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Every Flag Day leaves someone in shock.
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Aug 4, 2014 13:36
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Nutrimentia posted:Every Flag Day leaves someone in shock. I've heard some great stories. Ahh, good times.
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Aug 4, 2014 15:46
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Apparently someone flat out quit on flag day last year. We were fortunate, in our class of 23, everyone except for one got a top 5 bid. The Angola bidder was the highest bid at 15.
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Aug 4, 2014 19:22
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I remember the OMSes in my class that thought they had it figured out. They had more places on their list than actual people, so nobody bid on 1 particular spot and they all assumed that nobody would get it. They were wrong and you could just see blank look of shock on her face when they made the announcement. I was amazed that she was able to keep it together to get up, go up front, get her flag, and pose for the photo. She held it together all the way until she made it back to her seat.
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Aug 4, 2014 22:31
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problematique posted:Apparently someone flat out quit on flag day last year. Nothing tops the woman who quit on day 1 of my A-100 class... because there were no posts in Germany on our bid list.
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Aug 5, 2014 01:02
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Most people receive highs, but definitely not all. The people who tend to be most shocked are those that get a high they weren't expecting but were somehow convinced they'd never receive. "Oh I'll just put this here because my CDO knows I really wanna go somewhere else." Bitch you're going to Dhaka* The old adage is "Hope for a high, prepare for a low, and expect a medium." My CDO put it succinctly: "if we give you a high, we expect joy." No matter their rep at the mid level, they do not have an easy job. *not that there's anything wrong with that
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Aug 5, 2014 01:18
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zzonkmiles posted:I read that two people in the June A-100 received low-bid assignments on Flag Day. Oops. Is anyone at liberty to say where they will be posted? And how did they react when the flag for one of their "low" bids was brought out and their name was called? Your CDOs, in general, try to make an effort to not give anyone low bids. I got my high bids for both my EL tours, no complaints. But understand that the bids are there for a reason; To One, Each Must Go. I want to say "it's not likely" but it has to happen. Somebody gotta get it. I have noted CDO's tend to place people a little outside their perceived comfort zone but I am grateful to mine. problematique posted:Apparently someone flat out quit on flag day last year. They received their assignment, "smiled" for the camera, then stormed out/broke down and quit. Good times. Happens more often than you think, actually. chavi- what about Matt (?) & his screaming wife as a close second.... I forget their full names, but the wife loved to run, and they got Kenya as a first assignment.. that flag day was priceless because the guy (Matt?) was all  making the best of it, and his wife was like deer-in-headlights. she later had a (public) meltdown about it. Think there was a blog post about them?
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Aug 5, 2014 01:51
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hmm this might be bad: I put down my current direct supervisor as a reference for my PNQ, and apparently you're not supposed to do this. however, according to the state dept. forum they're letting it slide this year. Do they call super early in the process? My company might be going through some layoffs soon and I wouldn't like management to be surprised by a phone call by someone doing a background check.
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Aug 5, 2014 02:33
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Peven Stan posted:hmm this might be bad: I put down my current direct supervisor as a reference for my PNQ, and apparently you're not supposed to do this. however, according to the state dept. forum they're letting it slide this year. Do they call super early in the process? My company might be going through some layoffs soon and I wouldn't like management to be surprised by a phone call by someone doing a background check. Direct supervisor? I thought it was subordinates. (I clearly didn't read the prompt very well...)
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Aug 5, 2014 02:51
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Stolennosferatu posted:Direct supervisor? I thought it was subordinates. (I clearly didn't read the prompt very well...) I think what happened is that Pearson mistakenly wrote "supervisors" when they should have written "subordinates." That will be fixed for the next cohort (October). It would make no sense for your supervisor to not be able to vouch for you.
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Aug 5, 2014 03:38
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While I'm tempted to rejoice at the self-selection of the people who disingenuously claimed to be "worldwide ready" and quit, it upsets me that they took a spot that could have otherwise been filled by someone who actually would have contributed to the Foreign Service. 
