Difference between a foreign service specialist and a foreign service officer in the state department?
OK, I don’t have state department experience but I was interested at some point in doing something like this and read the following. The specialist was someone with a specific skill set and experience sent out for a specific task like running a computer network overseas or something similar. An officer is a more general position who are chosen based on a competitive exam and have to accept every assignment given to them. The closest analogy I can think of in terms of responsibility would be a military officer, although obviously with a focus on foreign affairs and state issues.
