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I got past that after about 30 mins of trying on and off to get the site to load. After putting my name and address in and setting up an account name/password, I tried to hit "launch" to start the application. I got an error message saying the site was down for maintenance. 20 mins later I receive an email stating: "Dear FSOT applicant, Thank you for your interest in the U.S. Foreign Service. Your registration application has been successfully submitted. You will receive a separate email when scheduling begins for the October 2009 test window that will provide instructions on scheduling a test appointment. Scheduling begins approximately 5-6 weeks before the test window opens." So now I'm REALLY confused haha. Do they make it this hard intentionally? I just sent an email to the ACT people hoping they can figure out whats going on... when I try to go back to the act.org/fsot Site there's no place to even log in so how the heck am I supposed to get back to where I started?
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Jul 31, 2009 06:45
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I just wanted to chime in, since I'm (attempting) to register for the test now. I'm getting the exact same thing as you, Grr8, and I'm just as mystified. I'm just gonna try again in the morning.
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Jul 31, 2009 08:01
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xanthig posted:Could you be more specific? Sure but I'm not sure which part you want to know about. What can I elaborate about?
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Jul 31, 2009 13:51
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I'm going to be a sophomore in the fall. I'm majoring in Poli Sci and I'm in Army ROTC. I've been looking into being a psychological operations officer in the army. I really like Foreign Affairs and becoming a psychological operations officer provides a wide variety of jobs both in the army and after I'm out. After doing that or while doing it if I chose to be reserves, I was thinking about working for the Department of State in the foreign service or for the CIA in the analyst field. I'm at the point where I should start considering what to do after I complete my undergraduate because I need to start taking law classes. Currently I'm torn between going to law school or going to graduate school for something related to foreign affairs. My family is pushing for law school saying that I could always fall back on practicing law later in life and having a law degree will make me more competitive when I try to work for the State, Defense, or CIA. Also going to law school will allow me to decide if I really want to be a lawyer or work for the gov in foreign affairs. But I'm worried that getting a law degree just to get one is a complete waste of time even if the army will help pay for it. Can anyone give me advice? Will getting a law degree really help me be more competitive in the job market? Would going to grad school do the exact same thing and might even be better because I will have a degree in my job field?
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Jul 31, 2009 16:40
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I completed the entire registration form without problems, but I also got confirmation of receipt before I'd even finished registering. Subsequently got no e-mails after full completion.
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Jul 31, 2009 17:27
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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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yoslow posted:I'm going to be a sophomore in the fall. I'm majoring in Poli Sci and I'm in Army ROTC. I've been looking into being a psychological operations officer in the army. I really like Foreign Affairs and becoming a psychological operations officer provides a wide variety of jobs both in the army and after I'm out. After doing that or while doing it if I chose to be reserves, I was thinking about working for the Department of State in the foreign service or for the CIA in the analyst field. I'm at the point where I should start considering what to do after I complete my undergraduate because I need to start taking law classes. I was where you were at 6+ years ago when I was back in college. Getting a law degree won't make you more competitive. You sometimes see people with JD's who hold cool senior foreign policy jobs - these were gained through political connections and not anything derived intrinsically from a JD. PsyOps is generally not available for lieutenants and is something that you will have to branch into once you are a branch-qualified captain. In English this means that going into the psyops career field will happen in your 6-8 year mark IIRC. It might have changed now, but if so you would have to wait until you were a senior 1LT. Doesn't take that long to happen - however the key point is that you won't get branched as a psy-ops officer straight out of ROTC and will have to be in another branch afterward. If you want good experience that will make you competitive afterward you should look at being a military intelligence officer or an infantry officer. You should also angle to get put at the BN level if your intel, and get a platoon if you are infantry. Both will get you a lot of experience that will be useful to a later career. Truthfully you'll probably get more mileage with the national intel agencies if you have a MI background, even though an infantry officer will also bring with him a wealth of useful knowledge. I'm not tracking why you need to pick a grad school now. If you are doing ROTC that will funnel you straight into the Army upon graduation. edit: holy poo poo, law school is not the place to figure out if you want to be a lawyer or not. Law school is not a catch-all universal degree. It is not the graduate equivalent of an undergraduate liberal arts major. Law school is first and foremost a trade school. If you do not want to work in the trade than you should not go to it. If you want to give yourself maximum flexibility and options upon graduation here is what you need to do. Learn a useful foreign language (Mandarin, Arabic, Farsi, French (for Africa), Korean, Russian, etc). Take a hefty dose of rigorous quantitative economics and statistics classes, try to obtain the highest possible security clearance from the Army, if possible spend a summer abroad at a relevant country (i.e. don't just go to western Europe to get drunk). If you still have time and want to also keep academia open as a