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These PNs are killing me. I'm trying to hit a lot of the 13 Ds but I don't know how strong my narratives really are since I lack pretty much any international experience.
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Apr 13, 2010 03:14
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I've taken 3 years of college courses in Mandarin, but my speaking/writing isn't that great. At what level does your language skill benefit your chances of acceptance? Somebody said level 2, but what does that translate to? Can a level 2 read a Chinese newspaper and do a job interview in Mandarin? Can a level 3? I can do neither of those things, so I'm wondering if it's worth my time to bust my rear end before the oral. e: oh I see this is on their site: FSOT posted:
If 2 is the number I would need to hit to get bonus points, that is very doable. Is 2 the number? If my current proficiency is 1 but I am confident I can reach 2 by the time of the oral, should I go ahead and put down 2 on the application? Would it be worth it to shoot for 3, because I could probably hit that if I really worked hard at it? adisca fucked around with this message at 18:55 on Apr 13, 2010 |
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Apr 13, 2010 18:14
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Haha, here's another question. A lot of my employment experience involves jobs where I was paid off the books: while working in a Chinese-owned retail store, and another job in a Chinese restaurant. That's just how they roll! Does the State Department care? Will they check my tax records and realize I am a bad person? Should I leave these huge gaps in my employment history out of my resume?
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Apr 13, 2010 18:24
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They'll find out about during the background investigation whether or not you put it on your resume. I can't imagine they'd check for the purposes of reviewing your resume though.
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Apr 13, 2010 19:39
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AKA Pseudonym posted:They'll find out about during the background investigation whether or not you put it on your resume. I can't imagine they'd check for the purposes of reviewing your resume though. How would they find out? Would they care?
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Apr 13, 2010 20:23
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They find everything out eventually.
Wickerman fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Nov 11, 2013 |
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Apr 13, 2010 20:40
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adisca posted:How would they find out? Would they care? They care about everything. If you don't tell them that you were working during a certain time period they want you to give them someone who can confirm that you were unemployed and how you supported yourself during the period of unemployment. They will also ask if you ever lied on your taxes. You are better off just telling them up front. It is extra true if you get through to the security clearance stage as fibbing to a federal investigator is itself a crime.
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Apr 13, 2010 20:57
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Bizob posted:They care about everything. If you don't tell them that you were working during a certain time period they want you to give them someone who can confirm that you were unemployed and how you supported yourself during the period of unemployment. They will also ask if you ever lied on your taxes. You are better off just telling them up front. It is extra true if you get through to the security clearance stage as fibbing to a federal investigator is itself a crime. Gotcha. Thanks. e: can anyone comment on my other question? adisca fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Apr 13, 2010 |
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Apr 13, 2010 21:06
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adisca posted:Gotcha. Thanks. It's a security issue so probably not. They are looking for vulnerabilities.
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Apr 14, 2010 01:26
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adisca posted:I've taken 3 years of college courses in Mandarin, but my speaking/writing isn't that great. At what level does your language skill benefit your chances of acceptance? Somebody said level 2, but what does that translate to? Can a level 2 read a Chinese newspaper and do a job interview in Mandarin? Can a level 3? I can do neither of those things, so I'm wondering if it's worth my time to bust my rear end before the oral. This site will tell you everything you need to know about the language scale. For Mandarin, you need to speak at a level 2 to get the extra points during the hiring process. If you can't read a newspaper or do a job interview, level 3 is basically not within your reach unless you move to a Chinese-speaking area for an extended period of time. When you fill out the application, you should put down your estimated level at that time.
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Apr 14, 2010 06:34
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adisca posted:I've taken 3 years of college courses in Mandarin, but my speaking/writing isn't that great. At what level does your language skill benefit your chances of acceptance? Somebody said level 2, but what does that translate to? Can a level 2 read a Chinese newspaper and do a job interview in Mandarin? Can a level 3? I can do neither of those things, so I'm wondering if it's worth my time to bust my rear end before the oral. If you're still a 1 at spoken Mandarin after 3 years (6 semesters?), you're either either pretty modest or had bad teachers. Or  , I guess
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Apr 14, 2010 13:21
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Pompous Rhombus posted:If you're still a 1 at spoken Mandarin after 3 years (6 semesters?), you're either either pretty modest or had bad teachers. Or I might be at a 2, but I would like to get more comfortable with it before being put on the spot. My listening comprehension is particularly poor - I can get lost really quickly and lose the ability to hear even words I recognize. Yes, it was 6 semesters. The teachers weren't so bad, but the curriculum was terrible. We did almost all character memorization and no practical use - especially not conversation. I opted to learn traditional characters instead of simplified and passed with all A's at the top of the class, but yeah, I'm not that confident with it. It certainly feels like a lot of time wasted considering how quickly I could've picked it up abroad.
