Foreign Service hopefuls

Deborah — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:11:26 +0000

I’ve noticed that a lot of people have been finding this blog after searching for US Foreign Service terms. I assume that the majority of you are landing on this post, which briefly describes my experience when I applied. I remember how crazy I went trying to find any bit of information during the process, so if you have any specific questions about anything leading up the oral exam, feel free to send them to me at deborah[at]balancedmeltingpot.com.

Best of luck to all of you!

Makes sense, right?

Deborah — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:12:55 +0000

I guess it’s no secret that my husband and I enjoy the possibility of moving to new places; especially abroad. Back in June, before my husband’s transfer was finalized, I decided to research the process of joining the Department of State’s Foreign Service. I’m not going to go into too much detail about the process, as other candidates have done a thorough job with this already. My experience with the process has been the following:

June 2009: Took the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT)

July 2009: Notified that I passed the FSOT and needed to submit my Personal Narrative Questionnaire (PNQ) within three weeks

July 2009: Submitted my PNQ’s

September 2009: Notified that I was invited to the Oral Assessment (OA) and had 30 days to schedule

September 2009: Picked February to take the OA

I’m sure the next logical question is: how does this all fit in to your plan of moving to Caracas?

Hmmm, it doesn’t. Well, sort of…

The plan is, if I pass the OA in February, my Top Secret Security Clearance can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months (sometimes 1 year) and given the amount of traveling I have done, I am banking on at least 6 months. That takes us to August 2010. Then, if I make it past adjudications, I will then be placed on the register waiting to be called for the next A-100 class (orientation for all Foreign Service Officers). At that point, I have the option of being asked to be placed on the Do Not Call list for up to 12 months; therefore, potentially being called off the register in August 2011. By then, we will have been in Caracas almost two years and will consider our options at that time.

Why the self-induced torture? I think I went through the process 1) for the experience and 2) to keep our options open. Makes sense, right?

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Foreign Service hopefuls

Makes sense, right?