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Aug 5, 2014 11:51
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Skandiaavity posted:Your CDOs, in general, try to make an effort to not give anyone low bids. I got my high bids for both my EL tours, no complaints. But understand that the bids are there for a reason; To One, Each Must Go. I want to say "it's not likely" but it has to happen. Somebody gotta get it. Oh man, her blog's demise is seriously one of the saddest thing I've ever seen. I hate-read it all the time. Her husband could have been Bill Burns incarnate and I don't think anyone would hire him out of fear of what his wife would do to Post morale. If anyone wants a primer in how NOT to blog in this job, here you go. http://missisoda.blogspot.com/ the_chavi fucked around with this message at 12:21 on Aug 5, 2014 |
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Aug 5, 2014 12:17
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the_chavi posted:Oh man, her blog's demise is seriously one of the saddest thing I've ever seen. I hate-read it all the time. Her husband could have been Bill Burns incarnate and I don't think anyone would hire him out of fear of what his wife would do to Post morale. I lolled WAY too hard at that.
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Aug 5, 2014 12:28
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the_chavi posted:Oh man, her blog's demise is seriously one of the saddest thing I've ever seen. I hate-read it all the time. Her husband could have been Bill Burns incarnate and I don't think anyone would hire him out of fear of what his wife would do to Post morale. Is that Comic Sans? Has nobody told this woman what a terrible font it is?
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Aug 5, 2014 12:34
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holy lolling christ
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Aug 5, 2014 12:49
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the_chavi posted:Oh man, her blog's demise is seriously one of the saddest thing I've ever seen. I hate-read it all the time. Her husband could have been Bill Burns incarnate and I don't think anyone would hire him out of fear of what his wife would do to Post morale. "You know, John Doe will go far in this career... if he lost 175 pounds that is". I've seen spouses make the couple. I've seen spouses not make the couple. This is a lifestyle that both need to be onboard, because if you're dragging around an anchor, it will create a toxic cloud around the two of you and unless you can really do damage control - Chavi is right.
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Aug 5, 2014 13:22
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the_chavi posted:Oh man, her blog's demise is seriously one of the saddest thing I've ever seen. I hate-read it all the time. Her husband could have been Bill Burns incarnate and I don't think anyone would hire him out of fear of what his wife would do to Post morale. Hey! That's the same post that the OMS in my class got.
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Aug 5, 2014 21:30
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Yeah I don't really get the negativity I get from some spouses. I mean, who would sign up for the FS lifestyle if their spouse wasn't also into it? I wouldn't have signed up for the FSOT if my husband weren't 110% on board. In fact, he was the one who suggested that I take the exam early last year. It's a great opportunity for him too.
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Aug 5, 2014 21:37
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Has anybody previously interacted with the state.gov fsotquestions email? Repeated attempts to make any sort of contact have resulted in absolutely deafening silence and it's sorely tempting to figure exactly which office this thing works out of, pile up what money I got, then travel to DC and speak to somebody in-person.
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Aug 5, 2014 21:57
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Obelisk posted:Yeah I don't really get the negativity I get from some spouses. I mean, who would sign up for the FS lifestyle if their spouse wasn't also into it? I wouldn't have signed up for the FSOT if my husband weren't 110% on board. In fact, he was the one who suggested that I take the exam early last year. It's a great opportunity for him too. it's not really that. Managing expectations and Post Morale are also huge factors. Especially the former. In extreme cases you can also have cultural oppression/racism in some countries; spouses there might have a harder time. Really it depends on if people can adapt to foreign environments that are quite outside comfort zones. It's really easy to talk about and try to stay positive, but doing that can be a little difficult when every single thing seems going against you or giving you a hard time. That's after giving up all your comforts (internet, safe water, possibly doing-things-by yourself/without domestic help) for a hard example, look at the youtubes of driving accidents in Moscow, and then accept a reality you might have to be driving there for the next 2-3 years. That's just one thing, the foreign language (not speaking english) is another thing. Spouses may not get language training, so... That's not even counting post Morale, so it can pile up real quick. Some people love it when they are in the thick of it and others are more relaxed/at-home types.. (Moscow (and Russia) can be a pretty nice and curious place, though. People might take some warming up to but they are super nice from my experience.)
