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What does an average day look like for a diplomat/someone working in international relations #Fall25?

When working in international relations or diplomacy, what does the day to day life look like? What can I expect?

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Martha D.’s Answer

Hi Kinsey - this is a terrific question! There is not a simple answer because a lot depends upon your specific role, your posting, and what you bring to your role. Here are some general thoughts:
- These roles can be very interesting and satisfying as you serve your country.
- You have to keep up on current events in the US, your host country, and countries around them. So a love of learning would be good.
- Early in your career you may be in more of an analyst role and later in more direct diplomacy; in either case, you need to be comfortable dealing with people from different backgrounds and potentially different opinions.
- To advance, you may have to move posts so you should be prepared for that. Ideally, you would find living in different cultures exciting.
- You may have to make recommendations/decisions quickly and on incomplete information so you should be comfortable with that.
Below, I have put links to further resources. The State Department link, in particular, has lots of other references.
Wishing you good luck!

Martha D. recommends the following next steps:

Columbia University - https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/ad/ad_v9_2/krn09.html
State Dept. - https://diplomacy.state.gov/how-do-you-become-a-diplomat/
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