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the_chavi posted:Try to do CLS or Boren for language experience abroad. When you finish that program, just stay in whatever country and work for two years - teach English, work for the UN, work at a local media outlet, whatever. Collect good stories and strange diseases. If your language is good enough, you might even end up an LES at the embassy 
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Aug 13, 2015 15:03
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Seasonal Candles posted:So I'm a college sophomore international relations major and given the seeming lack of opportunities that degree affords I'm seeing if the foreign service has any opportunities after I graduate. I've read through about 150 pages of this thread and holy poo poo is it useful but is there any casual advice the old timers in this thread can give? A few tips as an IR major. One, do every single internship you possibly can. Paid is better but non-paid in IR related is good too. Two, pick up a useful minor or other major if you can. Some programs offer a dual business/IR degree and that's way better than just a straight IR. Three, you probably need to look at grad school if you want to do IR type work. Four, you could always pick up another trade like I did with IT. Five, state or any other foreign affairs agency should be a dream job. With budgets getting tight, hiring isn't going to be all that good so competition will be very high especially as there's a lot of people who have vet pref points. Good luck.
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Aug 13, 2015 17:02
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TCD posted:A few tips as an IR major. One, do every single internship you possibly can. Paid is better but non-paid in IR related is good too. Two, pick up a useful minor or other major if you can. Some programs offer a dual business/IR degree and that's way better than just a straight IR. Three, you probably need to look at grad school if you want to do IR type work. Four, you could always pick up another trade like I did with IT. Five, state or any other foreign affairs agency should be a dream job. With budgets getting tight, hiring isn't going to be all that good so competition will be very high especially as there's a lot of people who have vet pref points. If poo poo goes to hell, what are some alternatives we might consider looking into with our IR related degrees?
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Aug 13, 2015 21:19
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Artificer posted:If poo poo goes to hell, what are some alternatives we might consider looking into with our IR related degrees? Starbucks has great benefits. Seriously, focus on a concrete skill - language, technical, whatever - more than theories. Moving abroad is a great way to get good language and in-country experience.
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Aug 13, 2015 22:52
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I got my official offer letter from State today. Looks like I'll be working in SA-5 across the street from Main State. Hope to connect with some of you future colleagues! 
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Aug 14, 2015 00:22
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Artificer posted:If poo poo goes to hell, what are some alternatives we might consider looking into with our IR related degrees? (as an IR major) - IR has been fairly large (read: overpopulated) and well-intentioned major, but I found a lot of it is basically theories and wishful thinking, and the reality just circles back to business. In a way it is kind of perceived as the new 'communications' or 'liberal arts degree'. a decade ago when I got my IR degree, it wasn't really defined - it's just diplomacy lumped into one topic where you can specialize in 'regions'. Similar to what TCD said, a Business Admin degree is just general degree (& you have core degrees like Accounting, Logistics, I.T., etc) and is taught about the skills, not localities. But that framework, plus learning about local customs, laws, etc are critical to succeeding in business. To succeed in IR, you need to have a very similar skillset: Logisitics, Drafting, Negotiation, Trend Analysis, (joke: Expertise in Accounting) etc. If that's the case, why limit yourself to only one focus? Get trained in both - you may find yourself happy working for a corporation overseas. If you're in theories or practicals you have to have connections, especially local ones, to bring in the money. The way it was explained to me was 'it's the difference of wanting to make a difference, and actually doing things to make a difference.' It's easy to write an article about how Africa needs stable electricity (/government) and psychoanalyze why and how to make that happen, but actually getting your boots on the ground and making it a reality could be an allegory for climbing Everest. The NGO/NPO, State, AID, etc are all looking for the latter type of person. If poo poo goes to hell, know that I.R. is very flexible - possibly one of the most flexible degrees out there depending on how you want to spin it - but also like TCD said, you gotta have experience. Plenty of people will love you and want to hire - but only if you put your time in. You can talk all day about logistics but if you're able to actually get the stuff to people is what they're after.