possibility than do a senior thesis or get published someplace. If you want a career in foreign affairs those steps are probably the best thing you can do as an undergraduate to set yourself apart and give you maximum flexibility. The key is the rigorous econ/stat and the foreign language. Taking yet another class on generic international relations, or international law III, or human rights II, or whatever follow-on specialized IR course, is going to yield diminishing returns in comparison to developing your quantitative or foreign language skills quote:Perhaps a reach, but does anyone here work for USAID? I passed the FSOT and I'm waiting to hear back if I'll be going to the Orals, but in all honesty, I'm much more interested in the work that USAID does. I applied for a Crisis, Stabilization and Governance Officer job (junior) back in March, received an e-mail saying my qualifications were a match, and since then, nothing. I called USAID's HR and got a recorded message saying I *might* get a call for an interview within 2-8 months. haven't worked at USAID however I've worked on the periphery of some of what they do. A big complaint with USAID right now is that they were completely gutted during the 90's. A lot of what USAID does now is contract management. Figure out a bunch of projects to do, write a contract and put it out for bidding, finally perform quality checks on the contractor to make sure he completes everything in accordance with the scope of work. Again, I can't speak first hand, however this is an oft-cited complaint about USAID right now. Happydayz fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Jul 31, 2009 |
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Jul 31, 2009 22:48
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Happydayz posted:If you want to give yourself maximum flexibility and options upon graduation here is what you need to do. Learn a useful foreign language (Mandarin, Arabic, Farsi, French (for Africa), Korean, Russian, etc). Take a hefty dose of rigorous quantitative economics and statistics classes, try to obtain the highest possible security clearance from the Army, if possible spend a summer abroad at a relevant country (i.e. don't just go to western Europe to get drunk). If you still have time and want to also keep academia open as a possibility than do a senior thesis or get published someplace. If you want a career in foreign affairs those steps are probably the best thing you can do as an undergraduate to set yourself apart and give you maximum flexibility. The key is the rigorous econ/stat and the foreign language. Taking yet another class on generic international relations, or international law III, or human rights II, or whatever follow-on specialized IR course, is going to yield diminishing returns in comparison to developing your quantitative or foreign language skills Or even in the private sector, for that matter.
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Aug 1, 2009 00:26
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Grr8 posted:I got past that after about 30 mins of trying on and off to get the site to load. After putting my name and address in and setting up an account name/password, I tried to hit "launch" to start the application. I got an error message saying the site was down for maintenance. Smeef posted:I completed the entire registration form without problems, but I also got confirmation of receipt before I'd even finished registering. Subsequently got no e-mails after full completion.
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Aug 1, 2009 00:30
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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:This sounds like wonderful practice for dealing with pretty much anything personnel or travel related at State. Hahaha that's for sure.
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Aug 1, 2009 02:26
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Business of Ferrets posted:This sounds like wonderful practice for dealing with pretty much anything personnel or travel related at State. That's what my Dad said too haha... =\ Anyways, application is in. Wahoo! Went Economic. Grr8 fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Aug 1, 2009 |
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Aug 1, 2009 02:52
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Happydayz posted:
If I get into grad school the army will help pay for it and the time I have to give back doesn't start until I finish. Edit: Is it possible to work for the Foreign Service, NSA, or CIA while I'm in the Army Reserves? yoslow fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Aug 2, 2009 |
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Aug 2, 2009 03:46
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yoslow posted:If I get into grad school the army will help pay for it and the time I have to give back doesn't start until I finish. there are some positions that will require you to resign your reserve commission. Foreign service definitely. A national level intel agency - generally not. Also, I'd be hesitant to roll into grad school straight out of undergrad on the Army's dime. That will likely come with a large price tag with respect to time owed to Uncle Sam. At this point you don't even know if you like Army life. And here's a hint - ROTC does not equal Army life.
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Aug 2, 2009 15:22
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Happydayz posted:there are some positions that will require you to resign your reserve commission. Foreign service definitely. A national level intel agency - generally not. quote:# Is it possible for members of the Foreign Service to also be in the Reserves or National Guard?
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Aug 2, 2009 15:52
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that is incredibly surprising. I'm not sure how you could meet your reserve commitments while in the foreign service. It's especially interesting because given that the reserves may require a mobilization which would obviously put the hamper on your FSO job. There are certain jobs that are labeled "emergency essential" and require someone to get out of the reserves if they take these civilian positions. Basic definition of emergency essential is a civilian position that must be filled under a state of mobilization/war-time. In other words you are doing a job as a civilian that if we are in WWII would take precedence over a reserve mobilization - and therefore you cannot stay in the reserves. Looks like I was wrong with the FS and the reserves - oops.
