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e: wrong thread
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Dec 5, 2011 19:17
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Bizob posted:figure out how to pay off $100k in student loans on one salary within the next month. TCD posted:I thought if you go to a hardship country there are student loan repayments. Could someone explain this a litte bit further? How can one not continue to make payments on student loans as an FSO?
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Dec 10, 2011 20:41
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Slaan posted:^^^ Listen to this man. Oh god, listen to Kalman. What sort of degree would then be most related to Consular? I think I remember the OP saying daily language skills are used, so perhaps something in a foreign language?
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Dec 11, 2011 20:44
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Is it possible to take the test without yet choosing one of the five career paths?
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Dec 13, 2011 17:40
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Dameius posted:When you are applying to take the test you have to pick a cone as part of the application. So if you fail it and later retake it, are you unable to change your cone?
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Dec 13, 2011 17:44
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Diplomaticus posted:Ah, the week before christmas. So relaxing, don't have much real work on my plate, just gonna kick ba--gently caress. Shouldn't the um, Swedish Foreign Service be worrying about that?
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Dec 22, 2011 09:15
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Zoots posted:"mom blogs" are awash with both delight and despair. This sounds entertaining and informative, could you link to a recent one? Also, I watched a National Geographic program on the US Foreign Service on Netflix last week, have any of you seen it? What's your take on it?
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Mar 14, 2012 21:25
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Business of Ferrets posted:Is that the one about ambassadors? I thought it was pretty good, but kind of missed the point by focusing on the ambassadors instead of the rest of the mission (where the work gets done). Yeah, they mostly focused on this really old man with a southern accent who was ambassador to Japan, as well as a lady who was assigned to Pakistan right before 9/11. Other than that there was maybe 30 seconds of a guy talking about stamping passports all day.
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Mar 15, 2012 03:14
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What's it like being an FSO in Saudi Arabia? When I studied in Austria one of my best friends was a Saudi Arabian guy who was in my German class, he was a really cool guy just really a great representative for his country. (Part of this may have had to do with the fact that both of our religions hate the papacy [I'm Lutheran  ])Of course I know not all Saudi citizens are the same, but I just think it would be a very interesting change of pace to go from the rolling cornfields of the Midwest where I grew up to the sands of the middle of Arabia. I'm also interested in Islam and Semitic languages. Saudi Arabia isn't considered a "hardship" post, is it? I mean, I heard even McDonald's has a delivery service over there. 
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Apr 8, 2012 18:32
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Skandiaavity posted:Hear, hear. I'll drink to that. So is it inherently better to be an FSO as opposed to an expat? Or what are the pros and cons to each facet?
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Apr 12, 2012 03:46
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Great responses from both of you! BoF, you mentioned getting contacts and reporting, so is it safe to assume you're Political track? My question is, when you're just starting out, how do gain those contacts in the host country's media, press, etc.? It sounds like it should be trickier than it looks, and it looks like a tricky enough thing to accomplish.
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Apr 12, 2012 07:23
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the_chavi posted:All about expectations. I know RPCVs who have a really hard time being in an American bubble and want to get back out into Bumblefuck to be with the real people, and I know people from Bumblefuck, USA who want to exist in an entirely American bubble. Some friends who joined in their early twenties had a hard time lining up their memories of study abroad in the Middle East (no security restrictions, go hiking wherever you want, go offline for weeks on end) with the realities of being an official American (and thus, a juicy target) in certain Arab countries. I'm glad people are still responding to this question, and I especially like your explanation on being an "official" American in an Arab country. I guess being a juicy target would make it a hardship post then, eh? I was actually just in Turkey last year on a project with an NGO I was working for (no, my family's not rich, just took out a big fat loan to study abroad :P ) and really enjoyed it there. We went to symposia in Istanbul, Ankara, and Mardin. I especially loved driving all over the Mardin province with the group, it really feels like the northern "edge" of the middle east there. And since Istanbul is so much larger than Ankara, is there an embassy in both cities? Or just a consulate in one or the other?
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Apr 26, 2012 09:41
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the_chavi posted:What was the NGO, and what was the project? I have a lot of contacts who are originally from Mardin (Syriac Christians). I never got to visit during this tour, lamentably, but I'm hoping to serve in Ankara in the next 5-10 years, at which point I hope we'll make it down there a few times on road trips. It was an Exkursion for the NGO head's (who was also my boss, this guy) philosophy class. Here's a press release. I was the only American in the group. Best lunch I ever had in my life was in the Kurdish quarter of Ankara on mother's day. We went to I think 3 different Syriac Christian monasteries in the Mardin province and even met the archbishop.
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Apr 30, 2012 16:25
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First time taking the FSOT today. Was easier than I thought it would be, though I'm still not holding my breath. I went with the PR cone, but I have no idea what their quota for hiring in that cone would be. Next time (and there's no doubt there will be a next time ) I'll probably just go Consular to up my chances.
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Jun 7, 2012 01:29
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What do you guys think of the movie In the Loop? Personally it's one of my favorites.
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Jun 11, 2012 19:37
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Not sure, I bought it on DVD in a blockbuster 2 years ago. "White Stripes, out! ... There's only two people in the White Stripes."
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Jun 11, 2012 23:50
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Apparently there's an "Arctic Region" post too.
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Jun 12, 2012 19:41
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The FSOT results are in! ...and apparently my essay wasn't good enough. It's strange because I was a writing tutor in college, seems kinda hard to mess up. Oh well. What a great birthday today is so far 
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Jun 27, 2012 15:51
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Quarex posted:I know my Dad had a lot of trouble getting his clearance in the late 1970s, and his life was about as drama/vice-free as mine (but with similar random handfuls of foreign friends he kept in contact with, no mean feat for pre-Internet communications). What do you mean, things might have changed in 35 years? Wait, is it actually bad to say what kind of non-American friends you have on the FSOT?
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Jun 4, 2013 16:21
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Hey all. Haven't thought about this thread in about 2 years or so, but on a whim I decided to give the FSOT another shot and finally passed the written portion. Now that I've been in the real (read: business) world for four years since leaving undergrad, my writing style was totally different and the whole test seemed like a breeze. On to the personal narratives!
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Oct 27, 2016 22:08
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Shageletic posted:Turns out I passed the PNQ! Been posting in this thread for four years, and tried the FSOT 4 times, so it's a big thing for me. Could I ask what sector you're coming from? I ended up failing the PNQs. I wonder if it's because one of the references was a contractor I've worked regularly with for 3 years, and whether they counted that as an "employee" I have charge over which would disqualify me. Unfortunately the email's language didn't indicate anything either way.
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Jan 3, 2017 19:51
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Tyro posted:https://twitter.com/EmilyGorcenski/status/824695356436815872 Looks like Christmas came early for Trump and Tillerson. They're gonna fill those slots with whoever the hell they want. Guess my failing the personal narratives this year was a happy accident...!
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Jan 28, 2017 00:53
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