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problematique posted:I must be naive but the 15-25% equity posts sound great to me, good mix of being out of your comfort zone yet in interesting places you might never otherwise experience and accessible enough not to sound like terrible places to live/visit. Some of the zero equity posts sound like a straight bore. This is all from a personal viewpoint, professionally its a different calculation. Not having kids helps too. Again, it's just different both inside and outside of work.
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May 16, 2014 20:59
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the_chavi posted:^^ This is excellent. I have a bit of working abroad experience. By far the most rewarding jobs was in some far off desert town that had water four hours a day. That stuff was MEMORABLE, and I still gab about it to no end at the first opportunity.
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May 17, 2014 03:58
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Very extremely unconfirmed at this time, but a Libyan TV channel is saying that Embassy Tripoli got hit by rockets about an hour back.
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May 19, 2014 00:30
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Incidentally, you may think that you don't want a 0% differential fancy-schmancy EUR post now, but your spouse may have other ideas after a hardship tour.
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May 19, 2014 01:59
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Whew. No actual attack on the Embassy - just a lot of nasty poo poo going on nearby...
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May 19, 2014 02:28
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Matt Lee's twitter said something about an attack on Libyan Parliament, as well as some unrelated stuff going on in Benghazi from some warlord, but I haven't been following closely.
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May 19, 2014 04:18
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Leif. posted:Matt Lee's twitter said something about an attack on Libyan Parliament, as well as some unrelated stuff going on in Benghazi from some warlord, but I haven't been following closely. Yeah, that happens on a fairly regular basis, and the Benghazi stuff is related... but this was separate (ultimately false) reporting of Grad rockets aiming for a TV station and hitting the compound.
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May 19, 2014 12:52
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So any goons here based in east asia or have AFO access? I just heard that Amazon prime is still free but it's 7 day shipping instead of 2. It's still free!
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May 19, 2014 16:06
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I wasn't around here when wiki leaks happened, but did anyone look through the cables? Or have any thoughts on the whole affair? Right now I'm reading through econ tagged cables to see what writing cables will be like. How many of these do you guys write a week?
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May 19, 2014 23:43
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caberham posted:So any goons here based in east asia or have AFO access? I just heard that Amazon prime is still free but it's 7 day shipping instead of 2. It's still free! yes & yes. Prime isn't free, it's $99 a year! That's like, a whole week's supply of beers in Bangkok! (they changed it to free standard shipping. Which is a little moot as their super saver thing is free shipping anyway. At any rate, the item in question will still take 2 weeks to arrive via AFO)
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May 20, 2014 01:11
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If y'all haven't already read this piece by Greg Johnson (who is a worthy expert to follow in his own right), you really should. Never forget that, though your post may have 3-5 RSOs, you probably have a few hundred local guards who are actually on the front lines of keeping you safe. http://diplopundit.net/2014/05/23/greg-d-johnsen-how-one-man-saved-the-american-embassy-in-yemen/
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May 26, 2014 23:43
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the_chavi posted:If y'all haven't already read this piece by Greg Johnson (who is a worthy expert to follow in his own right), you really should. Never forget that, though your post may have 3-5 RSOs, you probably have a few hundred local guards who are actually on the front lines of keeping you safe. This is a point worth making. The LGF are our first line of defense and the people most likely to be hurt during an attack. In the incidents of death that have occurred during my assignments, the DS community has always done a lot to recognize the service and sacrifice of the Guard Force member and support their families. The DS Foundation provides grants to help families immediately following a death or injury. Definitely an organization worth supporting. http://www.dsfoundation.org/grants.html
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May 27, 2014 12:19
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So the QEP results for the February 2014 cohort are coming out today or sometime this week. Good luck to everyone, but this stage is the most frustrating of all!
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May 27, 2014 14:24
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Looks like a classmate of mine is going to Mustang (mgt cone). Also got word that an OMS here is going into a summer A-100.
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May 27, 2014 16:50
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The Yahoo boards are saying that QEP results came out today. If you haven't gotten yours, check your spam/junk folders. Most people are reporting that they did not pass. It seems that now is not really a good time to try becoming an FSO because of the stricter QEP boards and the longer registers. I guess once the registers thin out a bit from attrition or being called to A-100, maybe things will get a bit easier.
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May 27, 2014 17:31
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I haven't received a letter yet on the OA, nothing in my spam folder either.  Cool thing though with the new Pearson set up instead of getting a letter with a date and time, there's a section in the website that says "schedule your oral assessment" so I guess you can schedule it yourself if you are approved. Much better. I'm trying to go the test route rather than mustang because I'm paranoid. If you 'stang it, if you don't make tenure you can NEVER try to go generalist again. Ever. Even via test. Any cone. Same if you are doing the civil service to foreign service program. Test route is playing it safer IMHO. I was med evac'd from a hardship post and I quite liked it there and totally would have gone back if med would have let me. Saved money, had affordable household help, etc. My next post was supposed to be one of the big EUR ones and I did NOT want to go. Yeah it'd be a nice city in theory but the commute would suck and I simply could NOT afford the child care. Just after school care simply would take up over half of my take home pay (my spouse is stationed elsewhere). Luckily something else came up that med approved. So yeah if your spouse doesn't work and has the time and money to get out and actually enjoy that nice location they'll probably want it but if you are miserable in the office 12-14 hours a day is it really worth it? I'd rather have more free time to spend at the pool in a 3rd world country and be able to afford a housekeeper. Everyone's got different tastes though.
