Civil Servant and diplomat, Arvind Mungur, shares his career journey so far, and his tips for those considering a similar career path.
I am Generation X and had access to free UK university education. My BSc (Imperial College), MSc (Newcastle University) and PhD (Middlesex University) were fully funded. Crazy to imagine now, right?!
My PhD offered opportunities to attend international research events. When invited to deliver a paper in Guangzhou, China in 1994, I tagged a backpacking trip to the conference taking in China and SE Asia. This trip was pivotal in exposing me to international development and sparked my interest in living and working in developing countries
After I completed my PhD in spring 1997, I was offered a post-doc opportunity. But I was starting to feel institutionalised in academia and aware I had no experience of the ‘real’ world. In May 1997, a new government was elected and created the Department for International Aid (DFID) with a mandate to reduce poverty in developing countries.
Having earlier failed to get through the competitive civil service fast stream exam I got into DFID’s West and North Africa Department through a recruitment agency as a temp.
I am grateful to my head of department for taking the time to get to know me and spot my potential. She mentored me and gave me opportunities to travel all over Ghana with a team of experts to build a portfolio of infrastructure and environmental projects. She helped me navigate internal human resources to become a permanent and pensionable civil servant and then secure a promotion into a prestigious role, Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. Those wonderful early years in DFID were full of discovery and opportunity, of excitement and fulfilment.
My long much travelled international civil service career has always been driven by one thing – a desire to have impact in challenging contexts in the knowledge that I would be tested, learn and grow.
In 2023 I started thinking about a career transition during a posting to Jerusalem in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This experience, where I was able to understand the context and reality of life under Occupation, profoundly shaped my perspective. It heightened my awareness of privilege, opportunity, and the areas of my life that were not satisfying and needed to change. I returned to London determined to realign my career and life with my strengths and passions and spoke to lots of people.
Looking back on my career, I realized I was most fulfilled when helping others feel more empowered and in control.
In 2024, I took the decision to train to be accredited life coach. This has been a liberating and empowering journey that has opened doors to new exciting possibilities. Later this year, after 28 years of service, I will be leaving the FCDO to focus on coaching and help others tap into that same energy, growth, and transformation.
So, what I can offer as you embark on your career journeys? Here are some tips drawn from my experience but crucially, given how the world and the job market has changed since I left university, also draw on the recent experiences of younger colleagues and family members.
- Understand your values. Are they aligned with your (or your parents’!) ambitions and goals? You are much more likely to achieve your goals if they align with your personal values.
- Find yourself a mentor or a coach. In these increasingly uncertain and insecure times where you may be feeling unsure and powerless, it really helps to have someone outside of your family and friend network to talk to and who will listen to you without judgement.
- Have a full life outside of study. Explore different things. Try out different casual, summer, temp or voluntary jobs. What you learn from each experience will help you work out what you do / do not want in a career.
- Network and look for opportunities. Be clear about your desired outcome (e.g. seeking advice on something, wanting to be connected to someone useful, being recommended for something, etc) and have something on hand to pass on – LinkedIn profile, CV, blogs and writing, website, speeches, interviews, performances, sporting achievements. Basically, anything to convince someone that you are worth listening to and helping.
- If interested in a diplomatic career, you may well be looking at the world today with so many protracted crises and wondering what is the role of diplomacy. My own view is that diplomacy has never been so needed but like other professions, it is having to undergo rapid transformation – never easy in the public sector – to remain relevant in this age of disruption, corrosion of the rules-based order, disinformation and AI. If you think you are up for the challenge then go for it because the civil service more than ever needs innovative minds to help solve the pressing problems of today and the future. And you get to travel the world!