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Aug 14, 2015 09:23
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Skandiaavity posted:(as an IR major) - IR has been fairly large (read: overpopulated) and well-intentioned major, but I found a lot of it is basically theories and wishful thinking, and the reality just circles back to business. In a way it is kind of perceived as the new 'communications' or 'liberal arts degree'. a decade ago when I got my IR degree, it wasn't really defined - it's just diplomacy lumped into one topic where you can specialize in 'regions'. Similar to what TCD said, a Business Admin degree is just general degree (& you have core degrees like Accounting, Logistics, I.T., etc) and is taught about the skills, not localities. But that framework, plus learning about local customs, laws, etc are critical to succeeding in business. To succeed in IR, you need to have a very similar skillset: Logisitics, Drafting, Negotiation, Trend Analysis, (joke: Expertise in Accounting) etc. If that's the case, why limit yourself to only one focus? Get trained in both - you may find yourself happy working for a corporation overseas. So business as usual, get your hands dirty, that sort of thing? I'm planning to apply for Hill internships and such for the Summer. I wanted to ease into my first semester at grad school especially since I'm going to be honing my Chinese skills at the same time. Anything else I should look at? PMF is on the list but that won't be possible for me to apply to until my 2nd year.
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Aug 14, 2015 09:40
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Do a lot of things. Don't get locked into one route unless you love it. Find what you hate early on.
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Aug 14, 2015 09:57
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zzonkmiles posted:So the September A-100 bids have gone out. It's not that surprising. Our March A-100 class was told there were only going to be 260 FSOs hired in 2015 and it appears they were true to their word.
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Aug 14, 2015 14:14
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Artificer posted:So business as usual, get your hands dirty, that sort of thing? I'm planning to apply for Hill internships and such for the Summer. I wanted to ease into my first semester at grad school especially since I'm going to be honing my Chinese skills at the same time. Anything else I should look at? PMF is on the list but that won't be possible for me to apply to until my 2nd year. If you're focusing in SEA, there are a ton of abroad opportunities. If you are only focusing on Chinese your options are a bit more limited but westerners are still in demand there. Even something simple (such as teaching, for example) will lead into other opportunities. it is not so much 'get your hands dirty' as it is 'go and be immersed'. It's all about the journey. I'll give you an example: Person A can probably lecture all day on China, Politburo, their current climate, how One China is a failure and all that, but hasn't physically been to the region aside from a 2-week long trip. They consider themselves an expert in China having a M.A. in international relations with a focus on Modern China. They wouldn't know the norms or society's rationale other than what they read in a textbook, thinktank publication, or from a congressional memo but can speak about such topics with an air of confidence. This person is looking to become a Subject Matter Expert in China's future. Person B had a bachelor's in IR, but worked as an english teacher in several points of China for 1 year - They noted the successes/failure of the education system based on their daily interaction with their kids. They noted Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shenyong etc scored top marks, but rural china failed to meet standards. Person B's expertise indicated them the system denies them adequate chances at life, and so many kids put dream jobs to work at a local factory. Person B worked on their own to bring access to chinese/english textbooks etc so the kids could learn and have a potentially better future. The U.S. Consulate heard of this and developed an outreach program to further developments. This person is looking to become a Subject Matter Expert in China's future. Which one of those 2 people would you rather be? Person B's personal goals, while education-oriented may not align with a specific goal - like South China Sea - but their expertise, trials, sucess and failures in Getting Stuff Done Over There will be invaluable. They will also likely be able to effectively adapt that when applying for a broad range of jobs if the market is tough. Person A has a very specific, narrow field that they may be considered an expert in, but economic sustainability will be in question.
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Aug 14, 2015 14:41
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Holy poo poo internet is expensive. I mean it's far from the worst AND I was warned in advance, but god drat. $100/month for 1Mbps down. 
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Aug 17, 2015 06:40
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There's always the peace corps too.
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Aug 17, 2015 10:12
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The Mantis posted:Holy poo poo internet is expensive. I mean it's far from the worst AND I was warned in advance, but god drat. 100 bucks for 256k that was more like 56k - when it worked every few days. Not going to get much sympathy for that 1 meg  Of course right now I have fiber so it's better than my last post.
