@johnwick said in Mains 2019 Preparation and Discussion Thread:

@Hermione_Granger it determines the first posting as you have to learn the language . If you get Chinese , you will go to Beijing for sure . And at most the 2nd posting . After that rotation comes into play . If you got class A countries in the first 2, now is your turn to serve in C countries and vice versa .
If you get into IFS , obviously you are not there for a few years and will probably serve 30+ years and in your whole career CFL will not have any impact , but your skills , personality , expertise will be the only thing which will decide how successful you are , and if you got more good countries on average than your peers . And one more thing as other people are claiming about 1st Gen , 2nd Gen IFS . MEA is the most professional of all organizations , and this kind of nepotism is more prevalent in home based services , it has no place in the IFS .

There was an AMA(Ask Me Anything) conducted by an IFS officer a while back on Reddit. Really gives an idea about the service and it's pros and cons. Will really help people who are considering IFS to be their first choice.

Link - I am an officer of the Indian Foreign Service. Ask Me Anything (almost).

I am a "middle management" civil servant (Indian Foreign Service). I've been a diplomat for over a decade, and have served in many countries and traveled to even more for work. I don't want to discuss questions that would hint at my identity, but I'll be happy to answer questions about the workings of my beloved Ministry and the Indian Foreign Policy to the best of my ability. I will not be disclosing any classified information, obviously. I'm also happy to take questions about the Civil Service Examination process.

Disclaimer - He has deleted his Reddit account after the AMA. So the responses with username "[deleted]" are his response to the questions posted by users.