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May 28, 2014 14:42
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Miscreant Fromage posted:I haven't received a letter yet on the OA, nothing in my spam folder either. Honestly, if you don't make it through tenure via the test route, I'd find it hard that you'd make it all the way through all the steps again into another A-100. Mustang route skips a few time intensive steps.
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May 28, 2014 15:33
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TCD posted:Honestly, if you don't make it through tenure via the test route, I'd find it hard that you'd make it all the way through all the steps again into another A-100. True but at least you aren't barred for life from trying again. Either way you still have to pass the OA and one of the Mustang requirements is to have passed a test within the last year or meet some other requirement. I can still try it but I'd rather go the test route. Just my personal preference. Off topic: I mentioned the Ramadan comment to a management officer here and they said they'd rather deal with that than with maternity leave at an EUR post. A full five minutes of ranting ensured.
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May 28, 2014 15:56
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Miscreant Fromage posted:True but at least you aren't barred for life from trying again. Either way you still have to pass the OA and one of the Mustang requirements is to have passed a test within the last year or meet some other requirement. I can still try it but I'd rather go the test route. Just my personal preference. The type where you are actively denied tenure (and they give you ~10 days to GTFO of Post) or the kind where you are passed over for the next cycle?
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May 29, 2014 01:13
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June dudes, don't forget to fill out the rest of the application. It opened up today
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May 29, 2014 16:11
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Hooray, I got invited to do the oral exam!
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May 29, 2014 18:12
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lushka16 posted:Hooray, I got invited to do the oral exam! Huge congrats!
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May 29, 2014 18:17
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Miscreant Fromage posted:I'd rather have more free time to spend at the pool in a 3rd world country and be able to afford a housekeeper. Everyone's got different tastes though. My house keeper had ocd so that means I got to be really clean myself or else she would be super pissed off all the time. Man sucks to hear about your living expenses situation. Not dismissing you, But if other expats hear about diplomats having a hard financial life then they would have a field day. Isn't stationed in Thailand and Cambodia means dealing with creepy sex tourists all the time? Or gung ho rule breaking.illegal NGOs?
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May 29, 2014 18:46
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caberham posted:My house keeper had ocd so that means I got to be really clean myself or else she would be super pissed off all the time. Like any other expat, we try to distance ourselves as far as possible from the 'sexpats'. Unless you're in certain sections, which yes you'll have quality face time with said people. For NGO's its kind of hit or miss, it depends. As a general rule we don't go with the shady types.
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May 30, 2014 02:25
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I was not chosen for the Orals Was feeling pretty good about my application this time, but... well, there ya go. I'll just have to try again in a year! Would anyone who was accepted or has been previously accepted in the past be willing to share some or all of their PNQ responses? After my internship I thought I had the hang of State-style writing, but I'm wondering if I'm still off track.
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May 30, 2014 05:48
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caberham posted:Man sucks to hear about your living expenses situation. Not dismissing you, But if other expats hear about diplomats having a hard financial life then they would have a field day. Again, not dismissing you, but at entry level grades, especially for a few specialists, certain EUR countries can be financially difficult if you need to pay for child care. I'm aware of this situation at only a handful of posts, but it does exist and it's certainly a problem a few people face.
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May 30, 2014 09:45
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TCD posted:Again, not dismissing you, but at entry level grades, especially for a few specialists, certain EUR countries can be financially difficult if you need to pay for child care. I'm aware of this situation at only a handful of posts, but it does exist and it's certainly a problem a few people face. Could you elaborate on this a bit, please? Define "entry level grades." I'm going to try for this job one more time and if I successfully make it through, I would be brought on as an FP-4, Step 14. And I have two young children who would need childcare.
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May 30, 2014 13:16
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zzonkmiles posted:Could you elaborate on this a bit, please? Define "entry level grades." I'm talking FP-6 around step 1. I doubt you'll have much of a problem at FP-4 step 14. Again, this is only found at a few posts and most people can avoid them if it's going to be an issue.
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May 30, 2014 13:36
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TCD posted:I'm talking FP-6 around step 1. I doubt you'll have much of a problem at FP-4 step 14. Thanks man. If I ever make it through this drat process, you're getting the first beer from me in DC. Fortunately, I don't have much interest in Europe. Hopefually East Asia and Southeast Asia are more affordable or easier posts to get!
