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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:I'm curious how much languages affect your assignments. I'm pretty strong In Japanese, French, and Spanish. I guess only one of those counts toward your qualifying points, but if by some stroke of luck I actually got into the Foreign Service, would my language abilities influence my posts? Are you, for instance, more likely to get an assignment in Japan if you don't need to sit through the language training? Most Foreign Service generalist jobs are listed to allow time for language training before the assignment. This means that having the language does not, per se, give someone a leg up. Now, if timing is short, it might be an advantage, but the opposite could work against you: if there are six months built into a Spanish-speaking job to learn Spanish, they aren't going to have you sitting around for half a year. They will train someone else and send you somewhere else. That said, you are more likely to get a job requiring Spanish or French than you are one using Japanese, just based on the sheer number of entry-level jobs available using each language. Problems like this are most common early on in a career; once you hit the middle ranks, you can bid on jobs "early" if you already have sufficient skill in the language so that the job start time lines up with the end of your current job. Now, if you test in a critical-needs language and receive the points during the hiring process, you will almost certainly go to a job using that language during one of your first two tours. There is no such requirement for points in other languages.
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Jan 14, 2011 20:25
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HisMajestyBOB posted:So anyone else who sent in their PNQs in November still not hear anything back yet? waiting impatiently.
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Jan 14, 2011 21:06
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I hate the sounding board.
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Jan 14, 2011 21:32
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Vilerat posted:I hate the sounding board. Hah, must have missed this gem.
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Jan 14, 2011 23:25
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HisMajestyBOB posted:So anyone else who sent in their PNQs in November still not hear anything back yet? Come on reject me already!
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Jan 14, 2011 23:57
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My mother is a Foreign Service Officer currently posted in DC, and before the State Department she was with the Peace Corps. I spent a good deal of my *young* childhood living in Accra, Ghana (a country on Africa's West coast, for those who don't know). The older I get the more I realize what an amazing experience that was for me, I mean how many kids can say they lived in Africa? When we first moved back to the states I remember saying to myself that I've already done more travelling than most people do in a lifetime and I'm going to spend the rest of my life living in the US. Well I'm now a sophomore in college, and over the last 6 months I've been missing Ghana more and more. I've even been considering following in my mother's footsteps in a career in Foreign Service - and hopefully getting posted somewhere in Africa again. I've applied for a summer clerical internship inside the DoS for this coming summer, desperately hoping I can snag a position and get my foot in the door. Very cool to see a thread about the State Department.
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Jan 16, 2011 08:21
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So I've been giving this a lot of thought as far as trying to get into this job when I get out of the military, but I have one question. What's the policy on tattoos? Full sleeve on both arms in particular? Nothing offensive and nothing that would be visible with a suit on. For someone looking at trying to get into the Consular or Political tracks, would I be pretty much out of luck or would that be acceptable?
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Jan 17, 2011 22:35
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Rabbi Of Doom posted:So I've been giving this a lot of thought as far as trying to get into this job when I get out of the military, but I have one question. What's the policy on tattoos? Full sleeve on both arms in particular? Nothing offensive and nothing that would be visible with a suit on. For someone looking at trying to get into the Consular or Political tracks, would I be pretty much out of luck or would that be acceptable? No idea about sleeves, but nobody ever said anything about my two chest pieces.
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Jan 17, 2011 22:37
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When I spoke with a diplomat in residence at my old uni about this she said that as long as you can cover them up while in professional attire you are more likely ok rather than not. According to her the State is fairly lenient on these things so you shouldn't rule yourself out just because of them but just to make sure I'd check with some one who has more authority on the subject than I do (I have none except what I'm passing along).
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Jan 18, 2011 01:41
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How about this one: I'm an immigration attorney, and do a lot of consular practice. (Representation of visa applicants at consular posts abroad.) This means I've been adverse to FSOs quite often in the past, mostly in Colombia. I've been through the cycle three times now. The first two, I washed out at the Oral Assessment (passed structured interview both times, passed the group exercise once, bombed the case management exercise both times.) The last time, I was dinged at the Qtip phase. I'm planning on breezing through the written exam again in May, when I can take it next. How much of a liability or asset would my immigration practice be if I went for the consular cone? In the past, I've always listed the economic or political cone.
