Remuneration can vary from person to person but for males with NS and FCH (although virtually everyone there has a FCH with some kind of scholarship or award to their name - if not an Ivy League / Oxbridge degree), the typical starting pay for the Foreign Service is several hundreds more than the amount your friend shared - so you can work out the figure from there.

This also excludes the usual gamut of allowances accorded to a FSO, which can be rather substantial.

Noting this, the Foreign Service is perhaps the only scheme outside of the Legal Service that is adequately remunerated to attract law graduates - and indeed, a significant proportion of the candidates who enter the Foreign Service are lawyers.

Having said this, we are talking about possibly the most prestigious and challenging position civil service-wide - by far (I say this having had the benefit of undergoing selections at many other Ministries). The annual intake numbers can be smaller than half your primary school class.

The work (and the hours!) is also not for the faint of heart as they deal with real world issues which impact our everyday lives at a level unimaginable to the lay person.