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Apr 14, 2010 17:07
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So, Vilerat, at the W. Virginia driving & shooting course are the instructors more crew-cut or mullet? I imagine the explosives expert to be some guy with no eyebrows who talks real loud.
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Apr 19, 2010 14:45
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Now that my FSO hopes didn't pan out, I'm looking elsewhere for jobs in international development. Do you guys think I should mention the fact that I made it to the Oral assessment when writing cover letters, or should I not mention it at all seeing as I wasn't able to pass. I figure it shows an interest in the field... but I can see it as a negative as well. Thoughts?
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Apr 19, 2010 20:58
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Business of Ferrets posted:So, Vilerat, at the W. Virginia driving & shooting course are the instructors more crew-cut or mullet? You are going to love that course a whole bunch. They add one some weapons familiarity training that is worthless, but the driving portion really teaches you some fun skills. Driving fast through cones is great and the skid track was a lot of fun. Ramming through another car of course is the highlight.
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Apr 19, 2010 21:35
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Hmm, apparently there are a poo poo ton of 5.7's on the POL register. Hopefully they'll be cleared off by the time I get on.
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Apr 19, 2010 21:39
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adisca posted:I might be at a 2, but I would like to get more comfortable with it before being put on the spot. My listening comprehension is particularly poor - I can get lost really quickly and lose the ability to hear even words I recognize. Yes, it was 6 semesters. The teachers weren't so bad, but the curriculum was terrible. We did almost all character memorization and no practical use - especially not conversation. I opted to learn traditional characters instead of simplified and passed with all A's at the top of the class, but yeah, I'm not that confident with it. It certainly feels like a lot of time wasted considering how quickly I could've picked it up abroad. I think I was like a 1+ in spoken after 1 semester a couple years previous and then 3 months (9 weeks of it studying at BLCU) in Beijing, and BLCU wasn't a particularly good program. It makes a big difference being around it all day. It's not really much of a listening test (if they use the same phone testing service I've done), they ask you a question and have you answer. They try to say it's supposed to be like a conversation and not a script, but you can tell they have certain things they want to cover/ask you. One of them will be to describe a recent news event or whatever of your choosing, so it helps to study up that. There's no part where you have to listen to some extended speech and then give comprehension. As the interview goes on the questions get longer and more complex, but I don't think it ever exceeded a couple of longish sentences. You just need to parse them for the relevant bits and hold them in your mind (or jot them down) while you take in the rest. All in all, the test really didn't feel like they were examining listening comprehension much at all, seemed more heavily skewed towards speech. I did find it a lot more difficult over the phone, I feel my score would have been one grade higher (they were using a newer 1-9 scale, which has ILR equivalents) if I'd been able to do the interview face to face. A lot of communication is non-verbal, and I'm really not a phone person at all, even in English. CherryCola took it recently for Urdu, she could probably answer questions about it more definitively than I could. My tests weren't done through State, but it was for a government job that uses the same language scale so I don't think it'd be radically dissimilar.
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Apr 20, 2010 00:20
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I'm pretty sure there are some decent recaps of the phone test State uses on the Yahoo boards.
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Apr 20, 2010 17:55
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The phone test kind of sucked. They were on speakerphone which would make them hard to understand even if they weren't speaking in Urdu. I didn't think I did very well because I had to ask her to repeat herself about 50 times, but I still passed. It's useful to review some political vocab beforehand and to know your current events, because I was asked one question about that. Other than that it was mostly conversational stuff about my family and where I like (I won't give any specific questions) but yeah, I would recommend just having as many conversations as you can in the target language. review vocabulary and practice practice practice.
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Apr 20, 2010 19:26
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Vilerat posted:You are going to love that course a whole bunch. They add one some weapons familiarity training that is worthless, but the driving portion really teaches you some fun skills. Driving fast through cones is great and the skid track was a lot of fun. Ramming through another car of course is the highlight. Same as the homeland course! Do they still give you the good ol' shitbox vs a GMC Suburban?
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Apr 20, 2010 21:13
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Skandiaavity posted:Same as the homeland course! Do they still give you the good ol' shitbox vs a GMC Suburban? oh hell no you ram a car that can't move on its own with another car that can barely move on its own. Tons of fun though. I ended up loving it up and t-boning the target car which defeated the purpose somewhat, but still awesome.
