There are good and bad things in every service. X1Xi has shed some light on the positives. Here I will share what I don't like in the service:
1. FSP can be rewarding when one is posted abroad. But at the headquarter in Islamabad, one has to survive within his clean salary. There is no vehicle for an officer of less than BPS-20. Even in BPS-19 a FSP Officer is accommodated in a room in Foreign Service Hostel, not given a big bungalow like DPO or DCO. His telephone ceiling is limited. He has no official servants at his disposal. And if he wants to eat inexpensive food from the hostel mess, he will have to eat what the mess secretary has decided in the menu. He has the only choice of going to some hotel.
2. The real charm of Foreign Service is to serve in missions in places like US, EU, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany etc. Many officers who don't have good links will never get these opportunities.
3. While the foreign allowances given to the officer might be enough in inexpensive countries, they are often inadequate in expensive cities like London, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Washington etc. One has to be tight fisted to survive there.
4. A foreign service officer has to serve three years in a foreign country. I don't know exactly how many times the government sponsors his return to the country but I can guess it's not more than twice. An officer gets seriously homesick. And since many know that their earning will be whatever they save from their foreign postings, they try to limit their visits to their home country because it costs too much.
5. Foreign Service gives no recognition among common people because it does not bring you in direct contact with the public. Foreign Service officer is of no use to the ordinary people.
Please excuse my ignorance if anything I mentioned above is incorrect. My purpose is not to establish the superiority of any group. I just hope someone aspiring for a career in civil service will be able to make a smarter and more informed choice after reading all this.
Regards,