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Aug 2, 2009 18:45
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I just wanted to say that I am glad you guys made this thread. I am graduating with an MLIS and MA in history this month and am seriously considering the foreign service, particularly after spending a little time working in Germany in July. My biggest thing right now is to figure out how well it would all mesh as a life with my SO since she has 2 years of school left.
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Aug 3, 2009 01:22
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nesbit37 posted:I just wanted to say that I am glad you guys made this thread. I am graduating with an MLIS and MA in history this month and am seriously considering the foreign service, particularly after spending a little time working in Germany in July. My biggest thing right now is to figure out how well it would all mesh as a life with my SO since she has 2 years of school left. If you're straight, I don't think you can do the domestic partner thing like State is now doing for same sex couples, and I wouldn't want the SO to just me a member of household. You want them to be an Eligible Family Member. Anyways, if you go the Officer route, guess around a year to get in if you make it through all the hurdles (the FSOT, QEP, orals, med and sec clearance and final review board (think generalists still have this)) and then you hit training hard with A100 and then language and post training until you ship out. If I had to do it over again, I'd want my spouse to be here.
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Aug 3, 2009 02:51
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Of my FSO colleagues who are reservists, they are often able to do their weekend drill in the local Defense Attache's Office (DAO). For annual training, one friend serving in Europe spent his two weeks in London, while another serving in Asia did two weeks in Hawaii at PACCOM. Keep in mind that being in the reserves while an FSO could have substantial economic consequences. Most of the reservists I know have been called to active duty in Iraq or Afghanistan while at State.* During that time you are paid by your military rank, so if you are pulling down six figures as an FSO and get called up as a sergeant, there could be some economic stress involved. As was mentioned before, you get something like two or three weeks of "Military Leave" time each year, so you maintain your State pay for the duration of that. * This is not necessarily to say that most or all wind up being activated, just the ones I know of.
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Aug 3, 2009 02:57
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Yeah, I was thinking officer. The political track interests me. We aren't married presently, but if a career or life event came up that marriage would be beneficial for then neither of is opposed to a quick and dirty court room wedding. Living and working abroad, particularly in Africa, is a life goal for both of us, its just a pain that our schooling is out of sync. I have some time yet. I am just looking into this now because, like you said, its not like I would get into the service within a month. I'm still hoping a good archivist position that agrees with me opens up, but I really want to work overseas as well. Will just have to see how everything works out. I am at one of those rare points in life where I could take one of about a dozen personally desirable paths that could drastically shape my future; and, aside from my SO, I have nothing tying me anywhere or to any one thing.
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Aug 3, 2009 03:02
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An interesting aside I learned Friday. The cone you apply for MATTERS. If you sign up for Pol officer and don't make the cut (higher than most) but have a score that could get in one of the less desirable cones they won't just move you down. You could have scored high enough to be a consular officer but since you chose pol officer and barely missed it they just fail you. Just keep this in mind.
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Aug 3, 2009 03:04
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How do couples in the foreign service handle pregnancy? Pregnant FSOs? Pregnant Spouses? Infants?
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Aug 3, 2009 03:16
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Vilerat posted:An interesting aside I learned Friday. The cone you apply for MATTERS. If you sign up for Pol officer and don't make the cut (higher than most) but have a score that could get in one of the less desirable cones they won't just move you down. You could have scored high enough to be a consular officer but since you chose pol officer and barely missed it they just fail you. Just keep this in mind. They make this abundantly clear during the testing process. From what I can gather the length of the register differs greatly between tracks, such that there is almost a 1.5:1 ratio of applicants to openings for consular and management, while other tracks are more like 3:1. My suspicion is that this is also why they make it very clear that switching tracks is nigh impossible; to keep down the number of people who have political as their ultimate goal, but chose consular to get their foot in the door. If you take the short "which track is best for me?" quiz on the website, the historical demand for each track is displayed. here's a link http://careers.state.gov/officer/career-track.html xanthig fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Aug 3, 2009 |
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Aug 3, 2009 03:22
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xanthig posted:How do couples in the foreign service handle pregnancy? Pregnant FSOs? Pregnant Spouses? Infants? Depends on the country. I was in a class that had a pregnant FSO be medivaced(not an emergency), just a flight out of the country to here for better care and support. She's in classes here in DC until she delivers the baby, and then 6 weeks after that, she's headed back to the country with the baby. Her husband is also a FSO, and is presently still in country.
