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Homie S posted:Now there are 3 of us! Look at that! A wealth of resources for future DS Agents. Been in for a while, Homie S?
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Sep 15, 2012 21:14
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RSO looks interesting but I think Im still leaning towards FSO. That said, its certainly an option for me to take a look at. Whats the pay scale like? You guys should definitely put together a post to add to the OP.
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Sep 15, 2012 21:39
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vulturesrow posted:RSO looks interesting but I think Im still leaning towards FSO. That said, its certainly an option for me to take a look at. Whats the pay scale like? You guys should definitely put together a post to add to the OP. DS Agents get paid on the FSO pay scale (http://www.state.gov/m/dghr/pay/) just like all the other FSO's. The primary difference is we make overtime more easily and automatically make 25% more due to our Federal Law Enforcement status and the Congressionally Mandated LEAP system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_Enforcement_Availability_Pay). Basically, when you look at the job posting on USA jobs assume you will be making much more than the stated starting pay. Not a bad idea about adding something to the OP.....
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Sep 15, 2012 21:52
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vulturesrow posted:RSO looks interesting but I think Im still leaning towards FSO. That said, its certainly an option for me to take a look at. Whats the pay scale like? You guys should definitely put together a post to add to the OP. I've seen a lot of previous .mil go into RSO, Pol, or IMS.
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Sep 15, 2012 22:01
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Pol sounds like the closest fit, there are a lot of former military. It's a good fit because it has the Pol-Mil portfolio.
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Sep 15, 2012 22:08
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vulturesrow posted:The main question I have right now is how far in advance should I start the application process considering I'd only like to take a few months off before I jump into my next job. I'd like to ask this question as well...similar situation, military officer but I have several more years until I'd hit 20, although I'm not necessarily opposed to punching before 20 either depending on my situation. Actually my decision point very well might be whether or not I get picked up for RAS in 4-5 years (my branch's version of a foreign area officer) because pol-mil is something I am particularly interested in (so I'm fairly certain I'd go the pol route if I start the FSO application process). Anyway, just curious what the general timeline is...I know it's going to depend but just wondering if we're talking a 6-12ish month process or like a 2-3ish years long process.
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Sep 15, 2012 22:30
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Bruxism posted:Look at that! A wealth of resources for future DS Agents. 1st tour hump agent. I think theres another first tour guy around as well.
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Sep 15, 2012 22:42
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Homie S posted:1st tour hump agent. I think theres another first tour guy around as well. Same here. In the middle of finishing up a TDY and sifting through the bid list at the moment. Small world.
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Sep 15, 2012 22:47
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iyaayas01 posted:I'd like to ask this question as well...similar situation, military officer but I have several more years until I'd hit 20, although I'm not necessarily opposed to punching before 20 either depending on my situation. Actually my decision point very well might be whether or not I get picked up for RAS in 4-5 years (my branch's version of a foreign area officer) because pol-mil is something I am particularly interested in (so I'm fairly certain I'd go the pol route if I start the FSO application process). Anyway, just curious what the general timeline is...I know it's going to depend but just wondering if we're talking a 6-12ish month process or like a 2-3ish years long process. Register for test, take it, pass the qep, pass the OA. My friend did that from Oct-May. After that it's clearances and waiting for the register. Generally speaking, I'd estimate 10 months IF you pass everything on your first shot. I'd probably start a 18-24 months out, and if you pass everything on the first go, you can put your candidacy on hold. That still gives you a chance to retake the FSOT 1 year out if you don't make it the first go around. You can only take the FSOT once a year. TCD fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Sep 15, 2012 |
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Sep 15, 2012 23:44
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TCD posted:Register for test, take it, pass the qep, pass the OA. My friend did that from Oct-May. After that it's clearances and waiting for the register. Generally speaking, I'd estimate 10 months IF you pass everything on your first shot. I'd probably start a 18-24 months out, and if you pass everything on the first go, you can put your candidacy on hold. That still gives you a chance to retake the FSOT 1 year out if you don't make it the first go around. You can only take the FSOT once a year. How long can you do that for? Thanks for the answer too.
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Sep 15, 2012 23:58
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TCD posted:I've seen a lot of previous .mil go into RSO, Pol, or IMS. I've seen most of the prior .mil officers go management cone. My old MGT Officer was a retired Colonel, and two of our MGT cone people at post attended the Naval academy. It makes sense when you think about it. A captain in the army is commanding a company of around 100 people most of the time.
