysis, management cone is more to your background…if you like designing policy and diplomatic relations, then political or pub diplomacy is more suited. You need to determine your interests and strengths and not just take a cone because it is ‘easy’.