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Aug 3, 2009 03:43
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xanthig posted:They make this abundantly clear during the testing process. From what I can gather the length of the register differs greatly between tracks such that there is almost a 1:1 ratio of applicants to openings for consular and management while other tracks are more like 2 or 3:1. My suspicion is that this is also why they make it very clear that switching tracks is nigh impossible; to keep down the number of people who have political as their ultimate goal, but chose consular to get their foot in the door. Nice thing about converting as a specialist.. we just need to get a passing oral exam score and we bypass the register.
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Aug 3, 2009 03:44
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xanthig posted:How do couples in the foreign service handle pregnancy? Pregnant FSOs? Pregnant Spouses? Infants? If you are Stateside, you handle everything through your normal insurance provider. Overseas, there are several options. Some people choose to deliver at post. Naturally, this usually only happens in countries with excellent medical care. I would estimate that most decide to be "medevaced" to a location in the United States or (more rarely) another country. The latter tends to be the case when one has family, friends or some other pre-existing support structure in a third country (such as when a spouse is a foreign national). The medical evacuation usually takes place six weeks before the due date. The pregnant woman and accompanying dependents will receive per diem for up to 12 weeks (usually from six weeks before until six weeks after delivery). FSOs may take Annual Leave (vacation days), Sick Leave (with some limitations) or Leave Without Pay (LWOP). I'm no expert on this, and the regulations are reasonably involved, so I'll stop there. Suffice to say that you are taken care of pretty well when you have a baby in the Foreign Service.
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Aug 3, 2009 03:54
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TCD posted:Nice thing about converting as a specialist.. we just need to get a passing oral exam score and we bypass the register. Hey thinking of converting to MGMT from IT. Send me an email if there's an easy way because I'm signing up for that silly test as it is. -edit- Also one of the recruiters for IT jobs is a goon and is likely reading this thread and should chime in instead of being a big lazy butt. Not going to call him out but here I am calling him out.
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Aug 3, 2009 03:55
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Sure vile, I'll send an email tomorrow, but I think the program I'm thinking of is between FS4-FS6. I'm guessing you're higher than a 4. Edit: Vile I'm 90% sure I'm either going to try and do this program or just enter the process like everybody else for PD or Pol, I want to see what it's like once I'm at post though... under 2 months now. Also for the OP, there's at least 3 specialists posting in this thread. TCD fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Aug 3, 2009 |
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Aug 3, 2009 04:09
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Vilerat posted:An interesting aside I learned Friday. The cone you apply for MATTERS. If you sign up for Pol officer and don't make the cut (higher than most) but have a score that could get in one of the less desirable cones they won't just move you down. You could have scored high enough to be a consular officer but since you chose pol officer and barely missed it they just fail you. Just keep this in mind. Is it inadvisable to choose one of the less popular cones in the hopes of changing it later? I've read about people changing cones and picking at the low hanging fruit seems more ideal. Especially because I assume they're flush with applicants due to the situation with the economy. Also, if you do change cones, are you sent to the bottom of the hierarchy and have to work your way up again?
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Aug 3, 2009 10:11
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Cointelprofessional posted:Is it inadvisable to choose one of the less popular cones in the hopes of changing it later? I've read about people changing cones and picking at the low hanging fruit seems more ideal. Especially because I assume they're flush with applicants due to the situation with the economy. Please, please, please don't assume you will be able to change your cone after you enter on duty with the Foreign Service! (I really need to figure out how to use Sparklee.) To change cones there first needs to be a deficit in the target cone. If there is no deficit at your grade (you usually apply for a switch to your current grade), you basically will not have a chance to change. You will also need to have worked in the target cone for 30 months during the previous six years. But that is just the minimum -- you also have to convince a board to recommend you for a change, and they generally prefer to see 40-50 months of experience, at a number of different posts or jobs. I know one guy who took 16 years to switch from a low-demand career track to a high-demand one. And all that time you spend doing work in the target cone will count against you every time you come up for promotion in your original cone, since you are competing against others in your cone who have been demonstrating excellence in your track. So, there are no guarantees that you will even have a chance to switch, and you put yourself at a marked disadvantage for promotion while doing the work necessary to meet even the minimum requirements. Choose the cone that is the best fit for you, not that is easiest to get in with! From a practical standpoint, it would be disappointing to choose track B just because you thought track A was too competitive, only to earn a high score at the FSOA that would guarantee you entry into any cone. Now, if you are totally split between two cones there is no problem applying for the easier one, as long as you are comfortable with the idea of spending 70-80% of your career in that track. There are plenty of opportunities to work outside your career track from time to time, but actually effecting a cone change is exceedingly difficult.
