About 1000 graduates will begin a public service career in Canberra within weeks.

All navigated a tough hiring process, but few faced as much competition as the 48 grads joining the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, who were winnowed down from about 2300 applicants.

DFAT recruits are sometimes seen as an elite cadre separate from the rest of the bureaucracy.

The department's secretary, Peter Varghese, warned last year that some of his employees lived in "a self-contained universe", and urged them to resist the temptation to see themselves and their workplace as unique.

The head of DFAT's staffing, Sally Mansfield, acknowledges that the department's grads are special, simply by dint of winning a job among such an impressive list of hopefuls.

Yet the department says would-be recruits should know it doesn't want a workforce all cut from the same cloth.

"We're interested in the person – the raw material. So we get people who've come in and they might have trained as a nurse, as well as the economists and lawyers ..." Ms Mansfield says.

"We're more likely to [interest] people who have done international relations, perhaps with a focus in a geographic area; we love to pick up people who have some of the difficult languages already as a basis.

"But what we're really interested in is people who have an inquiring mind, who are resourceful, who will be able to think about what's in Australia's interests and who are adaptable."

Numerous myths surround DFAT recruitment: for example, that the department hires only postgrads or people fluent in an Asian language, or who studied at an established Group of Eight university. None are true (though the Australian National University is a "useful hunting ground", Ms Mansfield says).

The culling process begins brutally: thousands of applications are cut quickly to about 500. What helps someone get past this first step is a strong academic record (not necessarily extra degrees) and some evidence of what Ms Mansfield calls "curiosity" (which need not be internships or volunteer work, though they help).

From there, an experienced officer – perhaps a retired executive – cuts the applications to about 200 or 300. These are scrutinised closely by a committee, which selects over 100 candidates to interview.

Instant, global communication may have reduced the world's reliance on diplomats, who are no longer the prestigious, powerful emissaries of past centuries.

But Ms Mansfield says diplomats still matter, and the career remains as alluring as ever.

"Yes, on one level they are just public servants, and certainly when they're in Australia and in Canberra that's clearly the case, and people joining the department really need to understand that ..." she says.

"But the service overseas remains a very attractive feature ... Having Australians in an embassy and having those face-to-face contacts with other people ... is still really important for understanding that country.

"With trade negotiations and other issues, you can do so much by paper and email. When it really gets interesting is when the two sides come together.

"That understanding and that ability to open doors is part of the tradecraft; part of the skill of being a diplomat."