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  RIP D&D mod Vilerat, killed in action, while TDY to Consulate Benghazi on 9/11/2012. Disclaimer: The posts in this thread are purely the individual opinions and thoughts of the various forum members here, and should not be taken in any way as official Department policy, or as having any approval or connection to the U.S. Department of State. This is just chatter from a bunch of goons on an internet comedy forum. Also check the general US Federal Government Jobs thread. What is a Foreign Service Officer? Generally, they are diplomats and consuls. It is the career track that goes all the way up to Ambassador (or Deputy Secretary of State). This post will deal with State Department FSOs; check the third post in this thread for USAID FSOs, which have a different deal. There are also FSOs from Foreign Commercial Service, and Foreign Agricultural Service -- check the bottom of the third post for those two (tl;dr, its really hard to get in). Foreign Service Officers, also referred to as Foreign Service Generalists, enter in one of five career tracks - Consular, Economic, Management, Political, or Public Diplomacy. There is no specific requirement for education or experience. More information is available at: http://careers.state.gov/officer. quote:
What is a Foreign Service Specialist? Foreign Service Specialists provide important technical, support or administrative services in 19 career categories, including Doctors and Physician Assistants, Office Management Specialists, Information Management Specialists, Diplomatic Security Agents, Human Resource Specialists. Each category has specific requirements regarding education and experience. Details are available at: http://careers.state.gov/specialist. Where do I go to register for the test/apply for the job? You should start your application process here: http://careers.state.gov/officer/index.html Read the guide to the application process here: http://careers.state.gov/docs/3.0_FSO_RegGuide.pdf There are five steps: 1. Choose a Career Track 2. Register for the Test: Application 3. Take the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) 4. Submit Personal Narrative for Qualifications Evaluation Panel Review 5. Take the Oral Assessment You can register for the test at: http://www.act.org/fsot/ Be advised that the site is slow and can take some time. Do I have to come from Georgetown/Harvard/Yale/Whatever to get in? Business of Ferrets posted:My classmates and colleagues come from a full range of colleges and universities -- some I've heard of, and some I haven't. Graduates of good international studies grad programs tend to be well represented, but by no means a majority. In my class, we have a wide range of schools. I'd say American University (disclosure: my law school alma mater) is as well represented as Harvard, as are other strong international studies schools. The IU/OSU/NotreDame crowd that seems to be in every group everywhere is here as well. We're a little more skewed East Coast than West Coast, but that's primarily due to proximity to Washington for the Oral Assessment I think. What kind of background will I need? What kind of education will I need? Will a J.D. overqualify me? Business of Ferrets posted:I know folks who, in prior lives, were oceanographers, archeologists, botanists, NGO workers, Peace Corps volunteers, military (both enlisted and commissioned), law enforcement, teachers, comedy writers, lawyers, etc. When they say no specific major or field of study is required, they really mean it. My class is probably 1/3 or more attorneys. About half of those worked biglaw, about half didn't. Military is very represented, primarily officers, usually around Maj. but we have a full bird in my class, and we have a buck sergeant in my class. It goes both ways. We have a bunch of teachers, archeologists, statisticians, computer programmers, NGO types, etc. Educationally, we have a couple people who graduated college in the past year, up to multiple Ph.D.'s. Generally speaking, I'd say having a bachelors is almost essential (though you can apply in your senior year, or even earlier if you want to get an idea of the process) and having either a graduate degree, or a year or two of doing something international affairs or foreign-culture related is a majority. Experience will count just as much as education here -- you do NOT need to get the degree. If you know that this is what you want to do with your life, but you simply can't afford grad school, the Peace Corps or the military (I know, polar opposites right?) are very very good options and are heavily represented here. How does the Foreign Service assignment system work? For generalists (Foreign Service Officers) There are three systems for generalists, depending on what tour you are on: First tour, second tour, and third tour (mid-level) through the end. All three are completely different from each other. An FSOs first two tours are directed, which means that, though the officer gives input, the assignments office has the final say of who goes where. The initial two tours each normally last two years. For an FSO's first tour, a "bid list" is distributed during the first day or two of initial training (called A-100 in State parlance). The number of jobs on the list will roughly match the number of officers in the orientation class. Often, some posts will have several jobs open, such as if Moscow, Russia had two open consular positions. The current practice is to have new FSOs rank every job on the list either "high," "medium" or "low." Officers are also given the opportunity to turn in a "bid preference sheet," which allows them to