2016-07-19 09:25:00

You should immediately be warned: personal experience another person cannot be a guaranteed universal recipe even for other similar cases, but it always makes sense to use a successful solution, considering and comparing various nuances. The example given here helped me get a job in the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Russian Federation literally from the street. Who knows what other departments can get into this scenario?

As for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, first you need to register on the official website of the department in the section " Personal Area". The minimum data required here should be written honestly. The procedure itself will be free, fast and simple.

After registration, I sent about 5 requests per day regarding the work of the ministry. The topics of the requests were “prompted” by the news feeds, besides, I had to study the “contents” of most of the informative sections of the website of the diplomatic department itself. In just 2 weeks, my knowledge of the current affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation was sufficient for free writing notes for a number of blogs. In fact, getting a job here was not the goal from the very beginning, it just required high-quality information on the subject of diplomacy.

And two months later I was contacted by the press service and personnel department of the Russian Foreign Ministry. The first thought was that they were already tired of my questions and wanted to ask them not to get them. The conversation began very formally: questions about the purpose for which I am interested in certain topics, questions about my education, place of work, etc. And like a bolt from the blue (for me personally) there was a question about whether I would like to send my resume to the Russian Foreign Ministry to work in the press service. And soon the work of an ordinary “home blogger” changed to official employment to that ministry, which has always been associated with a certain inaccessibility and "the lot of only diplomats."

Of course, all requests were written by me in a competent literary language, but at the same time the essence was “not smeared”, but was presented clearly and concisely. Of course, someone can joke that it was easier for the press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry to hire me than to answer my endless questions (by the way, not answering them if they do not violate the law, not a single government agency has the right ), but I will just say that it is quite possible. But now I very often answer other people's questions addressed to my (yes, my) ministry. Well, if anyone is interested: the Russian Foreign Ministry receives 2-3 thousand requests per month on a variety of topics.

Editor's note: the procedure for entering the civil service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (http://www.mid.ru/activity/shots/service/civil_service) and an interesting interview by First Deputy Minister Titov on the official website of the department, where he voiced the statistics of vacancies, which says that they hire about 100 people a year, you need to know at least 2 languages, what are the features of working abroad or in Moscow directly and other requirements (http://www.mid.ru/web/guest/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/ cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/952456).

Another name is the operator of the visa center. The profession is suitable for those who have no interest in school subjects (see choosing a profession for interest in school subjects).

Visa Application Specialist accepts documents from clients wishing to travel abroad, and while checking them, works with computer databases that can be compiled in English. Then he processes the documents in specialized programs, such as, for example, "Visa-Tour" and prepares them for submission to the embassy or consulate.

Features of the profession

An important part of the work of a visa center specialist is also advising clients, providing them with all the necessary information about processing documents. To do this, you need to own this information in full and quickly navigate it. Upon completion of the process of working with visas and passports, he issues ready-made documents to clients. Work can be monotonous, but at the same time quite responsible.

The work schedule of the visa center operator is the usual five-day period, the salary of such an employee is below average, but in some places either bonuses or the opportunity extra income. The work may be permanent, or it may be temporary, when an employee is hired for the so-called "high season", usually summer. Available career to the visa center manager.

Workplace

A visa center specialist works in the office of a visa center, travel agency or tour operator company. Depending on the specialization of the office, such a specialist works either with visas to one particular country, or with visas to different countries.

Important qualities

A particularly important quality when working with documents is attentiveness, as well as perseverance, composure and patience. Dealing with clients requires courtesy and tact. Also, the operator of the visa center needs to be responsible and executive, the ability to work in a team and quick learner will be useful.

Knowledge and skills

To get a job as a visa center specialist, you must be able to use a computer and office equipment, know the programs of the MS Office package, be proficient English language, depending on the requirements of the employer: at a basic level or a level not lower than Pre-intermediate. Instead of or in addition to English, knowledge of another language (such as French, Spanish or German) at a basic level may be required. We also need a high typing speed, both in Cyrillic and Latin, competent oral and written language. Communication skills are essential for communicating with clients.

Salary

Salary as of 03.09.2019

Russia 15000—60000 ₽

Moscow 30000—70000 ₽

Where do they teach

The direction of education of an applicant who wants to become a visa application center operator is often not important. It is often required to have any higher, incomplete higher or any secondary specialized education, and detailed (and free) training in the specialty is organized by the employer during the work of a new employee during probationary period. Therefore, you can become a visa center specialist without any work experience.