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Jan 18, 2011 23:48
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Rabbi Of Doom posted:So I've been giving this a lot of thought as far as trying to get into this job when I get out of the military, but I have one question. What's the policy on tattoos? Full sleeve on both arms in particular? Nothing offensive and nothing that would be visible with a suit on. For someone looking at trying to get into the Consular or Political tracks, would I be pretty much out of luck or would that be acceptable? Knew a guy with a full on Scott Ian beard and full sleeves on both arms. He had a shitload of earrings and a nose ring. He took off the nose ring and most of the earrings at work and his clothes covered his tats so nobody cared.
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Jan 19, 2011 14:46
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Question bout promotion times -- Let's say I'm coming in as FP-5 Step 9 -- what should I expect in terms of frequency/amount of promotions/raises?
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Jan 19, 2011 21:29
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SWATJester posted:Question bout promotion times -- Let's say I'm coming in as FP-5 Step 9 -- what should I expect in terms of frequency/amount of promotions/raises? There is a chart from the book Career Diplomacy that shows average time to promotion: http://books.google.com/books?id=MPZR1Lt1byAC&lpg=PP1&dq=career%20diplomacy&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q=career%20trajectory&f=false
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Jan 20, 2011 02:03
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Not quite what I'm asking. How much time in grade/time in step is needed for instance to go up to the next step/grade? Isn't there some point where I automatically skip to FP-4 step 5 or something like that, and go from there? At 1 yr, 3 yr, and 5 yr from now, what could I expect my pay grade to be?
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Jan 20, 2011 03:24
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I submitted my application for the FSOT on Monday but still haven't gotten an email about a testing location. Is this normal?
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Jan 20, 2011 03:57
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Omits-Bagels posted:I submitted my application for the FSOT on Monday but still haven't gotten an email about a testing location. Is this normal? It took months for me.
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Jan 20, 2011 05:25
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SWATJester posted:Question bout promotion times -- Let's say I'm coming in as FP-5 Step 9 -- what should I expect in terms of frequency/amount of promotions/raises? Promotions up to 04 are administrative. An officer will be promoted to 05 after 12 months as an 06. Promotion to 04 is after 18 months as an 05. If you are an 04 and tenured, you are eligible for promotion to 03, which is competitive. After that, you have to spend three years at grade before being considered for promotion to the next grade. Steps generally come one year after your most recent promotion and each year after until the next promotion. Once you get to the high end of a pay grade, the steps might only come every two years, but I'm not 100% clear on that. The new pay grade/step after a promotion is calculated in such a way as to ensure you will be making more money at the new grade even if you were near the top of the old grade, so you don't have to worry about losing money, etc.
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Jan 20, 2011 10:46
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Omits-Bagels posted:I submitted my application for the FSOT on Monday but still haven't gotten an email about a testing location. Is this normal?
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Jan 21, 2011 22:35
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Business of Ferrets posted:Promotions up to 04 are administrative. An officer will be promoted to 05 after 12 months as an 06. Promotion to 04 is after 18 months as an 05. If you are an 04 and tenured, you are eligible for promotion to 03, which is competitive. After that, you have to spend three years at grade before being considered for promotion to the next grade. Steps generally come one year after your most recent promotion and each year after until the next promotion. Once you get to the high end of a pay grade, the steps might only come every two years, but I'm not 100% clear on that. The new pay grade/step after a promotion is calculated in such a way as to ensure you will be making more money at the new grade even if you were near the top of the old grade, so you don't have to worry about losing money, etc. Speaking of which - is the foreign service up or out? Or can you sit in a grade for a while. Also at what grade do most people generally retire it. In the Army it's as an O-5, which would be equivalent to a FS-2.
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Jan 22, 2011 01:27
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Happydayz posted:Speaking of which - is the foreign service up or out? Or can you sit in a grade for a while. You can sit in grade for a while. Once you open your window for senior foreign service you have a limited amount of time though.
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Jan 22, 2011 20:23
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To you guys that are already in State, is there any worry or concern being expressed over hiring freezes/staff reductions now that the House has gone full retard? Earlier in the thread there was gossip about State adding more FSOs so hiring would be for a short time slightly less cut throat until they increase their numbers. Snowballs chance in hell that this is still the case?
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Jan 23, 2011 05:27
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Vilerat posted:Once you open your window for senior foreign service you have a limited amount of time though. What do you mean by this? Do you mean that once you become SFS eligible you have to promote into the SFS within the first few years or else you'll never enter SFS, or do you mean that if you don't enter SFS you'll be cut loose/driven out?