explain their bidding strategy and interests. Officers will discuss their choices -- and their rational -- with a career development officer (CDO). At the entry level, the CDOs get together and assign the new officers to positions. They usually try to get everyone one of their "high" bids, but that is not always possible, and the CDOs' first responsibility is to fill vacant positions. At about the fifth week of A-100 (the course was previously seven weeks, but my class is only 6 weeks) there will be a "Flag Day" ceremony, where the whole class receives their assignments (and a small matching national flag, hence the name). Flag Day is also when the new officers find out how much and what kind of training they will receive before departing for post. From what I have understood, last class everyone got a high or medium, and for the past couple of classes, there have only been a few lows for the cases of people who did not do a great job on their bid sheets (i.e. maybe they only marked 4 highs, 10 mediums, and everything else low, and those first 14 high/mid posts were decided for others). You can probably expect the number of posts on your bid list to be equal to or maybe slightly higher than the number of people in your class -- although my class is significantly larger than normal so maybe that's not the case generally. I'm not 100% sure on how it works, but tandem couples (where both spouses are in the FS, either generalist or specialist) do not work off the bid list, because their destination will be determined in part by their spouse. So before you freak out about the bid lists, remember that there is a very very good chance that the posts you think are poo poo and don't want to go to, will likely be someone else's dream post. It all works out. When bidding for one's second tour, there are more jobs to choose from (I believe in previous classes there have been a couple hundred), but also more constraints on bidding. It is HR policy that all entry-level officers (ELOs) perform at least one year of consular work (the norm is more 2-4 years these days). What that means is that an FSO whose first tour is straight management work will only be able to bid on jobs with a consular component for the second tour. Also, ELOs may only receive one "full course" of language training during their first two tours. A full course is up to one year of training, but could mean the full six-month course of Spanish. So, if an ELO gets eight months of Korean in preparation for a first tour in Seoul, unless that officer has other preexisting language proficiency, he or she will only be able to bid on positions without a language requirement for the second tour. Another governing principle of second-tour bidding is the idea of "equity." Equity is calculated by adding the hardship differential and danger pay (if any) from the first tour, then giving officers with higher levels of equity priority for assignments. I'm told that the way that this works is every second-tour officer bidding will be put on a list, ranked by equity. So someone with the max of 50 equity (roughly, may be 55 or 60, but you get the point) will be at the top of the list, and will be considered for their post choices first. Officers with little to no equity will be at the bottom of the list. So people serving in Pakistan, for example, will have many more jobs to choose from than those in London. Going back to our hypothetical ELO in Seoul, keep in mind that Seoul is a "zero hardship" post, so you can imagine that this officer's choices would be limited. Two things to remember about equity: First, it ONLY applies in your second tour. After that, it does not matter. Second, needs of the service still rule. So even if you have crazy equity but due to you not having met your consular requirement, you will be going to a consular post. Or, if the service decides that you are absolutely needed in Tashkent, despite having just been in Ciudad Juarez and having nice equity and wanting to go to Rome, guess what: you're going to Tashkent. But there are other constraints, too. There are also language issues if an officer earned extra points for critical-needs language proficiency during the hiring process. I didn't do it, but as I understand if you got bump up points, you're probably going to be using that language. If it was a CNL, you're obligated to serve there at least once before tenure; if it was a SCNL you're obligated to serve there once before tenure and once again after tenure. Another factor is timing, which means that, even if you are fluent in French and otherwise qualified, if your first tour ends in April but that Paris job you want begins in October (to allow for six months of French study), you won't have a shot at it. The gap is just too large. Although there are many, many more jobs on the second-tour bid list than there are bidders, the extensive constraints mean that each bidder has only a small group of realistic bids. Fortunately, it's supposedly much less stressful, and much easier to get a job that you like. In mid-level bidding, which is everything after your first two tours and before you get into the Senior Foreign Service around the 20-year mark or so, the core of the process is lobbying for jobs. There is still a bid list (this is how you find out what jobs are available) and you still have a CDO, but getting jobs is all about your reputation and whom you know. There are some rules about bidding in your cone and at your grade, but these are not onerous and are mostly a formality. You basically identify jobs in which you are interested, then put in a formal bid, then do everything in your power to convince the decision maker (usually a director on a country desk or in a functional bureau) that you are the best fit for the job. You will also ask colleagues and supervisors to put in a good word for you with the decision maker. If the job is popular, lots of other people will be doing the same. If you go after jobs far outside your reach, you run the risk of getting none of your bids and having to re-bid after most of the best jobs are already gone. The upside to this process is that officers have enormous control over where they won't go, even if they don't necessarily get assigned to their dream job. I'm not familiar with the assignments process for specialists, so I will leave that explanation to one of my esteemed specialist colleagues. IMPORTANT NOTE from Vilerat: Places are unimportant, people make the place in this work. The best post could be a living hell if your Ambassador/DCM/MGMT suck but the worst hellhole on the planet could be the place you always remember as your favorite post if the community is awesome. Comment from Diplomaticus: You will be able to research an extensive amount of information about your posts. Trust me, I did not think that the majority of my "top bids" were going to be in Africa. The process can seem scary, but embassy life is MAJORLY different than local life, and even a post that sounds awful or scary can end up being one of your most memorable and favorite posts. What are the kinds of things you'll be forced to deal with in the Foreign Service? Vilerat posted:
"Dear Diplomaticus, Senator X is in town. Please take his wife shopping and find her something to do if she gets bored." Tell me about the Economic Track I'm not an Econ-coned officer, but I'm serving out-of-cone right now as Economic/Commercial officer. Econ is basically split into two categories -- the Econ side and the Commercial side. The Econ side is a lot of reporting on macroeconomic trends, high-level stuff. Working with the Finance Ministry of your host country to get them to move towards whatever it is you're asking them to do. You'll participate in bilateral and multilateral economic talks. You might help get the host nation to accede to the WTO. You might work on various trade agreements along with USTR. That sort of thing. The Commercial side is basically Business Development for those of you in the private sector. It's USG-run biz dev. US companies looking to invest in the host nation will come to you for market intelligence, assistance with navigating the local investment/regulatory environment, mediation during trade or customs disputes, introductions to local partners etc. There is a lot of overlap with USAID and the Commerce department, specifically the Foreign Commercial Service. Now, read everything in the Political officer section. All of that applies to you as well. Political and Econ officers do the exact same thing, just on slightly different subject matter, and there is a lot of overlap (things like counter-terrorism financing, narcotics controls, aviation security are all "political-like" jobs that typically are handled by the Econ officer. In many posts there is a Pol/Econ combined section rather than two different sections for political and economics, and Pol/Econ combined jobs are not uncommon. Tell me about the Public Diplomacy Track Zoots posted:After reading the handy and oh-so-charming summaries from Business of Ferrets and Diplomaticus, I thought I'd finally throw my hat in the ring as well. I'm a PD-coned officer currently doing ACS work. Just had my three-year anniversary in the FS this year, too. I'm also on medevac right now, so I'll try to answer questions relating to that. Basically, think spokesperson/press secretary. But there's more to it, because every FSO has to learn how to be a spokesperson when needed. A lot of what you'll do is personal outreach to organizations like museums, schools, community groups, etc. and present information about the US. For example, lets say you are in Embassy Ouagadougou -- you might be representing the Fulbright program there, or working with the Burkina Faso national art museum to set up an exhibition featuring Burkinabé-American painters living in the U.S. Also traditionally this was one of the harder tracks to get into. It's also one of the tracks that get a fair amount of language use, though not as much as management and consular. Tell me about the Management Track Don't have one of these yet either. According to State: Management Officers run our embassies and make American diplomacy work. A lot of what you will do is managing Foreign Service Nationals, help supervise the specialists running the housing pool, deal with construction poo poo, internal management stuff, etc. You may be the General Services Officer, and be in charge of the building materials and supply of the embassy, you may be in charge of a training course somewhere.....there are a LOT of things that Management officers get to do. You also will be supervising more foreign service nationals than any other job, meaning your language skills will be exercised WAY more than any other track (Consular is a close second). A lot of things in Washington fall under the Under Secretary for Management as well, including some things you might not immediately think of. Tell me about the Consular Track Business of Ferrets posted:I'm one FSO who really, really did not enjoy consular work. I am definitely not alone in this. A few reasons why some folks dislike consular work: Consular officers get a lot of use out of their language skills as they are dealing with visa applicants during the day, and supervising FSNs who will be native speakers. If you can work it so you get a consular position at a