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Sep 16, 2012 01:59
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ATI Jesus posted:I've seen most of the prior .mil officers go management cone. My old MGT Officer was a retired Colonel, and two of our MGT cone people at post attended the Naval academy. Yeah, you're right, I know a few MGT cone retired officers as well.
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Sep 16, 2012 02:07
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ATI Jesus posted:I've seen most of the prior .mil officers go management cone. My old MGT Officer was a retired Colonel, and two of our MGT cone people at post attended the Naval academy. My alma mater as well. 
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Sep 16, 2012 02:07
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So here's my first question having applied for the FSOT for the second time. When I applied the first time around, I hadn't gotten my graduate degree and had zero real job experience. Now I'm about a year and a half into a career at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and actually have a decent amount of training and actual leadership experience. How much of an advantage can I expect to have with federal employment experience?
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Sep 16, 2012 02:15
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vulturesrow posted:How long can you do that for? Thanks for the answer too. It looks like active duty military can defer for up to two years, so if you can time it for that, you should be good. This is especially helpful in that it also allows for one or two additional application and testing cycles in the event you wish to try to raise your score.
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Sep 16, 2012 03:02
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CherryCola posted:So here's my first question having applied for the FSOT for the second time. When I applied the first time around, I hadn't gotten my graduate degree and had zero real job experience. Besides possibly helping with the bio section of the FSOT, it is hard to say how your work experience would affect the QEP part, since it is very opaque and, as I understand it, changes its criteria to reflect current recruitment targets. That said, in general, more professional experience is better than less.
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Sep 16, 2012 03:11
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at least half the 125th had mil background. I think of 9 new IMS, 4 were military. 1 army, 2 marines, 1 navy (not sure if he was actual or a contractor, he's a quiet guy). Really, depends on your MOS, which is more best suited to the skillset, apparently. CherryCola, good to see you again. Never give up. If I got in, I believe you can get in  Bruxism, we have a seperate google groups - you should join so you can get everyone's contact info. what specialty in DS are you? (alternatively, hit me on opennet to tell me)
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Sep 16, 2012 04:34
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I've seen plenty of mention about .mil Os making their way into the FS as generalist and specialist. However, I'm a little worried that my status as a lowly enlisted will be a severe speed bump to any FS aspirations of mine  I'm one of those enormous dummies that enlisted with a degree, and I'm concerned that enlisted experience is not looked on as highly as Officer experience unless I happen to be a special operator with crazy high speed experience. Have any of you FSgoons come across a significant former enlisted population in your ranks? I'm particularly interested in DSS and their noble-to-enlisted former military ratio.
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Sep 16, 2012 04:47
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Salah-al-diin posted:I've seen plenty of mention about .mil Os making their way into the FS as generalist and specialist. However, I'm a little worried that my status as a lowly enlisted will be a severe speed bump to any FS aspirations of mine One of my best friends is an FSO and enlisted in the army after his first year in college (which I still believe was to piss off his mom). He got is degree after a few tours of Iraq and got hired pretty quick (first try). He had been a sgt before leaving. (Though he speaks some Turkish and maybe a little Arabic, which probably helped). Pol cone, I think. Note that the mil bump is in the 5 or 10 point bump you get (my friend is also "disabled" which helps) as well as experiences that you can write and talk about. I'm not of the sense that they care that you were an lt or a private. -- I've kind of decided to take a few years off before reapplying. I needed some leadership stuff and real world experience. (Which you .mil guys get.) nm fucked around with this message at 04:54 on Sep 16, 2012 |
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Sep 16, 2012 04:52
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Bruxism posted:...and so much more! I am a DS Agent currently serving at a difficult post. That's pretty cool and I've been trying to get into that. How many recruits have you met that weren't from either a military or law enforcement background? CherryCola posted:So here's my first question having applied for the FSOT for the second time. When I applied the first time around, I hadn't gotten my graduate degree and had zero real job experience. Hey I know you came here asking for some advice to but think I could PM you about your experiences there? Just started my Master's and apparently I will have the opportunity to work with GIS here.
