Life and work with USAID offered amazing experiences.

Visits to the wildest, most beautiful, most remote places in the world. Meetings in the Presidential palace or the White House. Real human connection across wide gulfs of language and culture. Seeing firsthand how our work helped families and communities live better lives. Service to the United States through service to the world.

Next time you’re with a former USAID person, ask them about a time when they said to themselves, “Wow. I can’t believe this is my job. I can’t believe I get to be here, in this place, with these people, and do this work.” You might see them smile or cry. Maybe both. Maybe at the same time.

No other career offered the same opportunity to show American values, advance American interests, and learn so much about the world.

Learn more and get in touch at www.itwasneverajob.com

A US Embassy has no higher purpose than serving Americans overseas. When a fellow citizen loses their passport, ends up in jail, gets seriously ill, or dies in another country, specialized State Department officers are there to help them. Those State Department officers who focus on services for American citizens do plenty of work on nights and weekends, but they need a break sometimes.

So when an anxious family member or distressed tourist calls the Embassy late at night, the Marine on duty connects them by phone with the Duty Officer.

All the diplomats in a US Embassy take turns serving as Duty Officer, usually for a week, to be the helpful voice at the other end of the phone after hours.

Armed with only about an hour of training and a manual that describes how to handle typical situations, that week’s Embassy Duty Officer keeps the phone by their side day and night, to address whatever comes at them.

USAID’s Foreign Service personnel took their turn alongside all the other members of the Embassy community as that first line of support for fellow citizens in need.

Learn more and get in touch at www.itwasneverajob.com

This episode doesn’t need much of an intro or summary. It doesn’t have obscure government acronyms or a lot of Embassy inside baseball that needs explaining. USAID’s diplomats of color had different experiences, and this episode shares a few of them.

Learn more and get in touch at www.itwasneverajob.com.