language designated post, you will get a LOT more proficient with your language than some random Econ officer will from just language school because you will be using it daily. Tell me about the Political Track Business of Ferrets posted:In the spirit of my comments on consular work, here is some of the bad/good of political work for the OP. There is a saying that the foreign service exists for Political officers, and everyone else supports them. There's a lot of truth to that statement, though not 100%. Tell me about Language Training Department of State posted:Effective with the October 2011 FSOT, all language testing will be administered only for candidates who pass the Oral Assessment. There will be no language testing prior to the QEP for any candidate. All other policies and procedures applying to post-FSOA testing remain in place. If State has one real strength from a training perspective, language instruction is it. My comments pertain to generalists, since I am not up-to-speed on opportunities for specialists. All training, language or otherwise, is tied to one's current or onward assignment. So, if you want to learn, say, Arabic, the key is to find a job that requires Arabic proficiency with enough time to complete language training before the job begins (this timing is usually worked into the position start date, so it is normally pretty straightforward). State has three broad categories of languages: (This may be a little out of date) "World" languages generally take six months of full-time instruction to go from no knowledge to a "3" level on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale (http://www.govtilr.org/). World languages basically include the Romance and Germanic language families. German gets a few extra weeks of training for some reason. This family category is a bit larger than you might think and generally has nothing to do with the amount of countries that speak the language. "Hard" languages are allotted 44 weeks (one academic year) of instruction to reach the 3 level. With a few exceptions (see below), any language not a World language falls in this category. The "Super-Hard" languages, which are Arabic (including several dialects), Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Japanese and Korean, have courses up to 88 weeks (two academic years) to get students to the 3 level. The second year is usually done overseas at a field school or contract program. There are U.S. Government field schools in While in language training you have no other work responsibilities. Most of the training for programs up to one year occur at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center/Foreign Service Institute (FSI) located in Arlington, Virginia. Classes tend to be small (usually one to four students) all all teachers are native speakers of their language. The FSI website says that more than 70 languages are taught there. Naturally, some programs are big, while others accomodate only a few students. If you are in between overseas assignments while in language training, you will receive per diem (with some exceptions that aren't worth going into here). There are regulations limiting the number of times an FSO can receive a full course of Hard or Super-Hard languages (twice, with the possibility of a third), and entry-level officers (ELOs; these are officers on their first or second tour) often don't receive full courses longer than six months because training eats into the clock for achieving tenure (a career requirement). Overall, though, most officers do two or three foreign languages, with many focusing on one or two during their career. There are also pay incentives to serve repeat tours using certain languages which encourage officers to to focus on one or two languages. Language requirements are part of the separate set of requirements for joining the Senior Foreign Service. There are also opportunities for self-study and language maintenance and improvement. These are handled on a case-by-case basis, but are usually pretty easy to get if needed or wanted. There is also language training for spouses available. Major changes to language testing, read below quote:Beginning with the June 2012 FSOT cohort, generalist candidates will receive .17 bonus points for all languages listed here (pdf) if they pass the telephone language test at a speaking level 3 after passing the Oral Assessment. Candidates testing in the eight languages eligible for higher bonus points need only a level 2 speaking ability to obtain a .17. The following eight languages are eligible for higher bonus points: Arabic; Chinese (Mandarin); Hindi; Persian (Dari); Persian (Farsi); Pashto; Urdu; and Korean. BOF posted:For generalists, this is very much the case, particularly after leaving the entry level. Nice places with few constraints for language proficiency or medical issues tend to be very heavily bid. From recent lists, I recall a single position in Sydney with 48 bidders and one in London with 29 bidders. These days, just about the only way to get to Paris, London, Brussels, Rome, (insert desireable European capital here) is to first go to Afghanistan or Iraq. For ELO generalists, without going into too much detail, I can say that there were a number of first-world capitals on my bid list. In many cases they were under-bid due to equity reasons (they will give you none). Cost of Living is another. But roughly speaking, it is much much much easier to get into these posts at entry level (even if it is something of a crap shoot) than it is later on. Note, since I'm not sure it's explained elsewhere -- equity means that the post you are in on your first tour is considered either a