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Jan 23, 2011 06:41
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JohnnyHildo posted:What do you mean by this? Do you mean that once you become SFS eligible you have to promote into the SFS within the first few years or else you'll never enter SFS, or do you mean that if you don't enter SFS you'll be cut loose/driven out? Note that it is "retire," which means that you have a matured pension.
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Jan 23, 2011 07:05
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nm posted:There's an age you have to retire unless you hit SFS (then there's another age for that) I understand that, but I want to ensure that an FSO is not required to retire or separate until they hit the maximum age limit if they hit the journeyman level and decided to stay there instead of trying to promote into SFS. In the military, an officer can be discharged or forced to retire if he or she does not promote to the next highest grade. I want to ensure the FSO structure is not like that once one hits the journeyman grade.
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Jan 23, 2011 08:34
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If I remember right the way it was explained to me is once you reach FS1 you make your bid for SFS. Once you make that first bid a timer kicks in and if you don't make SFS by the time it runs out (however many years it is to allow you more than one shot at making SFS) you get retired. If you choose to never go for SFS once you reach FS1 after a certain amount of time you are also retired. You might also be able to stay at FS1 until you reach the age cap, I'm not as sure on that one as I am for going for SFS.
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Jan 23, 2011 09:55
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JohnnyHildo posted:I understand that, but I want to ensure that an FSO is not required to retire or separate until they hit the maximum age limit if they hit the journeyman level and decided to stay there instead of trying to promote into SFS. In the military, an officer can be discharged or forced to retire if he or she does not promote to the next highest grade. I want to ensure the FSO structure is not like that once one hits the journeyman grade.
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Jan 23, 2011 09:57
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So the testing center in my city is full and the nearest city is like 4 hours away. Normally I would just take the day off work but I don't have any time off (new job). I might just wait until the next round. It is a little annoying but whatever.
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Jan 23, 2011 16:12
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You can stay at FS-01 until you retire if you want. If you are FS-01 and want to play with the big boys you can open your "window" and you have something like 6 years to make SFS before they say you must suck and you gotta go.
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Jan 23, 2011 16:58
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so do most competent people retire at FS-1? Or is FS-2 where most people retire at?
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Jan 23, 2011 18:31
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Happydayz posted:so do most competent people retire at FS-1? Or is FS-2 where most people retire at? For generalists, either FS-01 or SFS. It seems like lots of Dip. Security agents retire at FS-02, but no idea if that is common with other specialist categories.
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Jan 23, 2011 19:26
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Just got my letter, not going any further past the QEP stage. Ah well, I'll give it another shot (either this year or in the future).
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Jan 24, 2011 18:20
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One of my friends just got back from his OA in D.C. He said that out of the 25 people they had that day, NOBODY advanced (apparently they were candid and said it was due to budget cuts, etc.).
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Jan 24, 2011 19:05
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harperdc posted:Just got my letter, not going any further past the QEP stage. Ah well, I'll give it another shot (either this year or in the future). Ditto here. A bummer to be sure, but it's not like I wasn't expecting it to go any differently. I'll take it again down the road too.
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Jan 24, 2011 19:07
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yeah, what gives? Denied also. I have been back for the OA before. I'm sure I ticked all the right boxes. Military translator, War veteran, lived overseas for years, even did an internship at the FSI years ago during my Junior year at college. What else do they need to qualify for the inteview? Without sounding bitter - this is really strange. As far as I know, they didn't even contact my reference. Whereas in 2009 (the last time I did this) they contacted my ref. Hmmm....something fishy this year. leightos fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Jan 24, 2011 |
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Jan 24, 2011 19:28
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Bitter rejectment for me as well. Second time I've passed the test but not advanced past the QEP. Last time they called my contacts and this time they did not.
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Jan 24, 2011 19:35
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It's going to be a tough year for QEP because the registers are so full.
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Jan 24, 2011 19:35
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Welp
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Jan 24, 2011 21:25
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I made it past the QEP.
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Jan 24, 2011 23:48
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JohnnyHildo posted:I made it past the QEP. congrats, and good luck on the OA 
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Jan 24, 2011 23:57
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JohnnyHildo posted:I made it past the QEP. Congrats - when you go back for the OA, let us in on any news and if there were cut backs on the invitations. cheers
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Jan 25, 2011 03:36
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