Our class this past Tuesday was one of my favorites so far this semester. I really enjoyed the interview and Q&A with former ambassador Denis Jett. He seems to be quite the character.
I was particularly interested in learning about his experience working for the United States State Department. If you have read some of my earlier posts you know that I am in the midst of exploring different career paths and really trying to figure out what I would like to do after I graduate. Working for the U.S. government is surely on my mind and in particular, working in foreign relations. Learning about Dr. Jett’s career in the State Department was very inspiring and thought provoking.
There are so many aspects that he described that I think I would like such as getting different assignments every few years, seeing the world, meeting political figures from all over and in doing so, serving my country. As someone who has lived her whole life in one town, I really think I would be up for the moving around. Of course it would have its downsides though. I may only be 20 years old but I am already thinking about my (future) family. Moving a lot, as Mr. Jett said must be quite hard on the family and there is something about being able to call a place home. This is a down side that is considerable but it’s not something that would keep make me rule out a job such as this.
One of the other down sides it seems of being a diplomat is lack of freedom of speech so to say. Ambassador Jett mentioned that usually when an ambassador goes to a function where he/she meets with a political leader of some sort, Washington sends the ambassador a list of things to say, he/she says them and that is that. This is what I understood is how it happens most of the time (although he did mention a few exceptions). I imagine that to be very frustrating, especially when you don’t agree with what is being said. How much room is there for disagreement or for expressing one’s own opinions?
As we learned more about Ambassador Jett’s career I became more and more interested in the interaction an ambassador has with the people of the country he/she is in. I was happy I got to ask the question but largely disappointed by the answer. What I understood from Ambassador Jett was that as an ambassador, one does not have much opportunity to interact with the locals. Instead you are surrounded by the political figures of the country. Maybe I just had an idealistic idea of what it would be like to be an ambassador but I would think that interaction with the local population in some shape or form would be an important part of the role.
What I took away from this meeting is that although being an ambassador sounds like quite an exciting and dynamic job, I’m not sure it would be my cup o’ tea. In recent weeks I have come to the realization that I don’t really want to be too much on the political side of things. I want to be more hands on and working directly with people. We’ll see where these new realizations take me. I still have so much to exploring to do.