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Sep 16, 2012 05:26
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Gravel Gravy posted:That's pretty cool and I've been trying to get into that. How many recruits have you met that weren't from either a military or law enforcement background? Gravel Gravy: I would say about thirty percent of my class (of 24 people) had no military/police background. All you need is a college degree and the savvy to make it through the BEX panel (our version of the oral exam). In fact, we had one dude that was straight out of undergrad; never even had a job before. There are some advantages to having military/police background, but I would say it is definitely not essential. Salah-al-diin: I know a TON of former-enlisted in both generalist and specialist positions. I was enlisted myself back in the day. Of the other veterans I run into in DS, I would say at least half of them were enlisted. I would be happy to answer any other questions you have about the DoD-DoS transition.
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Sep 16, 2012 09:14
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Salah-al-diin posted:I've seen plenty of mention about .mil Os making their way into the FS as generalist and specialist. However, I'm a little worried that my status as a lowly enlisted will be a severe speed bump to any FS aspirations of mine Hey, we let in Diplomaticus. . . .
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Sep 16, 2012 09:43
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Salah-al-diin posted:I've seen plenty of mention about .mil Os making their way into the FS as generalist and specialist. However, I'm a little worried that my status as a lowly enlisted will be a severe speed bump to any FS aspirations of mine There were three enlisted in my class, including me.
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Sep 16, 2012 13:51
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So is anyone taking the test in October? When I sent in my application it told me that acceptance letters would start going out in August...but it's already September. I'm wondering if that means I could still potentially get in for October or what. Also, it looks like for every year of job experience after my M.A., my pay goes up one step, but if they're going to try to match my current salary I should end up somewhere neat the top of Class 5. So at least job experience helps in that regard! I honestly feel like I'm in a much better position this time around. I love my current job, so if I have to reapply a few times it's not like I'll be too depressed.
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Sep 16, 2012 14:45
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Salah-al-diin posted:I've seen plenty of mention about .mil Os making their way into the FS as generalist and specialist. However, I'm a little worried that my status as a lowly enlisted will be a severe speed bump to any FS aspirations of mine Yeah, I can add to this, I know several FSO types who were enlisted. I'm not sure that state really cares about the whole officer vs enlisted thing very much. Kind of like where exactly one went to school doesn't seem to make a ton of difference.
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Sep 16, 2012 15:22
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At least 4 / 9 recent IMS were ex-military, and in the DS class, I spoke with 3 that weren't. One was out of college as a CJ major, one worked for immigration prior. The third one I forget, sadly.
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Sep 16, 2012 15:35
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Salah-al-diin posted:I've seen plenty of mention about .mil Os making their way into the FS as generalist and specialist. However, I'm a little worried that my status as a lowly enlisted will be a severe speed bump to any FS aspirations of mine Whether you get a conditional offer from DSS is based 100% on your performance when you do the BEX. Maybe an officer has an easier time thinking of an answer to a question about his experience say, managing a group of people. But if you can be creative and pull experience from somewhere and answer the question confidently and intelligently, you can get just as much credit, even if you were just leading a small group on a short assignment rather than regularly leading an entire company. These kind of interviews are all about creativity. You need to go through your background and go through sample behavioral interview questions and have some sort of answer for everything that might come up. I ended up talking about silly school clubs and rec sports leagues in some of my answers. It's not always easy to explain, but after you do a few interviews in this style (Fed Law Enforcement loves these things), you'll see what kind of questions and experience they're likely to ask about so you can comb through your background looking for things. Officer/enlisted experience will also have nothing to do with the written portions of the BEX. You have 4 sections, two of which are written.
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Sep 16, 2012 18:44
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I don't know how many civil servants post in this thread, but if anyone is ever curious about doing State Department work in DC I'd be happy to answer as best as I can.
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Sep 17, 2012 04:17
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Crossposting, SA Donation link for Vilerat's family. http://www.youcaring.com/fundraiser_details?url=benefitforseansmithsfamily&fundraiser_id=9332 Thread is here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3507338 o7
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Sep 17, 2012 04:45
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Giodo! posted:I don't know how many civil servants post in this thread, but if anyone is ever curious about doing State Department work in DC I'd be happy to answer as best as I can. Yes! I had been asking questions about that earlier but there were no CS folks, only FS, and the general US Gov't jobs megathread wasn't really helpful. What do you do? How did you get into it and for how long have you been with State? I'm applying to grad schools this year for entry in Fall 2013 for a degree in either Int'l Relations or Int'l Security, and DoS is one of my top choices for employers after. Do you/most of your coworkers have a master's? What's hiring like? Feel free to answer any or none of those questions, it's just an area about which I'm very curious to hear from people on the inside.