Work in the Russian consulate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the visa department of a foreign embassy is considered one of the most popular in Russia. To get a job at the embassy, ​​you need to pass the selection process and meet the established standards. One of the indispensable requirements for the candidate is knowledge of a foreign language.

You will need

• – higher education;
• – knowledge of a foreign language;
• - perfect reputation.

Assess the level of your own education and training. To work in the consular and visa department of the embassy, ​​it is better to have a diploma from one of the leading universities in the country, for example, MGIMO, RUDN University or Moscow State University. An indispensable condition for employment is knowledge of the British language, also the language of the country where the diplomatic consulate is located. If you expect to get a job at the embassy foreign country, keep in mind that in most cases middle-level employees are required there, for example, to work on receiving and issuing documents.

Conduct an information search. Examine the websites of the embassies of those countries that conduct diplomatic activities in Russia. Foreign consulates independently recruit employees, so information about vacancies can only be obtained on the official portals of embassies. Choose those countries that offer vacancies that interest you. Practice shows that it is easier for citizens of the Russian Federation to get a job in the embassies of developing countries.

Compile a resume and send it to the email address of your chosen embassy. After reviewing your data and agreeing your candidacy to the formal requirements, you will be invited to an interview, during which it will be accepted final decision. When hiring people from other countries, foreign diplomatic consulates are very strict about the reputation of future employees. From time to time, the reasons for refusing to hire may be the presence of relatives abroad or information about the candidate’s participation in a movement that is in opposition to the government.

If your goal is to get a job in a Russian embassy located on the territory of a foreign country, contact the Main Production and Commercial Directorate for Servicing the Diplomatic Corps under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation located in Moscow. Its functions include ensuring the functioning of embassy institutions and representative offices of international organizations. Keep in mind that embassies often require not only employees in the consular departments, but also administrators, accountants, drivers, and other service personnel.

I will also contribute to the discussion, taking into account my own background.
As already mentioned, if you do not claim to be a technical staff (whose education and qualifications in the vast majority of cases are better to keep silent), but aim at the "elite", that is, diplomatic work, I will allow myself a couple of comments on this subject.
First of all, a diplomat is an analyst. paper work.
1. Everyone who doesn't have specialized education, are sent without fail to the Diplomatic Academy. At your expense, of course. In the case of the first education, the costs will be three years (here it is necessary to specify) both in time and financial terms.
2. Work in Central Asia (central office) and work in the RZU (Russian foreign institution) are two big differences(or 4 small ones if you like).
3. Again, the target audience - depends on whether you work in a regional or functional department. Perhaps Consular and DIP stand out.
REGIONAL. Aims at narrow country specialization, including specific languages. No matter how much the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and MGIMO tries to train specialists with rare languages, it's all in vain, because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not able to compete with business in terms of attracting labor force. In practice, short-term business trips, including 3-month consular assistance to, as a rule, one's own country/region is an extremely rare success for regionals. In fact, they are offered only long business trips abroad, again to their region.
FUNCTIONAL. a wide field for working with international organizations, for globalists by nature. Great opportunities for short-term trips (geography depends on the specialization of the department).
Definitely, career growth in Central Asia is going much faster.
4. The work of a diplomat is a complex of knowledge, skills and abilities. First of all, excellent Russian - both in terms of spelling and in the ability to clearly and concisely express one's thoughts.
Excellent analytics and the ability to write analytical documents, knowledge of languages, communication skills, knowledge of psychology, history, geography, jurisprudence (international law and the Russian Federation, as well as the state in which you specialize), understanding of domestic political (Russian and supervised country) and foreign policy processes, geopolitics, world economy, role, structure and functioning international organizations- all this is an integral part of the work of a diplomat.
Well, I'm not talking about personal qualities - a grasping mind, again analytical, organizational, managerial abilities, attentiveness, diligence, tact and restraint (believe me, working with our departments is not for the faint of heart). willingness to work after hours (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a system of daily duty on working days (until 8 pm) and days off (from 10 am to 6 pm). in the event of an emergency - round-the-clock duty.
5. ABOUT SALARY:

The salary of the first deputy minister from August 1, 2004 will be 5061 rubles, the deputy minister - 4895 rubles, the director of the department - 4495 rubles, the deputy director of the department - 4195 rubles, the head of the department - from 2997 to 3196 rubles, the consultant - 2597 rubles, the leading specialist - 1798 -2197 rubles.