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Apr 21, 2010 13:32
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Vilerat posted:oh hell no you ram a car that can't move on its own with another car that can barely move on its own. Tons of fun though. I ended up loving it up and t-boning the target car which defeated the purpose somewhat, but still awesome. That sounds hella fun. I suppose you gave DSS insight on the amateur aspect of it, if you rammed the target car; one could say it was successful from the other perspective. the evasive driving class is always the most fun for me. Be Jason Bourne for an hour!
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Apr 21, 2010 15:10
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Skandiaavity posted:That sounds hella fun. I suppose you gave DSS insight on the amateur aspect of it, if you rammed the target car; one could say it was successful from the other perspective. Oh it's awesome. They set off explosions and act like you're being attacked, they also have the driver "die" and you have to take control while they are still in the drivers seat. Everything about the class is just pure fun and totally worth it.
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Apr 21, 2010 18:31
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If I work for the Census, does this hurt my chances of Foreign Service work?
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Apr 22, 2010 02:09
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Wickerman posted:If I work for the Census, does this hurt my chances of Foreign Service work? No. Was there a specific concern you had?
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Apr 22, 2010 02:44
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Business of Ferrets posted:No. Was there a specific concern you had? I wasn't sure if it was treated like the Peace Corps was, or whatnot. I just wanted to be sure. 
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Apr 22, 2010 02:51
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Wickerman posted:I wasn't sure if it was treated like the Peace Corps was, or whatnot. I just wanted to be sure. Peace Corps will not hurt your chances for the FS. You're thinking of the Intelligence Community, where it could be an issue. Census work would not affect either one.
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Apr 22, 2010 03:01
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Why would any government agency care if you were in the peace corps? I thought it was the other way around.
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Apr 22, 2010 11:56
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Vilerat posted:Why would any government agency care if you were in the peace corps? I thought it was the other way around. It is just the CIA/Intelligence Community that cares. I think you're banned for 5 years after you finish the peace corps before you can join the CIA. I guess they want to distance themselves because some countries think somepeace corps people are actually spies.
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Apr 22, 2010 15:16
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Omits-Bagels posted:It is just the CIA/Intelligence Community that cares. I think you're banned for 5 years after you finish the peace corps before you can join the CIA. In fact, applicants with a background in intelligence are barred for a minimum of 10 years from service with the Peace Corps and CIA employees are permanently barred from service. Even being related to someone with such a background can be cause for ineligibility.
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Apr 22, 2010 15:55
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The Economist - 12 issues for $12, 1 year for $48 http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3295133 I though your foreign service people would find this interesting.
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Apr 22, 2010 23:07
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Talking about careers with my dad sometime ago. He mentioned US Foreign Service and it really peaked my interest. So I started reading some stuff, mostly what state had on its website and the yahoo groups before finding this thread. I haven't read the this whole thread so If its been discussed I apologize. The selection process seems way too hard for someone like me. I'm a native Spanish speaker and I'd say my proficiency in German is probably a 2 (two years in high school and two semesters in college so far) but that's probably where my positives end. I wont be getting an impressive degree (I'm in the middle of changing) probably just something lame and easy like Poli Sci. I'm of average or slightly below average intelligence. I easily scored the lowest of all my friends on the SAT (1190 before they added writing though) I got back into college late, I'm 23 and by the time I graduate I think most people my age will have for more impressive resumes. Reading accounts of the selection process here and elsewhere is really discouraging, you all seem to be smarter and better educated than me. So my question is, if I committed and put in the effort what are the chances I could make this my career. Just reading what people go through makes seem pretty hard, and I'd hate to make decisions about my major or classes based on a career path I'd have absolutely no way of getting into. Ciprian Maricon fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Apr 23, 2010 |
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Apr 23, 2010 12:51
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I dunno about that, but the FS takes people from all walks. You can say it applies to anything, but if it's your goal, then go for it. Don't think of it as time wasted, its really easy to look back and say "if I got a 1600 on the SAT, would I even be in this spot thinking about the foreign service?" , but look at it like it's lessons learned. Like saying "okay i got a 1190, but i know what i want to do in life so i'll try harder to succeed" Life's kinda complex but it has a way of sorting itself out for you. But I can tell you this: if you give up before you try, you'll never know.
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Apr 23, 2010 15:01
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Originally I was just going to post: "Piqued." (http://www.dissociatedpress.net/2007/02/26/peak-vs-pique/) but then I read the rest of your post and felt like a dick. I think it costs ~$50 to take the FSOT. Turning in the online application is free. With that in mind, I don't see any reason not to at least try. Study up on US History, English, etc and take the test. If you pass, you pass. If you don't, reevaluate and decide whether or not to take it again. You can't win if you never play.