hardship, or hard to staff, or dangerous, or some combination there-of. You receive a certain "equity" for going there. Those with higher equity will get first crack at bidding on assignments on their second tour. Equity ceases to exist after your second tour, it's an entry-level thing only (though that being said, there are some similarities in mid-level bidding strategy involving Iraq, and Afghanistan. Can LGBT apply? Yes. See Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's remarks on benefits for same-sex domestic partners of foreign service employees. There are very few government organizations more progressive than State in this regard. At this point the only things holding them back, for the most part, require congressional legislation to change. Also there is an organization, GLIFAA (http://www.glifaa.org/) that will be available to advocate on your behalf as well as hosting events and meetings. You'll get the opportunity to sign up on your first day that you go to the main state dept. building, though you can obviously do so at any time. I joined and have found it to be very open, friendly, and worthwhile. *********************************************** Goons in the Foreign Service: (Possibly incomplete, locations probably out of date) FSO's - Generalists and Specialists *Business of Ferrets - almost a decade as an FSO (POL). In Japan (Yokohama and then Tokyo). * TCD- IMS specialist, * AKA pseudonym - IMS specialist, * ATI Jesus: * Leif./Diplomaticus/SWATJester - (POL) *pamchenko - USAID FSO. * Natural Ice - (CON) - Bangkok * 1of7 - IMS specialist - Chengdu * HOORAY - OMS Specialist. * Skandiaavity - IMS specialist. * the_chavi - (POL) - PRM/ANE, previously NEA/LEV (acronym changed, thanks gods of NEA), Tripoli, Istanbul, and Riyadh * Zoots - (PD?) in Rome. * Teleku - IMS Specialist * jayk - ??? Specialist - Bangkok. * Saho - IMS Specialist - Kathmandu * mtreecorner - OMS Sana'a, Yemen. * Homie_S - DS agent. * haggan - IMS Specialist * photoguy: SEO * mute: IMS * Bruxism: DS * Teleku: IMS, Warsaw * deemickgee * SCRwM - IMS - Tbilisi * Miscreant Fromage - OMS *problematique * Nutrimentia - previously CON/ECON - Abuja; now CON/POL - Seoul * d1rtbag - (CON) - July 2013 A-100. * Chinoosha - MGMT, January 2014 A-100. * Tyro - DS *HiroProtagonist - forever still awaiting clearances. *qwertyman *TheMantis - Addis Ababa *bloodnose - Guangzhou Other (Seabees, etc.) *shadowninja: MSG, Tanzania *Giodo!: Civil service, dc *psydude - works at FSI. What other resources are there? For the FSOT (written test): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fswe/ For the FSOA (oral assesment): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fsoa/ (Note: Specialists have their own group) There is a group for passers of the FSOA only, but if you're that far you should be knowledgeable, holler in the thread and someone will hook you up. Bruxism posted:HR has developed, and barely advertised, this great smart-phone app for people interested in careers at DOS: State also has a general app, with things like the daily press briefing, travel warnings, etc. It's actually worth getting, as you can get some pretty decent news and info there far more quickly than putzing around on the intranet. Leif. fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Jun 3, 2015 |
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Jul 7, 2009 15:52
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But seriously, it can be one of the most fun jobs overseas - not unlike being a federal party planner at times. To provide a very very general summary of the work:
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Tell me about being a USAID Foreign Service Officer! (See bottom of post for Foreign Commercial Service/Foreign Agriculture Service)pamchenko posted:I absolutely have friends who do DG work (Democracy and Governance, which is our shorthand for that otherwise heinously long job title). Actually, that was my first choice, too, but I didn't hear back from them until after I'd already accepted the Program Officer position. Most people I know who are DG officers (or any kind of technical officer) really love their work. I think the major complaint about DG work would be that sometimes you're doing it in a hostile political environment (my go-to example is always Russia), and that can make your job, and sometimes your life, very challenging. Also, it's probably the hardest backstop to feel like you're making an actual difference in: it's much easier to measure something like # of TB cases per year than positive perception of civil society. But in general, people really seem to enjoy it. I just did a DG rotation, and I really enjoyed it, too. What do Foreign Commercial Service officers do? If we can get something from Foreign Commercial Service, that'd be great, as they're FSOs too! However, you can ask Diplomaticus about it, as he is a Commercial Attache at a FCS Partner Post (basically, since the Commercial Service is not at every mission, some embassies are designated "partner posts", and have one of there Economic Officers double as Commercial Attache: the official Commerce Dept. presence in that country, but they are State employees. All partner posts are tied to a main FCS post -- for instance Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti, Tanzania, Rwanda, and notionally Somalia are partner posts with FCS Nairobi in Kenya. Basically, FCS officers overseas are business development types. They try to promote US exports to that country, and import sourcing from the US. They do due diligence for US firms, set up meetings for them, pre-screen contacts in various commercial fields, and recruit delegations for reverse trade missions and International Buyer Programs. [b[ What do Foreign Agriculture Service officers do?