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Aug 6, 2014 07:42
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HiroProtagonist posted:holy lolling christ He's a good friend of mine and they were at my first post. He is actually partly responsible for why I ended up in Abuja. I wanted something hardship and figured might as well go where I know someone so I looked closer at Nigeria than I otherwise may have. I just got tapped for a TDY assignment outside of Korea to a small post in support of a major visitor. Pretty stoked about it, even though my family is finally coming back from spending the summer in Japan and it will now be another week until I see them.
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Aug 6, 2014 11:04
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another example of what not to be in the FS: my dog just started freaking out so I look outside to see the new neighbors arriving on their half of the duplex. They actually got a full size duplex: mine is missing a storage room, kitchen (my kitchen is in the standard breakfast nook area), pantry, and my den is half the size of theirs. It sucks, but oh well. My neighbor, though, is walking through their house muttering "no, no, No, NO, NO!" and introduced themselves with "nice to meet you but don't worry, we won't be here very long, we told them we need 4 or 5 bedrooms!" This is literally within 3 minutes of arriving at the home. Was so excited that a friend of mine was assigned to that unit but it got switched at the last minute. Not real impressed with the new neighbors so far.....
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Aug 6, 2014 11:28
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the_chavi posted:Oh man, her blog's demise is seriously one of the saddest thing I've ever seen. I hate-read it all the time. Her husband could have been Bill Burns incarnate and I don't think anyone would hire him out of fear of what his wife would do to Post morale. To be fair to her, she had medical issues she was dealign with. Her blog and complaining was a coping mechanism for her and in person, she's pretty cool. She didn't pretend she was feeling something she wasn't but she wasn't the worst person I've dealt with by a long shot. He is also one of the coolest people I know and I'd make an effort to work with him again too. I don't know if it makes sense but she knew she had a reason to complain (or a purpose, rather, as a coping strategy) and it helped her be happier. There are people who's complaining is designed to spread the misery around and those are toxic. I don't feel that she really impacted post much at all; she kept to her circle of friends who knew her and with whom she could be herself.
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Aug 6, 2014 11:50
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Some of her gripes are also perfectly legitimate and make a lot of sense.
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Aug 6, 2014 16:35
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Ahhhhhhh, why isn't it October already?! Reading all of this stuff makes me super pissed that I bombed the case management portion of my OA! I wanna hurry up and take that stupid test again and get this show on the road!
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Aug 6, 2014 17:46
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zzonkmiles posted:Ahhhhhhh, why isn't it October already?! Reading all of this stuff makes me super pissed that I bombed the case management portion of my OA! I wanna hurry up and take that stupid test again and get this show on the road! I'm currently waiting for QEP results, which also are supposed to drop in late October, so I'm right there with you on the frustration. Can you please point me to what you read about the Case Management portion of the OA? Thanks! Good luck on the process again. I'm sure you've got it this time.
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Aug 6, 2014 17:52
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CoatPulls posted:I'm currently waiting for QEP results, which also are supposed to drop in late October, so I'm right there with you on the frustration. There are some OA overview documents available for download on the Yahoo FSOA group page. There are even a few sample case management exercises there too. It seems that the case management exercise is the portion most likely to be failed, followed by the group exercise. The structured interview is probably the easiest part of the OA. All I can say without violating the NDA is that the case management binder at the OA is significantly thicker than the practice exercises available for download. Good luck with the QEP. That round tripped me up twice before I made it through on my third attempt. Attempt #4 begins this fall! Now that I know what to expect at the OA, I'll be much better prepared and much less nervous. I'm not worried about the FSOT; I'm just annoyed that I have to take it again after passing it three times in a row with higher scores each time.
