What is the Foreign Service?

The foreign service are members of the US government who manage the foreign affairs for the nation.  There are two types of federal government civilian employees: Civil Service and Foreign Service.  The main difference with the foreign service is that they will spend the majority of the careers abroad.

There are two main inroads to the foreign service being the State Department and US Agency for International Development (USAID).  The recruitment process has some similarities but also many differences.  Also, the type of candidate background each one is looking for is also pretty different.  I'll be working for USAID.

I went through the process for both so in upcoming posts, I'll try to relate my experiences for both of them.

For those who are interested Wikipedia has a pretty fleshed out article on the foreign service going into the history of its creation and much information about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Foreign_Service

Also, for those who might want to really understand the foreign service and the job, I highly recommend the book "Career Diplomacy".  Especially if you might consider a career as an foreign service officer (FSO), then this book will be a great resource.
http://www.careerdiplomacy.com/