The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in charge of organizing government affairs in the foreign field to assist the president in administering the state government. This career is the dream of some people, especially graduates of International Relations. It is recorded that at least 115 alumni of International Relations of UGM are working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to date. One of the positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in the core business division, which consists of diplomats, chandeliers, and diplomatic information institutions.
Winanto talked about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs entrance test which includes mental, health, and readiness/substance tests. He also gave tips for taking the substance test, namely by studying the scales of foreign policy and law as well as international bodies, especially ASEAN, protection of citizens abroad, cooperation between developing countries, non-permanent members of the UN security council, and economic diplomacy.
“Most likely there will be five because diplomats have to master international and domestic issues related to international cooperation. I read it in English which is immediately convenient if we can search, then clip it, the closer the D day (test selection) is trying to summarize it so that it is more comfortable,” he said.
“As for the interviews later with echelon 1, echelon 2, and former ambassadors, and one thing that needs to be implemented later, please maintain honesty, when working online, don’t open or copy paste, you will be caught later because BKN has prepared a system (for monitoring),” he added.
In addition to knowledge of domestic and foreign issues, diplomatic competence also requires public speaking skills, foreign languages, teamwork, negotiation, and so on. Mentally also must be able to adapt, agility, emotional stability, confidence, stress resistance, independence, empathy tolerance, and others.
In connection with the recruitment process for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia in 2021, Agus Hidayat explained the planned selection stages which consist of administrative selection, selection of basic competencies using CAT BKN, and selection of field competencies. Furthermore, he also explained about the privileges of working at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can represent the nation, state, government and people of Indonesia in relations with other countries, because no matter how rich people are, it is not certain that they can represent the country, besides that they can also be placed in countries around the world which are a challenge, and can interact with stakeholders. decisions from various countries,” Agus said.