Top 10 Perks of Having a Cushy Government Embassy Job
2. People like Euan McGregor and Stanley Tucci come to your boss’ parties.
3. Every time someone stops working at the Embassy, there are two parties. A goodbye party before they go and a good riddance party after they’ve left. The people who staff most of the Embassy (the Foreign Services) only work in any given Embassy an average of two years. The summer is the season for the Foreign Service officers to switch locations. What does all of this mean? There’s a party after work about three days a week.
4. The Shopette downstairs is one of the very few places in London where you can find such American staples as iced tea, peanut butter, and macaroni and cheese.
5. You spend every morning writing reports that (theoretically) could end up in a memo to Hillary Clinton or even President Obama.
6. All of the computers think they’re in America. This isn’t a perk so much as just interesting.
7. You’re given a shiny new badge that lets you do things like skip the extremely long visa line in the mornings when you’re going into work. You also get to walk right through the metal detectors even though they beep like mad because you have your phone in your purse. Sure, you have to lock your phone up outside the office once you actually get inside, but you still feel like a VIP as you walk in.
8. Need to know when your friend working in Consular Affairs is going to lunch? Are you pestering the office expert again with questions about economic graphs? Feel like saying hello to your friend working for the State Department in China? Just use the State Department Instant Messenger!
9. There’s a park right in front of the building that’s perfect for picnic lunches.
10. When your boss takes you along to take notes in a meeting with a government official or the head of an NGO, she introduces you as her colleague rather than “the intern”.