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Sep 17, 2012 04:46
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My job is technically called a Foreign Affairs Officer, although the job description for that title is very broad and could fit in just about anything. I work for INL, the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, developing and managing programs as part of our rule of law support for Afghanistan. It's kind of a weird job within State and not really similar to what many other people do in the Department. I love it. I really thought that I wanted to work in the intelligence community as an analyst when I entered grad school, but I'm very happy that life sent me in this direction. I'm a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) and have worked at State for a little over a year. After making it through the PMF selection process, I sent my resume and cover letter to the PMF coordinator at State and asked her to send it on to my current office in INL. I was lucky enough to get an interview and to really hit it off with the folks from my office. My academic and work experience were very good, but only tangentially related to my current job. Fortunately, they weren't really looking for someone who was already an expert on the Afghan prison system. I do not speak Dari or Pashto. Almost all of my coworkers have a Master's or a JD. Many are PMFs. If you want to work at the State Department as a civil servant Foreign Affairs Officer, be a PMF, intern, or do one of the other pathways programs. I'm sure that there are folks out there who have joined State through other means, but almost all of the young people I meet are coming through one of those programs. A final note on civil service versus foreign service - I love the idea of the Foreign Service, and I have tremendous respect for my colleagues who serve overseas. I did a rotation as a Pol/Econ officer this summer at an overseas post and loved the experience. But I know that I don't want that lifestyle. I don't want to move every few years, and I love living in DC, which is my hometown. My girlfriend does not have a career that would let her follow me around the world. Being in the civil service is a tremendous way to be involved in U.S. foreign policy without having to handle what would be, for me, the serious downsides of being in the foreign service. However, the Department of State is dominated by the Foreign Service, and career advancement can be tricky as a civil servant. There is that to think about. Giodo! fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Sep 17, 2012 |
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Sep 17, 2012 05:49
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I also want to share my condolences with the FSOs here. It's a small community, and the loss of your fellow officers is devastating. I didn't know Vilerat beyond his posts in TFF, and I only met Ambassador Stevens briefly at an FSI class, but they both seemed like class acts. Stay safe out there.
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Sep 17, 2012 06:08
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Vilerats contributions to this thread will be missed. I had been going through post from earlier this year and found one where he was letting people know about job openings at the FS. It was an IMTS-T vacancy that I applied for and was notified about this past week. Bittersweet to say the least. RIP Vilerat.
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Sep 17, 2012 07:13
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drat, I forgot about this thread and stopped following it once I started my orientation and training back in July. Vilerat was an awesome guy, and the information he gave here was incredibly useful. I flew in goonswarm for awhile as well, and he was always awesome in game. Huge tragedy, RIP. I guess I should update the general information pool. I'm yet another IMS, and will be going to Warsaw for my first post.
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Sep 17, 2012 13:02
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Alright! It's on. I just got notification that I've been approved for the FSOT, so I'm taking it on October 6th. Time to cram!
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Sep 17, 2012 15:40
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CherryCola posted:Alright! It's on. I just got notification that I've been approved for the FSOT, so I'm taking it on October 6th. Time to cram! I'm taking it October 2nd in Fort Worth -- good luck!
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Sep 17, 2012 17:47
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Hi! I just wanted to introduce myself. I've been lurking for some time. I'm getting ready to apply for the current IMS opening that closes this week. This will be my second time applying (technically third, but my last time got rejected since I hadn't waited a year). Anyway, I've been busting my hump working on my essays, proofreading, rereading etc and hopefully I've got all my bases covered. Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself.
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Sep 17, 2012 17:50
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I just got the results of my QEP, and although I passed I've decided to not go further on that candidacy since I signed up as PD and have decided that I would really prefer to go consular. My security clearances for OMS are still pending and I haven't heard anything for the IRO position. Who knows, if I go in as OMS I might decided that having actually seen FS work in action I wouldn't want to go consular either. If I Mustang it, I don't have to do the QEP bit again right? I'm gonna save my answers anyway just in case. Now watch if I reuse the exact same answers I probably won't pass QEP next time.
Miscreant Fromage fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Sep 17, 2012 |
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Sep 17, 2012 17:51
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d1rtbag posted:I'm taking it October 2nd in Fort Worth -- good luck! Good luck to the both of you! (and any other posters/lurkers here)
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Sep 17, 2012 17:53
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Didn't get past the QEP  Hopefully I'll have better luck next year.
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Sep 17, 2012 18:17
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