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Aug 6, 2014 18:17
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For gods sake if a DIR offers a presentation on the OA, please go to it. The one I attended showed a video of a mock assessment that was surprisingly accurate (if overacted).
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Aug 6, 2014 19:38
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Skandiaavity posted:it's not really that. Managing expectations and Post Morale are also huge factors. Especially the former. In extreme cases you can also have cultural oppression/racism in some countries; spouses there might have a harder time. Really it depends on if people can adapt to foreign environments that are quite outside comfort zones. Yeah, you're right. I'm sure that living in Abuja would be tough. I guess I was conflating the blogger a bit with several people, particularly spouses but also FSOs, who have complained bitterly about the beautiful European capital where I've lived for the last 9 years. I remember several years ago when the three of us were living in around 65 square meters, which is pretty normal here, and this one spouse was going on and on at an Embassy event about how she and her husband were "squeezed into" 100 square meters in the toniest neighborhood in town. It was hard to keep a straight face. Another spouse was talking about how hard it is to live without servants. Some of this is just being an LES though because My kids go to local school and I live in a tiny apartment in a normal area of town and it can get a bit much when people complain about stuff like this. And this is definitely not Abuja. I lived and worked in Moscow almost 20 years ago and loved it. If I make it into the FS, I'd love to go back. Fascinating place. I didn't own a car though and took the fabulous metro everywhere.
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Aug 6, 2014 19:40
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Yeah, the running trend as far as I can tell seems to be most people fail the CM, pass the SI, and their performance on the GE tends to be the big swing (if they do a solid job, they tend to pass so long as they didn't bomb one of the other two sections too badly). If I were doing it again, my strategy for allocating how much time/effort goes into studying/practice would be something like 10/60/30% between SI/GE/CM. I am convinced that there is an understandable, learnable, structured system behind the FSOA. Figuring out "how the test works" I think is more important than any individual particular bit of study materials. One little tip on how you can boost your CM score: look for scenarios where changes in office management style can improve the situation. For example, if an employee's tone in their emails is particularly strident and they're a source of discontent in the embassy, you can suggest that a quick talk with their supervisor (or with you, depending on the situation) about improving communication might be merited. Similarly if an employee is loving up, especially if they are entry-level, the solution isn't just to punish them -- you should assess whether they are also being adequately supervised or were adequately trained for the situation, and remedy that problem as well. Maybe their supervisor needs to be counseled on having better, more direct management. If an employee is overworked or has way too much on their plate to properly handle a tasking, see if they can have some of their workload shifted to FSNs/LE staff, and again assess why their supervisor isn't managing their workload. Maybe that's an opportunity for a FAST officer (first and second tour) from a different section to get some experience outside their area of direct responsibility (especially for consular officers). Obviously the meat and potatoes of your CM is going to be addressing whatever the main situation is. But look for little one-off areas where you can "score points" with your suggestions as well, and try to include them if possible. I view the CM like a bar exam essay -- ultimately it comes down to issue spotting and then prioritizing the issues. The more substance you can put into your memo, the better. On your Group Exercise -- another small tip to boost your score is to keep a careful eye out for situations where it seems like the group is spinning around in circles, not moving forward, focusing on extraneous things or wasting time on procedure. Anything from a gentle nudge to move people along, up to stating a course of action and then asking if there are any objections, can be extremely helpful and will be noticed by the assessors. You're taking charge, but you're taking charge for the benefit of the group to keep the group moving, rather than yourself. Usually the GE is about deciding how much of some project to fund (and whose funding will be cut entirely). So, if the group can't agree, maybe it's worthwhile for you to volunteer your project to be cut in order to keep things moving (be sure to have a valid argument as to why this is a good thing, though). Or maybe they need to be reminded that we've spent X minutes discussing this and we need to move on (especially useful when a group spends 20 minutes at the beginning deciding who is notetaking and who is running the stopwatch). Or maybe an extremely short summary can put things into context, but then you should use it as a driver to further action rather than just standing on its own. "OK just to quickly summarize: Person A wants X, Person B wants Y, Person C wants Z" isn't as helpful as "OK just to quickly summarize: Person A wants X, Person B wants Y, Person C wants Z; since X and Y work really well together, would you be willing to give up project Z, person C?" Trust me, you'll have way less time than you think. Always be relentlessly driving things towards an outcome; never be the person adding useless fluff/filler.