[/b] They do similar stuff to a State dept. Economic officer, with a bit of the commercial portfolio from the FCS as well. They monitor the agriculture portfolio, which is both business oriented (commercial farms), food security oriented (in drought/famine countries, though USAID is the main organization for that) and commercial oriented (get US firms to sell agriculture products in that country, usually really hard to do with tariffs in non WTO countries). They also are the primary people involved in monitoring GMO crops, bio-availabilty, and other genetically modified stuff for agriculture. They're really small, even smaller than Commerce is at most posts, but I believe that they may be at more posts than Commerce is. Tell me About Family Life TCD posted:
Leif. fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Mar 9, 2013 |
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Jul 7, 2009 18:38
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What happened after the test? As I understand it the hiring process is different than it was before with an oral exam. What was your next step, where are you now in the process? Also how long did you have to wait on stuff?
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Jul 7, 2009 23:35
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Would having a law degree overqualify me for the position or will it be right smack dab in the middle of competitive? Also, I had a secret clearance when I was in the military, will that work to speed up the security clearance? And finally, IIRC this is an exempted service position right? Will I still receive veterans preference (I qualify for 5 points). I kind of wish there were like...recruiters or something, some sort of career counselor like the military has for these kinds of questions.
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Jul 9, 2009 00:27
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Awesome. Also, I read that State is creating 2100 more jobs, about 1200 of which are expected to be Specialist or A100 positions...anyone know about this?
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Jul 9, 2009 21:26
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Anyone with info they want in the OP, please let me know, and I will put it in there.
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Jul 26, 2009 22:11
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I will be updating the OP with some of this information. If anyone would like to be listed in the OP, please let me know (PM or in thread) with what your position is (i.e. I'm an FSO in the political cone) and if you are ok with posting it, what countries you have served in. Also, any specific info or FAQs that you would like to see moved in there. I'm going to move the above info on pros/cons to Consular track in there, for instance.
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Jul 27, 2009 07:50
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yoslow posted:
Go read the law school/lawyers megathread to see how much the answer is NO. It will not help you be more competitive in the civilian job market outside law, there aren't many law jobs out there right now, it won't help you as much as other positions in a foreign affairs role, and you will be in tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and have wasted three years of your life. Don't make that mistake. Find out in advance what you're getting into.
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Jul 31, 2009 17:38
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Well, my app is in. I went Political branch.
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Aug 1, 2009 01:06
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Business of Ferrets posted:For the OP Added in the OP. Thanks!
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Aug 12, 2009 04:28
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Defleshed posted:I haven't heard jack about the FSOT... signed up about a month ago. Same.
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Aug 25, 2009 05:06
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Anthropolis posted:Some new info on the website about getting back to us with the schedule: I'm in the same boat as you, except I graduate April 2010.
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Aug 28, 2009 19:14
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I finish in April. I started the application process now because more than likely it won't have finished by the time I graduate law school, and possible not until after I take and pass the bar. I'm not planning on dropping out, don't worry.
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Aug 29, 2009 04:40
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AKA Pseudonym posted:Some people seem to be trying to make it into some sort of Blackwater thing, which it really isn't. At most embassies the role these guys perform is done by local security companies. There are still Marines on duty but these guys guard the perimeter, keep an eye on the metal detectors, watch over the parking lot, and that sort of thing. I'm sure the duties are very different in Kabul but armed American citizens with military experience is more than most places get. The totally-not-gay hazing rituals are unique too as far as I know. Nah every defense security contractor I've worked with in the military (Triple Canopy, Blackwater, DynCorp, etc.) all had guys just like that. It's nothing different than the totally-not-gay-hazing rituals in the army.
