Hey everyone!
I’m Meerah Haq, one of the two PCJ bloggers this year! I have been a news reporter for the Varsity for a year and a half, and I am incredibly excited to be able to share my thoughts and adventures with all of you. I hope to entertain you all with interesting yet informational material. I promise to keep these blogs 100% honest, so expect the good, the bad, and the ugly with me!
Recently I attended a Young Diplomats of Canada full day workshop hosted by the Canadian International Council (CIC), which aimed to give students a glimpse of what it takes to succeed as a diplomat.
The structure of the conference was divided into four sections. In each section we had a different guest speaker present us with real diplomatic issues. We were then given the task of finding solutions for the different problems in smaller group settings.
To give you an idea of the type of cases we worked on, I am giving you a small sample below.
The first case presented was the Milan Consulate Shutdown:
Background:
A Canadian consulate is closing down its embassy in Milan in favor of allocating resources to the embassy in Rome. The embassy being shutdown provided many services for the local businesses, many of them Canadian. In addition to the embassy being shutdown, many of the Italian staff is being laid off.
Our task:
- Draft a briefing note to the Ambassador on how to handle this situation
- Keep in mind local relationships
- Analyze priorities and strategies to mitigate negative perceptions of Canada
- Keep in mind the importance of trade and investments
After each small group came up with their solutions, the guest speaker gave us their solutions that they would implement.
The conference set up was incredibly engaging and interactive. I enjoyed the fact that we were getting a feel for what type of tasks we would have to preform.
A speaker that stood out to me was Hussein Hirji , he worked for the Aga Khan Development Network in Syria, Tajikistan and Kyrgzstan before entering diplomacy. He is a former Senior Officer in West Bank and Gaza, and was responsible for political and trade issues at the Representative Office in Ramallah.
Hussein closed the conference with a speech concerning the pros and cons of a career in diplomacy. For your convenience, I summarized his main points in a chart below!
| Pro of a Career in Diplomacy | Cons of a Career in Diplomacy |
| Those involved are generally fascinated in the work itself. | Financially not the top of the ladder. Comfortable but not impressive, its not something you would join to get rich quick. |
| Huge flow of opportunities | You wont be promoted as fast as you should be |
| People you work with will always allow you to keep learning | Inconsistency in the traveling |
| High caliber of work | A bit of a challenge for those wanting a family |
Hussein’s number advice for those wanting to enter the Foreign Service was to “ keep reading, stay engaged. Read the stuff you don’t agree with. Whatever view your government takes you need to be able to make intelligent policies.”
Essentially, being a diplomat is the same as being in PR for a company. You take potentially negative news and you have to spin it into something positive. Just like the sample case study I provided, you have to always keep in mind all those potentially affected by any policy/reduction/promotion made. Not only are you dealing with the government on a federal, provincial and municipal level but you have to understand there is a human aspect as well. Diplomats need to keep in mind that their actions will change the livelihood of those affected. In the Milan sample case, many Italian civilians were losing their jobs, as a diplomat you would have to ensure you negotiate with Canada to make sure these workers get severance packages and the image of Canada abroad isn’t tainted. Dr. Alexander Himelfarb, a former Canadian Ambassador to Italy, a diplomat must understand that a “ career isnt the focus of public service”. According to Dr. Himelfarb, a diplomat needs three things in the Foreign Service field:
- Humilityà Know you don’t know enough.
- Humanityà You are weaker without it. Don’t be a “technocrat”.
- Humanà There will be shitty times. Laugh it off.
Dr. Himelfarbs’ advice is something that really resonated with me. These aren’t qualities we should only associate with being in the Foreign Service. We should implement these characteristics into our daily lives, and hopefully it will translate into our future careers.
In terms of getting into the Foreign Service, I learned that it works as a lottery system. Thousands of applicants take the exam and it can take up to two years for the exam to be processed and the selections to be made. So before you even decide to go in, you need to have a back up lined up while you wait for your results. Around 25 people are selected to go to an interview round, and only a handful gets selected. I knew getting in would be difficult, but I did not expect the selection process to be based more on lottery than credentials.
After the 8-hour conference, my views on going into the Foreign Service changed. I am now not so eager on joining. Its not that I don’t find the work interesting, I personally find two elements troublesome. Firstly, I don’t know how well I would adjust to a job with inconsistent travelling. The idea of travelling as a 20 year old sounds fun and refreshing, especially now being bogged down with school and seasonal flus, but I don’t think that’s a life I am always going to want to lead. I am not saying I want to settle down as soon as I have kids but eventually juggling kids and a career that requires you to travel constantly will get difficult. I wish the conference were able to get a female perspective on being a diplomat. I feel that would have clarified a lot of these questions.
The second reason I am reconsidering my career choice as a diplomat is due to an answer Hussein gave when asked how he handles implementing policy, he himself doesn’t agree with. When working as a diplomat you have to give fearless advice, but always follow through with loyal implementation. I understand in many careers I may not always be able to do work that align with my moral compass, but in the event a Canadian party I do not agree with gets elected, I may have years of dealing with a guilty conscience.
I still have some time to reflect and think about my future career. Honestly, I will most likely take the foreign affairs exam. Despite my reluctance, I don’t ever want to close any doors.