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Aug 6, 2014 20:13
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Hello thread. A quick question on the Regional Medical Laboratory opening. Am I right in understanding that this role is more of a supervisory one? The listed posts suggest that a person in this role sets up facilities and procedures for local medical technicians to provide a level of care acceptable for State employees. Does State usually take this approach, leveraging local resources for health care in countries where suitable care is available? Are there versions of the medical positions that are less supervisory? Also, filled out the IMS application again. 
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Aug 6, 2014 20:55
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I don't know that we have any RMLS goons. We did have I think two (or maybe just one, I'm not sure) in Addis; they travelled a lot through AF for supervisory stuff (mostly) and scheduled medical rotations when the RMO was in town. But they did do some lab work at our Health Unit as well, so it wasn't 100% supervisory. Basically all US Direct Hires will be in a supervisory position as far as medical is concerned. A post with a dedicated health unit may have a traveling RMO, a nurse or PA, and MAYBE a lab tech (I think in a dozen posts or so). Everyone else is going to be local staff. So you will almost certainly be supervising. Doesn't mean you won't get to do any hands-on work either, but I think overseas RMO departments may be the singular most understaffed section of the Foreign Service. There just aren't many positions out there, and they're almost always regional positions involving travel (rather than being dedicated to a specific post. Obviously places like Baghdad or Kabul are an exception).
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Aug 6, 2014 21:35
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Nutrimentia posted:To be fair to her, she had medical issues she was dealign with. Her blog and complaining was a coping mechanism for her and in person, she's pretty cool. She didn't pretend she was feeling something she wasn't but she wasn't the worst person I've dealt with by a long shot. He is also one of the coolest people I know and I'd make an effort to work with him again too. I don't know if it makes sense but she knew she had a reason to complain (or a purpose, rather, as a coping strategy) and it helped her be happier. There are people who's complaining is designed to spread the misery around and those are toxic. I don't feel that she really impacted post much at all; she kept to her circle of friends who knew her and with whom she could be herself. That's kind of a surreal read for me right now, as some of her complaints do seem a bit off, there are others that seem perfectly valid in regards to some of the things I've heard and seen after my girlfriends most recent TDY. Not to go to e/n on the thread, my girlfriend had a TDY for a few months, and her depression and self-esteem issues while deployed caused a bunch of poo poo to blow up in her/our personal life. I'm all on board for the lifestyle that her career (or mine if I ever pass the FSOT) would bring with it if she sticks with it. Post Morale is important and all, and she had her social circle from the post that helped keep her morale up, but at times it felt like some of those she worked with created a really retarded "us vs. them" (people on post vs. everyone else, in-country spouses and SO's included) mentality which was extremely infuriating to deal with and caused issues all on their own. To be fair though, most of the people she met on her TDY post were cool as hell (I met some of them when I came out to visit for a week). It just feels like that just as much as there are lovely spouses/dependents who whine about dumb poo poo and bring down post morale, there are FSO's that can be just as lovely to deal with as well. Anyhow, in the spirit of the thread. I'm planning on retaking the FSOT this fall after last taking it four years ago. Just curious, is consular track still as wide open as it was a few years ago? I seem to remember someone a few years back telling me that consular track for whatever reason usually needed more people than the rest of the tracks and was slightly easier to get a passing score for. Honestly for me, consular track does seem like the most interesting track for myself so if that turns out to be the case, all the better. Also, people who have passed in this thread have retaken the test multiple times, right? Taking the test 2-4 times before passing isn't out of the ordinary is it?