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Sep 5, 2009 06:54
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poo poo I have heard nothing yet, no invitation. How did it arrive (email vs. snail)?
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Sep 6, 2009 14:58
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poo poo, nothing yet from ACT about dates or sitting for the test, is this bad?
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Sep 10, 2009 02:17
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Yay my invitation finally came through.
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Sep 16, 2009 18:24
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Marine happy hours? Tell me more (I'm ex-Army, wouldn't mind drinking with Marines).
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Sep 18, 2009 18:33
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If anyone has information to put in the OP that'd be great. Especially information on the Public Diplomacy, Economic and Management tracks.
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Sep 19, 2009 21:09
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Business of Ferrets posted:What is everyone doing to prep for the written test? Another week of law school.
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Sep 27, 2009 19:33
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Just took the FSOT today. Took me almost exactly 2 hours from when I arrived until I signed out to leave. Test was a knowledge base section, a biographical questionnaire, a series of editing questions/grammar tests, and then an essay. My thoughts: The editing questions were ridiculously easy. Granted, I have dealt with editing almost every day of my life for the past 10 years, but if you speak English as your first language and have a professional enough grasp of grammar that you can write a memo or a 1 page report to your boss without typos and misplaced punctuation, you're going to ace it. The biographical questionnaire - this threw me a bit. It was 77 questions I believe, something close to that. I had 40 minutes. I initially misread it as 40 questions, 77 minutes. About a third of the questions were two-parters, along the lines of "Have you ever worked a job that required extensive customer service? If you pick A, B, or C, be prepared to list up to 4 jobs and the kind of customer service you had". This list counted as a second question. However, it limited you to only 200 characters. That's barely enough to list the names, let alone go into any detail, and what is worse is that the program lets you type past 200 characters. I don't know if it cuts you off or whatever, but it's loving stupid. Essay: You get unlimited space, 30 minutes to do it. I like to write and I type fast, so I drafted a pretty sick explanation of why laissez-faire capitalism should be predominant U.S. policy in regards to imposing social responsibility upon corporations. I finished with about 2 minutes to spare, but I probably overdid the amount of work involved in this one. Knowledge base: The questions here were predominantly legal, which was great for me. There were a few questions on the constitution, quite a bit on voting rights, race equality etc. I'd advise testtakers who aren't strong on their law to read about the legal and legislative side of the civil rights movement (starting with the 13th amendment. Every practice test I've seen had a question about the 13th amendment, and this actual test had it too). Some history questions on topics like FDR's court packing scheme, one horribly ambiguous question on John Marshall that should be scrapped, a question about teddy roosevelt and the battle of san juan hill (what war was it in), and about 10-15 questions that were things like "If a co-worker requested feedback, would you (a) call him derogatory terms and make racially motivated comments, (b) ignore him and pretend you didn't hear, (c) provide neutral, unbiased response, using constructive criticism when necessary, or (d) tell him no." I finished the 60+ questions in this section in about 10 minutes or so. I think there were only about 3 that I didn't immediately know the answer (One on "convergent thinking", the poorly written John Marshall question, and maybe one more that I forget). Overall, it was a lot easier than I thought. 3-5 weeks to hear back, then three weeks to file my personal narrative, than 9-12 weeks to hear if I passed QEP. So if all goes well, I guess I could do my Oral Assessment in maybe February.
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Oct 6, 2009 21:28
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Yeah I had a bunch of those questions, but all of them except the "what is convergent thinking" one were stupidly easy.
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Oct 7, 2009 01:13
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Business of Ferrets posted:Nice to hear that people found the FSOT easy. I do want to remind everyone that State/ACT is very strict about the nondisclosure agreement (NDA) from the test, and that any specific content of any questions should probably be edited out of posts to this thread. Most of it was sarcasm. I'm pretty sure I'm not violating anything in the NDA, but if anyone objects I'll edit it out.