The presidential decree also provides for the payment of monthly cash incentives. The amount of these payments is set for the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in the amount of 11 official salaries, the Deputy Minister - 10.5 salaries, the Ambassador at Large, the director of the department - 5.5 official salaries, the deputy director of the department - 4.1 salaries, the adviser - 2 8 official salary, first secretary, second secretary, chief specialist - in the amount of 3 official salaries, leading specialist - in the amount of 2.6 salary.

In addition, in accordance with the presidential decree, the wage fund for employees of the central office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs includes the possibility of paying monthly allowances for a diplomatic rank (in the amount of 4 official salaries), for special conditions public service(in the amount of 14 official salaries), for long service (in the amount of 3 official salaries), as well as bonuses based on performance (3 official salaries) and material assistance (in the amount of 2 official salaries).

Remarks to the article.

About women. They are not yet in leadership positions, but the percentage of junior female diplomats is huge. The phenomenon of "women's" departments appeared.

About the diplomat's wife. Historically, the wives of diplomats are technical staff. Now the situation is changing. But getting two diplomats, a married couple, diplomatic positions in one embassy is still an almost insurmountable problem.

About consular work on the example of the Civil Code in Antalya

- Olga, tell me where you can learn to be a diplomat? Where did you study yourself? Is there a big competition for this specialty?

- In Russia, there are only two universities that give graduates a referral and reference to the Foreign Ministry. This is MGIMO and my alma mater, the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry. At the same time, not only a graduate of a specialized university can apply for participation in the competition for filling a vacant position in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The candidate must speak at least two foreign languages, have knowledge in the field of international relations and have a driver's license, without which it is difficult to get on a business trip.

As a rule, only guys with knowledge of rare languages, such as Indonesian or Hindi, have a chance to get a job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from a non-core university. By the way, I note that the Chinese language has long been no longer rare. Many guys from Far East come to Moscow with a good knowledge of the Chinese language and compete with Muscovites who have nowhere to practice the language.

When I entered, the competition for budget places was great, I needed to score 170 points out of 200 possible to get into the budget. Those who score a little less points are offered to enter a paid department, in 2017 the cost of a full-time master's program in my faculty of international relations is 332 thousand rubles.

Quite an expensive education! How much time and money do you need to spend to get a specialty?

- After graduation, I was so unsure of my knowledge and abilities that I did not even consider options for entering the budget. But in vain! I graduated from the specialty at the paid department of the Moscow University for the Humanities, Faculty of International Relations. Then it cost about 180 thousand rubles a year, multiplying this amount by five, you can understand that this is not at all cheap. Therefore, I entered the Diplomatic Academy only on the budget, realizing that if I am unworthy, then I have a direct road to becoming a translator. But the Deep Academy accepted me and gave me two incredible years study, the opportunity to participate in conferences, visit foreign missions and a tremendous experience in intercultural communication, because about 20% of the students of the academy are foreigners.

- Olga, what are the chances of finding a job by profession?

- The rarer the language you speak, the more likely you are to get a job in the profession. And if you have two rare languages ​​plus English at a level not lower than Intermediate, you are almost on the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs! When applying for a job, a mandatory test is an exam to determine the level of proficiency in the languages ​​you applied for. It is taken at the Higher Courses of Foreign Languages ​​of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and consists of an oral and a written part.

- You are in the Foreign Ministry reserve, what are the chances that you will be called to work one day?

- A significant number of graduates of specialized universities fall into the "reserve". As a rule, there are not enough places for everyone, and this is not surprising, because every year more than one hundred specialists in the field of international relations graduate in Moscow. During the year, "reserves" are slowly finding places in unattractive, at first glance, regions: Africa and Central Asia. But in the reserve you can hang forever, for example, it happened to me. My absolutely "standard for a girl" set of languages ​​- English and Spanish - played a cruel joke with me. Latin America, which I had hoped for, turned out to be in great demand among boys, who are still preferred to girls in diplomacy. There is nothing to be done, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs still remains a "men's club", despite the fact that there are more and more women in the structure every year.

- Aren't you offended that you became a specialist, but did not get a place?

- At first, when dreams of a diplomatic career and patriotic impulses crash on a rocky coast called "reserve", it seems that no other job will give you happiness and satisfaction. But it's not. The knowledge and skills that I received at the academy turned out to be in demand in Public Relations. First of all, it is an understanding of how communication should be built in general, how to write business letters and handle large amounts of text. If you are lucky, then languages ​​will not turn out to be superfluous baggage - in an international company, they will also find application.