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Aug 7, 2014 17:32
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Handsome Ralph posted:Anyhow, in the spirit of the thread. I'm planning on retaking the FSOT this fall after last taking it four years ago. Just curious, is consular track still as wide open as it was a few years ago? Nope. And some general advice to everyone: Pick your cone because you like it, not because you think you can get a small statistical advantage from it.
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Aug 7, 2014 18:17
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Tyro posted:Nope. And some general advice to everyone: Pick your cone because you like it, not because you think you can get a small statistical advantage from it. ^^ What he said.
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Aug 7, 2014 18:27
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Handsome Ralph posted:That's kind of a surreal read for me right now, as some of her complaints do seem a bit off, there are others that seem perfectly valid in regards to some of the things I've heard and seen after my girlfriends most recent TDY. Not to go to e/n on the thread, my girlfriend had a TDY for a few months, and her depression and self-esteem issues while deployed caused a bunch of poo poo to blow up in her/our personal life. Welcome to my life. I'm not going to go into details, but things that happened at post (such as the "us vs. them"/clique mentality), being in a hardship post, morale issues, all combined with depression, nearly destroyed our marriage. Even though we were both on-board with the FS, the FS is definitely not conducive to sustaining your mental health. At all. Therapy helped (your insurance is great for this, except if you're at post it can be hard to find a practitioner and you may go an entire tour without the RMO Psychiatrist coming by), and saved our marriage but I definitely identified with a few of the more valid gripes that blog posted.
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Aug 7, 2014 18:42
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Works for me, I honestly like the sound of consular work from what I've heard (and the write up on it in the OP) so I may as well go that track, advantage or not. Thanks guys!Leif. posted:Welcome to my life. I'm not going to go into details, but things that happened at post (such as the "us vs. them"/clique mentality), being in a hardship post, morale issues, all combined with depression, nearly destroyed our marriage. Even though we were both on-board with the FS, the FS is definitely not conducive to sustaining your mental health. At all. Tell me about it. She's currently seeing someone, but had only been seeing them for a few months prior to her TDY. So she went three months without seeing them until she came home, so that caused all sorts of issues on its own while she was TDY. Oh, it also didn't help that because she was a TDY'er, her options were limited for some reason (no access to the post med unit unless it was a certain day of the week even though it was constantly staffed, no APO access, the list goes on). Handsome Ralph fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Aug 7, 2014 |
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Aug 7, 2014 18:42
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Thanks for the protips Leif! If I can make it past the QEP, I will definitely take your words to heart. Oh, and it looks like poo poo is getting real again in Iraq. Obama cited threats to "US personnel" as a rationale for "targeted strikes." I hope no FSOs are in danger, though it's quite possible/probable that some are. Being a part of history is great. But that history is dangerous is not. Please stay safe.
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Aug 8, 2014 03:06
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Anyone know (or have a clue) when registration will open for the October FSOT? I could have sworn I was registered by this time last year for the test.
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Aug 8, 2014 05:38
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the_chavi posted:Oh man, her blog's demise is seriously one of the saddest thing I've ever seen. I hate-read it all the time. Her husband could have been Bill Burns incarnate and I don't think anyone would hire him out of fear of what his wife would do to Post morale. gently caress yes, this beats E/N falling in love with a homeless girl by far. I'm so glad I lurked here. quote:who would have guessed that almost 3 years to the day of our wedding abroad that we'd be moving abroad indefinitely? certainly not me. but just because the government classifies me as a "trailing spouse" certainly doesn't mean i'm going to act like one. Wonder how the husband feels? Makes me wonder if the interview process should not just be the individual candidate but their spouses and family as well 
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Aug 8, 2014 06:54
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