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Aug 17, 2015 18:01
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My internet is way better in Africa than DC. Fiber at $150 month but 20Mbps down/10 up. And I actually get that in the evenings. 20 ms ping to the peering point in South Africa. I'm completely shocked. Not sure how people did FS before fast internet.
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Aug 17, 2015 18:59
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problematique posted:My internet is way better in Africa than DC. Fiber at $150 month but 20Mbps down/10 up. And I actually get that in the evenings. 20 ms ping to the peering point in South Africa. I'm completely shocked. Not sure how people did FS before fast internet. Lots and lots of letters.
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Aug 18, 2015 00:05
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the_chavi posted:Lots and lots of letters. I really appreciated home leave coming out of AF - it must have been amazing back in the day.
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Aug 18, 2015 08:17
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Hello thread! I'm a student currently learning Arabic at an American university- I've got about two years of Arabic under my belt, which of course is completely meaningless; and in less than week I'm going to be travelling to Jordan to study abroad. While I'm there I'm going to hopefully get a good grasp on the Arabic language. After I graduate I'm going to try for the FSOT (and the information posted here has been extremely helpful!), and I'm hopeful that the language skills I'm developing will help me out. Do you think knowing a language like Arabic would make me a more desirable pick for the Foreign Services? It's kind of a silly question, but I'm nervous about my chances with only an International Studies degree at a fairly normal university.
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Aug 19, 2015 06:36
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Language skills help you get more points at the end of the application process. So, yes.
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Aug 19, 2015 07:00
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Holy "reply to all" poop-storm Batman!
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Aug 19, 2015 17:39
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SCRwM posted:Holy "reply to all" poop-storm Batman! You are the second person I've seen mention that since I left work. Checking BB... Holy Crap! 153 emails in the last 3hrs!
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Aug 19, 2015 18:16
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1of7 posted:You are the second person I've seen mention that since I left work. Checking BB... Holy Crap! 153 emails in the last 3hrs! It's truly amazing. I saw at least one A/S reply-all with the Senate-confirmed WTF. I took the advice of another friend and created a "morons" subfolder in my bidding folder... I have tons of evidence now of morons I don't want to serve with in the future!
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Aug 20, 2015 00:22
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So does anyone know/met/worked with this guy: http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/19/9179527/us-embassy-hacker-extortion-revenge-porn-nude-photos quote:A former employee at the US embassy in London has been charged with a far-reaching sexual extortion scheme, implicating as many as 250 women. According to a Justice Department statement, embassy employee Michael C. Ford allegedly employed stolen passwords and sexually explicit photos as part of a broad ranging extortion scheme spanning more than two years, conducted largely on US Embassy computers. "Ford is alleged to have hacked into hundreds of email accounts and tormented women across the country," said U.S. Attorney John Horn said in a statement, "threatening to humiliate them unless they provided him with sexually explicit photos and videos,"
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Aug 20, 2015 03:24
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the_chavi posted:It's truly amazing. I saw at least one A/S reply-all with the Senate-confirmed WTF. I took the advice of another friend and created a "morons" subfolder in my bidding folder... I have tons of evidence now of morons I don't want to serve with in the future! Doesn't this now eliminate a good percentage of the Dept./Posts?
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Aug 20, 2015 03:48
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the_chavi posted:It's truly amazing. I saw at least one A/S reply-all with the Senate-confirmed WTF. I took the advice of another friend and created a "morons" subfolder in my bidding folder... I have tons of evidence now of morons I don't want to serve with in the future! Yeah, I was thinking that after a given number (I don't know, maybe 5 or 10), continuing to Reply All is pretty much unforgivable.
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Aug 20, 2015 05:08
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The Mantis posted:Holy poo poo internet is expensive. I mean it's far from the worst AND I was warned in advance, but god drat. Wow, it's down to $100 now (you're in Addis, right?) It used to be as high as $200. All for the privilege of ETC and Huawei spying on your internet data. It's worth every penny, you'll go insane without it. Might want to get an unlimited EVDO card too.
