It's fast, challenging and mentally stimulating. That's the life of a fast streamer at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

Fast streamers (grade C4) are part of the wider Civil Service Scheme managed by the Cabinet Office.

Join the FCO as a Fast Streamer and you’ll be exposed to it all. Your first two years will be in London where you’ll spend one year doing policy work such as handling our relations with other countries, dealing with security and defence issues or working to improve human rights abroad), then one year doing service delivery work (such as working in our consular department helping distressed British nationals).

Fast streamers in the FCO usually follow their first two years in London with an overseas posting.

A day in the life…

Vinay Talwar - Head of the Forced Marriage Unit, London

Vinay Talwar spent most of his twenties working for NGOs. However, seeking a career that matched all his interests prompted him to consider the FCO, and he is now making a difference as Head of the Forced Marriage Unit, a team responsible for helping the two to three hundred British citizens who are forced into marriage overseas each year.

Everything they say about early responsibility is true. On my second day in the job as West Africa Desk Officer I was asked to write a political and economic briefing on The Gambia for Tony Blair, a country about which I knew absolutely nothing. Of course I was well supported by my colleagues, but this did set the tone for quite a full-on year. I learned a lot very rapidly, went on some superb training programmes – such as doing the equivalent of an MA in Human Rights in two weeks – and I got to see the world from a whole new perspective. On a trip to Sierra Leone, the world's poorest country, I flew with the UN peacekeepers by helicopter and sat in on an interview with the country's President. I was used to backpacking, but I had never seen a country from a political point of view.

Astronaut or diplomat? I had come from working for NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations). After completing my postgraduate degree I worked for the Red Cross, for Raleigh International and for VSO. I knew about the FCO fast stream of course, but, frankly, when I was a student, I thought there was more chance of my becoming an astronaut than a diplomat. No one in my family or peer group had ever done anything like it.

However, after a few years with the NGOs, I found myself vaguely dissatisfied. Someone suggested I draw up a list of all the things I had liked in my previous jobs, and everything I wrote down – languages, politics, travel, project management, the sense of making a difference – all pointed to a career at the FCO.

The only thing that concerned me before I joined was that it would be a very conservative, fuddy-duddy organisation, but if it ever was, it's not now. It is a very progressive place in which to work. While the NGO's are just as committed to diversity and to policies such as worklife balance, I think the FCO does more.

I am now on my second job. I manage the Forced Marriage Unit, a team of six within the consular department which tries to help the two to three hundred British citizens who are forced into marriage overseas each year. Instead of working on something esoteric, such as the EU's policy on fruit, I do feel as if I am on the front line. It's stimulating, you don't always have the right answers, but it does force you to think, and you develop good line management skills at the same time. The work is very varied. Sometimes we get calls for help from Heathrow, sometimes it's the UK police asking for assistance, and earlier this year the team went to Bangladesh for a conference with embassy and consular staff to exchange best practice.

But the job is also about changing perceptions and raising awareness. Many of the perpetrators aren't aware that they are forcing their children into marriage; they think they are just encouraging them in the same way that people encourage their children to go to university. All of this makes it a great job to have and it does feel very relevant.

In November I should be off to New York to spend six months working in trade, with the aim of encouraging American investment in the UK. There is a lot variety here, and the FCO does encourage people to get a broad range of experiences before they focus on the area that interests them. Then, after New York, I will be applying for a longer term posting overseas, hopefully with language training.

Salary

The starting salary for a Fast Streamer is £24,759 (inclusive of a £3,000 London Location Allowance – payable when working in London).

What skills do I need? 

• Forward and flexible thinking, innovative and ability to think on your feet
• Ability to develop new solutions to difficult problems
• Ability to turn complex and often technical information into plain English – written and spoken
• Educated to degree-level

Education and official requirements

Applicants must meet our nationality and residency requirements.