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May 30, 2014 15:02
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zzonkmiles posted:Thanks man. If I ever make it through this drat process, you're getting the first beer from me in DC. Right, I just wanted to clarify caberham's statement and mention that we do have a few posts which can be very expensive for low grade/low step families.
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May 30, 2014 15:23
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Stolennosferatu posted:June dudes, don't forget to fill out the rest of the application. It opened up today Is there something I'm missing on the new site? I see nothing new for me to complete. I'm thinking this is because I completed my application with ACT before the switch. Any insight would be appreciated.
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May 31, 2014 22:27
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CoatPulls posted:Is there something I'm missing on the new site? I see nothing new for me to complete. I'm thinking this is because I completed my application with ACT before the switch. Any insight would be appreciated. Yeah, if you finished the application on the old ACT website you don't need to do anything else.
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Jun 1, 2014 01:08
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I heard that A-100 has changed a bit recently -- they now have real homework, instead of the scattering of assignments we had as recently as last July. So what's changed with the application?
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Jun 1, 2014 14:46
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TCD posted:I'm talking FP-6 around step 1. I doubt you'll have much of a problem at FP-4 step 14. FP 6, even at the upper end of the scale if you are a single parent with 2-3 kids that need daycare or before & after school care it can be rough. BUT I will say that the CDOs are usually pretty cool and will try to work with you and try to find you somewhere else if it looks like you are getting stuck at one of those posts. My class had several single parents who had custody of their school age kids and the CDOs took that into consideration when working on their assignments. None of us with school age kids wanted to go to the one European post on the list because of the child care cost. So an update, I finally got my letter and got an OA invite but I'm heading to post before I can get to the OA. I doubt I'll be able to take leave so soon after getting to post so I'm not going. I'm ok with it, it's a great post and I'd like to stay put for a couple years and I'm still not 100% certain of the cone I picked so taking more time to observe from within isn't a bad thing. I can chill and do some traveling with the kiddo and figure out if I want to take the test again later or Mustang or whatever. It's all good. I can't speak for A-100 but at my specialist orientation last year we had to do homework. We had to do some cable writing assignments, some distance learning courses, stuff like that. Not bad if you were staying at Oakwood but as a local hire with a 2 hour commute it kinda sucked.
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Jun 1, 2014 18:10
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Miscreant Fromage posted:I can't speak for A-100 but at my specialist orientation last year we had to do homework. We had to do some cable writing assignments, some distance learning courses, stuff like that. Not bad if you were staying at Oakwood but as a local hire with a 2 hour commute it kinda sucked. That's all we had also. What I'm hearing is that now they have much more regular homework to get done.
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Jun 1, 2014 19:34
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Miscreant Fromage posted:FP 6, even at the upper end of the scale if you are a single parent with 2-3 kids that need daycare or before & after school care it can be rough. BUT I will say that the CDOs are usually pretty cool and will try to work with you and try to find you somewhere else if it looks like you are getting stuck at one of those posts. My class had several single parents who had custody of their school age kids and the CDOs took that into consideration when working on their assignments. None of us with school age kids wanted to go to the one European post on the list because of the child care cost. The OA invite is good for a year, isn't it?
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Jun 1, 2014 21:01
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caberham, for reference (US dollar amounts): FP 6 step 1 is ~38,779/year. A Cost of Living adjustment may be.. mid range it, 50%. So your take home pay would be like 56,000. Given say, London's pound is maybe 1.75-2x the dollar. So if you wanted to compare local pay, you're basically halving the salary again. Whereas the opposite is true as well, you can live fairly comfortably life on a 58k salary in Cambodia. In the private side they would consider you equal on local wages; but sadly the Government considers it as a whole, then applies additional (cost of living, danger, hardship) pay as per assignment. Not really much room for negotiation. vvv- yeah it was a mid-high estimate. Going by a 'national average' of say, 2 adults+2 kids. But yeah, even that's barely enough to live on. DC is pretty expensive these days, most people are hard pressed to live on 50k salaries. Skandiaavity fucked around with this message at 07:29 on Jun 2, 2014 |
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Jun 2, 2014 01:23
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Skandiaavity posted:caberham, for reference (US dollar amounts): As the cola calculation is based on your pay and family size, it's skewed against the low step low tier individual. I don't have the formula in front of me, but I'd wager it's closer to 10,000 a year. Now that's straight money, but you still get all your deductions out of the base salary. Now, add the fact that you don't have the option of living outside the city in some of the cheaper areas, everything is just expensive. I know of officers and specialists who've either curtailed or broken assignments to several western European countries once they added up child care costs.
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Jun 2, 2014 01:54
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This is great information. At about which grade/step would an FSO be able to live more comforably than paycheck to paycheck? I'm talking married with two kids. (Edit: And a dog.)
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Jun 2, 2014 13:36
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It really depends on what post you are at, what your personal finances look like, and what standard of living you want. But maybe someone can ballpark something. I imagine by the time you make tenure, most people would be able to live at most if not all posts.
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Jun 2, 2014 15:39
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