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Aug 20, 2015 06:36
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Leif. posted:Wow, it's down to $100 now (you're in Addis, right?) It used to be as high as $200. All for the privilege of ETC and Huawei spying on your internet data. Yeah I know I'm a baby. Honestly I was fine until post gave me an uncapped mifi device to tide me over.* Don't tell Leif but that bad boy is pushing 24Mbps down.  *: daily rounds to saluter local staff - easily the best investment I've made
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Aug 20, 2015 07:25
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The Mantis posted:Yeah I know I'm a baby. Honestly I was fine until post gave me an uncapped mifi device to tide me over.* Don't tell Leif but that bad boy is pushing 24Mbps down. Brb changing my bid list.
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Aug 20, 2015 08:45
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1of7 posted:You are the second person I've seen mention that since I left work. Checking BB... Holy Crap! 153 emails in the last 3hrs! What happened? I didn't see anything.
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Aug 20, 2015 22:06
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GoodsMarch posted:What happened? I didn't see anything. Somebody sent what should have been a personal email to a distribution list and triggered a wave of people sending emails to the same list asking to be removed from the list and people doing the same thing but asking the other people to stop. It's a list with around 8,000 people so it was a pretty massive email storm.
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Aug 20, 2015 23:02
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AKA Pseudonym posted:Somebody sent what should have been a personal email to a distribution list and triggered a wave of people sending emails to the same list asking to be removed from the list and people doing the same thing but asking the other people to stop. It's a list with around 8,000 people so it was a pretty massive email storm. God, it's that big? Hilarious. Speaking of nerdery, did you see that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ made an appearance on the Sounding Board today? (I know some of you did because I emailed it to you...)
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Aug 21, 2015 00:50
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the_chavi posted:God, it's that big? Hilarious. Need to check the SB when I get in...
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Aug 21, 2015 03:43
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serious question: who the gently caress posts on the SB? Are these people insane?
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Aug 21, 2015 07:01
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The Mantis posted:Are these people insane? Is that a rhetorical question?
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Aug 21, 2015 08:32
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Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I posted on the Sounding Board. Writing thousand-word posts about uncomfortable thermostat settings. Becoming irate that someone in the Civil Service might be called a civil servant. Screaming into an empty void my wishes for additional taco trucks. Prayers that are never answered.
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Aug 21, 2015 09:43
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Bloodnose posted:Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I posted on the Sounding Board. Don't forget that thing that made the WaPo.
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Aug 21, 2015 16:08
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SB is a national treasure and everyone should look at it every couple of weeks at least. The State Department is full of profoundly weird people, and the people who post on SB are weird by Department standards.
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Aug 21, 2015 16:22
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BTW has anyone actually signed up at http://www.corridorrep.com/ ? I just heard about it today and am kind of curious as to what is on there, but I don't want to sign up. I guess I could make some info up as long as they don't send some verification code to your state email.
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Aug 21, 2015 17:53
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1of7 posted:BTW has anyone actually signed up at http://www.corridorrep.com/ ? Seems like a honey pot. Also if you're not getting honest feedback from FW or BCCd 360s your corridor rep might as well be a skid mark. TCD fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Aug 21, 2015 20:15
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Giodo! posted:SB is a national treasure and everyone should look at it every couple of weeks at least. The State Department is full of profoundly weird people, and the people who post on SB are weird by Department standards. Concur. The best part is when snarky assholes chime in and piss people off further... or when Sean Cobb created the world's greatest emoji, which involves an FSO saving a puppy from a burning house while a bald eagle waves an American flag.
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Aug 22, 2015 02:06
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the_chavi posted:Concur. The best part is when snarky assholes chime in and piss people off further... or when Sean Cobb created the world's greatest emoji, which involves an FSO saving a puppy from a burning house while a bald eagle waves an American flag. Hhhhhholy poo poo. Are you allowed to link that?
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Aug 22, 2015 04:32
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