How many years can you wait for a position? And what kind of position? You don't want to be a trainee at 40.

- The structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is very similar to the army: in order to achieve a high position, you need to go through all the steps of the career ladder - diplomatic ranks. Graduates of specialized universities with red diplomas, as a rule, start with the rank of attache, without red diplomas - with an assistant secretary. Then they go the way of the third secretary, the second secretary, up to the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador. At the same time, the position may be called in a completely different way, for example, the director of the department or the head of the department. Minister of Foreign Affairs is also a position, not a rank.

Why are so many diplomats being trained if there is not enough work for everyone?

- In the early 2000s, work in the civil service was not so prestigious, the salary was extremely low, and the ministry often had problems with the replacement of personnel. Now salaries in the department have increased, and it is not for the sake of salaries that students are rushing to the civil service. And so, it so happened that if earlier graduates of MGIMO and the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs went anywhere, but not to the civil service, now young guys are turning their eyes towards the ministry. Worthy and lucky get into the central office, the guys are patient and with connections - on a business trip, but all the rest - in the reserve.

— Where, besides the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, can a diplomat get a job?

“I think there are many options here. Press services and PR departments of international companies may well be interested in such a specialist. I would also suggest considering news agencies, news departments that search, translate and rewrite news from international agencies. There, a graduate with knowledge of two or more languages ​​will be in great demand.

Why did you choose this profession for yourself?

I have always wanted to work in communications. And diplomacy directly relates to this area, it only implies the highest responsibility for one's words and deeds. I was not looking for easy ways, plus everything I had the knowledge of two languages ​​and a high degree of patriotism, that's how it all happened.

- Have you regretted that you became a diplomat, because it is not yet possible to work in a profession?

— No, I didn’t regret it, it’s a great experience. You move away from particulars and start thinking globally, realizing that in fact a lot depends on you. This forms a responsible attitude to everything that you do.

- Olga, what is the essence of the work of a diplomat, what are his tasks?

Everything depends on the department. Diplomats work not only in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but also, for example, in Rossotrudnichestvo, this federal agency on the affairs of the CIS, compatriots living abroad, and on international humanitarian cooperation. The work of a diplomat, wherever he is, as a rule, consists of a large amount of paperwork. But if you are happy to write your thesis on a topic like: “The role of the individual in the process of shaping the new world order”, then working with materials will not be difficult for you.

There are two areas of work: in the central office and on a business trip. Working and living abroad can bring both great happiness and frustration. Some of my acquaintances had difficulty overcoming the hardships of an independent life without relatives and friends in a foreign country. But it all depends on the person.

Most graduates strive to immediately go on a business trip in order to get real practice of the language and see how the work of foreign institutions is built. Someone also dreams of rich diplomatic receptions, but for a diplomat, a reception is even more stressful work than fiddling with documents. Here a diplomat and an event manager, and a PR man, and a hostess all rolled into one. Initially, a business trip through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is issued in the form of a contract for a year, so in a year the contract with an employee may not be renewed and, in fact, he will be left without work. True, I have not heard of such cases.

What qualities should a person have to become a good diplomat?

— I think the main qualities in diplomacy and in any other profession are decency and responsibility. But in diplomacy, the factor of restraint is also important. Here you can not flare up, slam the door, quarrel with the "client". In fact, your client is the reputation of the country, and this is no joke. To restraint, I would add patience and the absence of fear of communicating with people, but this can already be brought up and developed. In diplomacy, you quickly realize that no matter what country a person comes from, he is first of all a person, which means that your attitude to most everyday things will be similar. I remember how at a reception at the residence of the British Ambassador when I was studying at the Diplomatic Academy, we discussed cooking with a representative of the English Parliament, and this is normal, everyone loves to eat.

How did you end up in the PR position?

- After it became clear that the status of “in the Foreign Ministry reserve” could drag on for years, I began to look for a job in which I could apply my skills. The sphere of public relations seemed to me the closest and most interesting. I started as a junior PR manager in an agency, I was very lucky with a mentor who explained to me the very principle of working in PR. Then they let me go free swimming, and I began to gain experience, sometimes making not very good decisions. In PR, experience is everything. Neither education nor expert advice can replace it.

- How do you plan to build your career?

— Marketing, perhaps, is one of the most dynamically developing areas, so it is impossible to guess what I will be doing in five years. Most likely, I will continue to work in the field of PR, but it is possible that PR itself, having retained the name, will change dramatically during this time.