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Apr 23, 2010 15:19
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I'm pretty sure your credit card is only charged if you are an FSOT no-show. Otherwise there is no charge at all.
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Apr 23, 2010 15:25
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Miss Fats posted:Originally I was just going to post: "Piqued." (http://www.dissociatedpress.net/2007/02/26/peak-vs-pique/) but then I read the rest of your post and felt like a dick. Hahahaha well that's a confidence builder.  Cut me some slack English is a hard second language.Miss Fats posted:You can't win if you never play. Oh no doubt, I don't mean to sound like such a downer. Its not so much deciding if I want to play, its more a decision about whether I want to play this particular game or another one. It's not the test that makes me hesitant but it seems that if I wanted to be competitive in selection I'd need to make some decisions now about picking up a different language, certain classes to take, and decide maybe to volunteer abroad. I'd really like to understand my chances before I make a serious commitment to learning Chinese or something. If the odds are something like only 1/100 people getting in then I can still take the test and try, but I might want to focus my studies elsewhere know what I mean? Skandiaavity posted:Don't think of it as time wasted Ha. Ive been hearing this a lot lately, but I just spent two years, lots of money and endured a lot of frustration to find out that I'm not smart enough to be an Engineer. When your transcript is filled with a lot of classes that don't apply to gently caress all its very easy to feel like it was time, money, and effort wasted. Ciprian Maricon fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Apr 23, 2010 |
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Apr 23, 2010 15:55
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I'm probably not the right person to say, but I saw nothing in the FS about a requirement for a second language, FYI. It's just a benefit to help you with the process. that said it's never a good idea to place all your eggs in one basket, and the FS is no exception. A lot of people go in and think they'll ace it and they end up not passing. It happened to me on my first time  Maybe I'm being a little too honest, but it seems like you're looking for an easy route? Once you make it in the FS I am sure it's exhilarating because you know you overcame those kind of odds. Yeah, it has a crazy low acceptance rate - so do a lot of things - but why are you letting that get in the way? You should do whatever you want to do in life. If you really wanna be an engineer, then go for it. If you're not sure, try it out. Who knows, maybe you won't even like that field. Or who knows, maybe the FS/USAID/etc will need engineers to build stuff like houses or infrastructure edit: speaking from personal experience, a little misdirection is actually more beneficial to you. It sounds cheesy, I know, but your parents, peers, etc can put a lot of pressure on you due to them having high hopes & expectations for you, but in the end, it's your life. and pardon my rude language, but anyone who tells you that you're not smart enough to be an engineer, especially if they're college advisers - gently caress 'em. If that's what you wanna do, then do it and prove them wrong. Skandiaavity fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Apr 23, 2010 |
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Apr 23, 2010 16:48
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Coitus_Interruptus posted:The selection process seems way too hard for someone like me. I'm a native Spanish speaker and I'd say my proficiency in German is probably a 2 (two years in high school and two semesters in college so far) but that's probably where my positives end. Not that it matters since you're a native speaker and will get your .17 for Spanish, but 2 years of high school german and a couple semesters of college is probably not going to get you a 2. It's probably closer to a 1 or 1+.
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Apr 23, 2010 19:08
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Skandiaavity posted:Maybe I'm being a little too honest, but it seems like you're looking for an easy route? Hardly, but I am looking for something that's within my limitations. Skandiaavity posted:but anyone who tells you that you're not smart enough to be an engineer I flunked out of my program all one my own despite lots of very supportive people. Skandiaavity posted:it's never a good idea to place all your eggs in one basket Which is exactly why I'd like a clear picture of the challenge at hand before I decide exactly how many eggs I'd like to commit to this particular basket. Whats the failure rate? Number of applicants per openings? Is it just a matter of trying a few times or is it one of those things that only a relatively small number of really strong candidates will get to do? Guys while I appreciate the "go get em's" its not exactly what I'm looking for. Just some simple assesments like "Its an intensive selection process but attainable for most if you work at it" or "It's a good idea to have another plan because most people wont ever be selected" would be really beneficial. Right now who gets through QEP and who doesn't seems almost random. SWATJester posted:2 years of high school german and a couple semesters of college is probably not going to get you a 2. It's probably closer to a 1 or 1+. Cool thanks. If I where to decide to pick up a language do you guys think it would be better to choose one of the more in demand languages or continue with German? Ciprian Maricon fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Apr 23, 2010 |
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Apr 23, 2010 21:37
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Pick a language that you're interested in (or rather the culture/country that speaks that language.)
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Apr 24, 2010 00:38
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