He was an African literature professor at the University of Virginia and taught English in Zaire before he joined the foreign service.

[2][4] As a member of the Senior Foreign Service (Minister-Counselor), Ambassador Hoagland's earlier assignments included Director of the Office of Public Diplomacy in the South Asia Bureau of the State Department (1999-2001) where his additional portfolio was Special Adviser to the National Security Council for public diplomacy on Afghanistan.

His foreign assignments have included Russia (where he was Press Spokesman for the U.S. Embassy), Uzbekistan, and Pakistan twice—the first time (1986-1989) working with the Afghan Resistance during the Soviet-Afghan War.

After September 11 2001, he initiated regular U.S.- Russia consultations in response to the mandate by Presidents Bush and Putin that the two governments work together to increase their collaboration and transparency in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

[7][8] On August 1, 2006, the Armenian Assembly of America announced that Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Joe Biden together with Senator John Kerry requested a hold on Hoagland's nomination, claiming that he hoped the Administration "will find a way to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.