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Oct 7, 2009 14:34
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Homie S posted:Any of you guys have suggestions on some reading to keep up on? I applied to the DS position, and as far as I can tell it's a lot like what the FSOT process is like, barring a few changes. I'm an international relations degree holder so this stuff seems manageable, but sad to say I work quite a bit and don't really follow a lot of world news. People have suggested Foreign Affairs, The Economist or things like that, although they cost money. Anyone recommend any free RSS feeds that I could look at? Thanks in advance. Newsweek and RealClearPolitics online; BBC World websites, etc. Read syndicated columns from major pundits, especially the foreign affairs ones - your local paper probably carries a bunch of these.
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Oct 8, 2009 22:15
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xanthig posted:
Thank god I wasn't the only one thinking that.
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Oct 9, 2009 17:56
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xanthig posted:Why turn this into a dick measuring contest? My point is, what constitutes hardship living overseas can vary greatly depending on one's experience prior to joining the state department. ProdigalSon's post accurately describes the perspective many expats living in Shitstania have of DoS employees. It may or may not be true to reality, but when your experience in Shitstania is making GBS threads in ditches, eating only local fare for months on end and maybe occasionally meeting another american once in a while, life behind the embassy wall looks cushy. Meh, it doesn't scare me off. My experience in Shitstania was making GBS threads in ditches, eating MREs for months on end, and getting shot at on a regular basis. Just having a bed would be an improvement from sleeping on the ground.
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Oct 10, 2009 19:37
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Business of Ferrets posted:I think the conventional wisdom these days is to do your best on the FSOT the first time and to view it as a practice exam/learning experience if you don't pass. So I think you're on to something. And you might be pleasantly surprised. It seemed really easy, like to the point of being tough to fail.
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Oct 22, 2009 18:28
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Defleshed posted:I agree, but I (and I believe you, too IIRC) approached it from the perspective of having taken countless exams in the preparation for and execution of law school. I could see it being a bit tougher if I hadn't been deeply entrenched in where commas belong for the past 4 years. Law school was good for something other than debt? Who knew?
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Oct 22, 2009 21:43
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CherryCola posted:Has anyone gotten their results from the test yet? It's exactly three weeks today and I'm getting really nervous. Do they only send a message if you've passed or will they send a "sorry you're terrible" message as well? Got mine today, I passed.
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Oct 28, 2009 22:09
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Anyone have advice for the personal narrative/QEP portion?
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Oct 29, 2009 00:00
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Business of Ferrets: Any advice on the PN? I could use all the help I can get moving forward from here.
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Oct 29, 2009 16:18
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Sooo someone tell me about QEP and my personal narrative.
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Oct 30, 2009 14:53
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Note: New thread title.
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Oct 30, 2009 23:51
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Vilerat posted:That's bullshit. Iraqistan jobs are purely volunteer at this point. Your first two tours are directed however, but they don't direct you to unaccompanied. Oh, good. Been once, wouldn't particularly fancy going again unless I had to.
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Nov 3, 2009 19:30
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If you ever get to go near the Turkish and Italian embassies (al-Mahgrib neighborhood, near the river), you'll be in the neighborhood I was stationed in during OIF I and II.
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Nov 9, 2009 17:56
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Vilerat posted:I'm pretty sure the answer is no. Best part is that section that they tanked me on? Completely subjective. There is an appeal you can do, but from all accounts it has never been successful.
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Nov 13, 2009 19:10
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Vilerat posted:Do you got a link for the process? From the FSOA mailing group: quote:I suspect an error may have occurred when my Foreign Service Officer Test was scored. Can I ask that my exam be scored again? I don't know if that's accurate, but for what it's worth.
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Nov 14, 2009 16:40
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So I answered my 5 PNQs and I'm super nervous about turning it in. There's a "Next" on the bottom of the page....is there more than just the 5 questions?
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Nov 14, 2009 16:41
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PNQ's submitted. I'm super nervous about this section, actually. I think I had good enough answers, but goddamn that 1200 character limitation is short. I hope that between the strength of my resume and the answers, it'll get me through. But now, I'm considering getting my scores for the FSOT to see how well I did.
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Nov 16, 2009 15:36
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Oh, dang... I was thinking maybe a month tops. Thanks for the heads-up! Including spaces and line breaks.
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Nov 16, 2009 19:08
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