PART II Exclusive insights on international aid & development careers from a former senior British Ambassador and former President of CARE International

PART 2 of our Exclusive Interview

The United Career Coalition spoke to

Sir Harold, a former senior British Ambassador and former President of CARE International, to gain his insights and advice on international aid and development careers.

Sir Harold spent 35 years in the Diplomatic Service; among other appointments he was Ambassador to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Iraq. Sir Harold was also President of CARE International. He was educated at Winchester and Worcester College, Oxford.

What in your opinion, makes a good Ambassador?

What makes a good career, is that you have to be interested in everything. There are so many different aspects to your job. Everything from, as I said, advising your minister on intellectually challenging questions to making sure the administration of your embassy is in good shape. As you rise to the top you have to have some top social skills, you need to have some sort of presence so that people recognise you.

Would you say, this could also be considered one of the challenges for someone when taking on the role as an Ambassador who doesn’t have those outgoing character traits that you just mentioned? What would you consider some of the challenges that people may face going down the path?

I would say, the challenge, even more now than when I was a serving officer is the spread of audio-visual media, and particular social media; whether it's government or big business, advisors are under pressure all the time to come up with instant answers and are at huge risk of failure. So, I think the challenge is to be happy, working 24 hours a day; it's quite difficult to take time off. Secondly, again, a fairly recent challenge is the spread of social media, means that you, you, as an Ambassador, have to become sort of an expert in social media yourself, trying to spread the word not only to governments, government officials, mainstream media and businessman, but somehow play your part in spreading the word on social media. So, you have to be popular enough to be at home in social media. I think all British Ambassadors run their own blogs. I think you have to be happy to do so.

Talking about changes over time, how would you see the changing role of women and female Ambassadors nowadays?

Most senior diplomats in the past were previously men, in those days the social norm was that a wife would follow her husband happily around the world and support his career. Things of course have changed for the better. Women are expected to have careers and do have careers just as much as men. So, you no longer have one of the two spouses going around the world as a kind of adjunct to the other. This does create huge problems with diplomatic services. Because after all, let's say you're a female Ambassador, and your husband is a doctor, he may be able to work. But if he is an accountant, the regulations of the host country may not permit him to work. I think that the British diplomatic service to its credit, leans over backwards to try and meet difficult family circumstances. But at the end of the day, they cannot meet all family circumstances that exist and people just have to make up their own mind. So nowadays I think more and more we will find a diplomat working on his/her own because his wife or her husband have a job at home. That is a real problem. I think the serious one for the family dealing with the careers of both parties is dealing with children's education. The British tradition was to send children to a boarding school which I think is possibly growing less and less. There are French Lycées very widely spread, but not so many English-speaking schools. So, educating your children can be a real problem. And as I say, there is the notion that, really, it's a 24 hour a day job, I suppose. So, these are real challenges. Against that you've got a tremendous variety of the work, and the enjoyable challenges of the role. Getting to study foreign civilisations or cultures other than one’s own. Having the opportunity, perhaps a necessity to learn other languages, working with interesting congenial people.

Thank you, Ambassador, that already brings me to the last question of our interview today. What advice would you give those who want to pursue a diplomatic career path? Your final advice?

Well, I'd say only go for it, if you know dealing with international affairs is your passion. Don't just take it as a job because it's 24 hours a day.

One of the greatest parts of this type of work for your country, or similarly if you work for a United Nations organisation, you're trying to work for the world. In a psychological sense, there surely cannot be anything more satisfying than that.

Curious to learn more? Don’t miss Part 1 of this interview series.

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