Diplomat - UK?

Question

Please Elaborate

Job involvment

Admission

Prospects

Salary

I am a succesfull Barrister, Half Iraqi Arab, Multilingual in English, Russian, Spanish, Arabic and converse in Japanese.

Do i possess the liable attributes?

Much Appreciated

Answer 1

Maybe.

All of those things are assets. But you will still have to first take a competitive examination and the numbers weigh heavily against even very well qualified candidates.

The numbers change from year to year, but typically, there are 2,000 to 4,000 applicants for no more than 30-50 jobs a year.  

You will have to do some searching for the FCO exam, or get the information from the FCO.

Not everyone who passes the test is chose. On the surface, you would seem to be one of the better candidates and you have more than one of the highly desired languages.

Think of a good reason a successful barrister would want to do this. They'll ask it. There may be provisions in British law about direct appointment to the FCO, but the mandarins are very chary about allowing such heresy, i.e. they are usually politically connected and that does not seem to fit your question.

You will need in any event to contact the Civil Service Commission regarding the examination. You may find that you are considered too old under their standards, i.e. they prefer to bring people in as junior officers in training at a very early age.

That can be a hard row for someone with real credentials. But you may have a shot based on language.

Answer 2

You will have to pass security vetting before you can be considered in the Civil Service. If successful you will have to pass Civil Service tests and an interview - provided you have attained the educational standards.