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Aug 3, 2009 12:37
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I was playing around on the Foreign Service website this morning and came across the Information Resource Officer specialist position. This looks like it would be a great fit for me considering my the past couple years of education and work. Problem is, to qualify it looks like I would need to go work in a library or other information science position for at least 2 to 4 more years before I meet the minimum requirements. My question for those of you who are currently in the FS, do you think it would be worth it to try and wait a few years until I am qualified for such a specialist position, see if I am still interested, and then apply? Or should I just shoot for a generalist position now? Keep in mind library jobs, particularly my specialty in archives, are not exactly common. I know the work will be different, but applying for a generalist position when there is a specialist one that fits my educational background feels like somewhat of a waste. That and I worry if I do not try to join the FS now other events will come up in the next 2-4 years that will make it much more difficult if not impossible.
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Aug 3, 2009 14:14
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nesbit37 posted:I was playing around on the Foreign Service website this morning and came across the Information Resource Officer specialist position. This looks like it would be a great fit for me considering my the past couple years of education and work. Problem is, to qualify it looks like I would need to go work in a library or other information science position for at least 2 to 4 more years before I meet the minimum requirements.
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Aug 3, 2009 22:24
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The thing about IROs that you might want to weigh is that they only get posted to a small handful of posts. They do travel around though, but you'll only to get to live in a few places. There are only about 30 currently and I'm not sure how often they accept applications. You could go from being an officer to and IRO or you could do an excursion tour but I wouldn't go into it counting on doing that.
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Aug 3, 2009 22:46
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This is for the USAID Foreign Service Officer positions. For context, I applied for this back in motherfucking March.quote:Dear Applicant, Your tax dollars at work. 
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Aug 4, 2009 05:42
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For the economic track, do they look specifically for applicants with economics background? I've currently got a BA, but I'm working on an MA in economics and considering my options for when I get out.
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Aug 4, 2009 06:14
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suboptimal posted:This is for the USAID Foreign Service Officer positions. For context, I applied for this back in motherfucking March. Up until very recently USAID was seconds from being absorbed into State. I believe they've backed off on eating them like they did USIA but it was close.
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Aug 4, 2009 11:23
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Azars posted:For the economic track, do they look specifically for applicants with economics background? I've currently got a BA, but I'm working on an MA in economics and considering my options for when I get out. A solid economics background will probably help you, but there are plenty of Econ officers who didn't major in economics. This shortcoming is mitigated in two ways: first, the majority of overseas economic positions don't involve economic analysis -- the officers are really like journalists focusing on political economy, and thus spend their time interviewing knowledgeable experts about a wide variety of economic issues (in this their job is similar to political officers); second, State gives a "mid-career econ course," which is a six-month full-time course of study at the Foreign Service Institute touted as providing the equivalent of a top-quality masters-level education in economics. Most of the serious economic analysis takes place at the Department in Washington, D.C.
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Aug 4, 2009 14:26
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Thanks again for the advice. I didn't realize there were only about 30 IROs presently, that makes the decision easier. I think I'll just go ahead and start the application process for a political generalist and hope it all goes through well.
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Aug 4, 2009 18:02
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Hey so this thread has really got me interested in being an FSO. I've been doing research and managed to find a torrent for a Test Prep book. I wouldn't be able to apply for a couple of years but I had some questions if somebody wouldn't mind answering. I'm about to move to Korea to teach English and I plan on learning Korean while there. I'm a linguistics major and one of my hobbies is learning languages. Will this experience plus language ability help make me more competitive? Second question, if I've read this thread correctly, there is a higher standard for more competitive cones. Could someone clarify what that means? I'd be interested in either the political or consular cone. Do you need to do better on the test, ie score wise, to pass for the political cone vs the consular cone? Do they expect a person to be different personality wise for the political cone vs the consular? Can anyone shed some light on how exactly they evaluate who makes the cut? Thanks! cernunnoswired fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Aug 4, 2009 |
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Aug 4, 2009 18:03
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cernunnoswired posted:
It was explained to me like this: Lets say you score a 5.7 on the test and you are going for a Political officer position. The cutoff (numbers out my rear end on this one) was 5.8 in this cycle since it was so competative so you don't get accepted. Somebody could have gone in trying to get a Management position, scored a 5.4 and the cutoff was 5.3 for Management and would be given an offer of employment even though you scored better. It's not that Political officer is more difficult or anything, it's just that there are more people joining trying to be the next great political guru than there are people trying to join to manage the day to day operations of an embassy.
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Aug 4, 2009 18:24
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