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internetstuff posted:Hey all. I read the last couple of pages of this thread, but I haven't seen this question directly addressed: It doesn't list (S)CNLs on the website, but I can't imagine the point system or anything has changed. I'm guessing that the only thing that the language being after orals means is that you only have to worry about bonus points if you pass the orals, which can mean the difference between your passing score being high enough on the register to get hired or not. I think you can also pretty much call up at any time after you pass the orals to schedule a test to get your score up, too, giving you time to take a refresher course or prep for it or whatever if need be.
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# ? Nov 13, 2011 15:24 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 15:03 |
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TCD posted:Other countries do the same as us, but can stay longer. Like 5-10 years. Honestly, I'm kinda excited by having only a 2 year period in a country. It takes a surprisingly short time to get acclimated to a country (and incredibly, frustratingly long, if ever, to get a handle on it anywhere close to what a native might). This way you get to experience a bunch of countries. Still working on my PNS. 1300 characters! That's crazy! It's like the ultimate way to have a person second guessing their answers.
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# ? Nov 13, 2011 20:17 |
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After reading the handy and oh-so-charming summaries from Business of Ferrets and Diplomaticus, I thought I'd finally throw my hat in the ring as well. I'm a PD-coned officer currently doing ACS work. Just had my three-year anniversary in the FS this year, too. I'm also on medevac right now, so I'll try to answer questions relating to that. But first, to contribute to the OP: a little about Public Affairs/Public Diplomacy...
What's the day-to-day like? Generally, if you're in the office all the time and not out meeting people, you're doing it wrong. But seriously, it can be one of the most fun jobs overseas - not unlike being a federal party planner at times. To provide a very very general summary of the work:
Edited for typos and flow. Argh. Zoots fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Nov 14, 2011 |
# ? Nov 14, 2011 02:01 |
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Wow, great addition Wazoo. That or Econ is what I'm aiming at right now!
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# ? Nov 14, 2011 07:31 |
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I agree, Wazoo, that is very interesting. Could you elaborate a bit on your background before you joined the FS? University study, international experience, what kind of career you had before the FS, how many times you took the FSOT, etc. Thanks!
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# ? Nov 14, 2011 15:30 |
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internetstuff posted:I agree, Wazoo, that is very interesting. Could you elaborate a bit on your background before you joined the FS? University study, international experience, what kind of career you had before the FS, how many times you took the FSOT, etc. Thanks! Glad I can be of use -- especially since this lets me kind of stay plugged in while I'm in medevac limbo. I studied broadcast communication and French lit in college. I opted to go straight out into the working world following my graduation in 2006. I still have my sights set on getting my Master's, but I'm not too keen on saddling myself with a load of debt. Anyway, I was all gung-ho on doing the freelance thing when I graduated. I had the chance to work a lot of big events, like the Olympics and the Kentucky Derby. However, that didn't pay the bills. Working three jobs did - PA at the local TV station, copywriter for a web design firm, and horse ranch hand (I was a "waste management specialist" according to my resume ). Still, that kind of life is really unpredictable and I wanted to start my "career" in earnest. After seeing me troll a bunch of job sites with little success due to a crappy job market, my sister suggested I take the FSOT. She was an intern at Embassy Paris back in the day and she noted her fellow interns all registering to take the exam. So, I looked into it, registered on the PD track (seemed most in line with my interests and background), and studied my brains out using the Yahoo! groups as my jumping-off point. I also had the benefit of guidance from a very good friend who joined the FS a couple years prior. I passed the written exam (don't know my score, sorry) and accepted an invite to the OA. I passed that with a 5.5, got my security and medical clearance in the following months and accepted an offer to join up in summer 2008. After meeting so many awesome people in my A-100 who took the exam multiple times, I count myself extremely fortunate to have made it through on the first try.
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# ? Nov 14, 2011 16:04 |
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By the way, The Hegemonist link in the OP has been defunct for awhile. I like to read Diplopundit, myself. The author trolls all the FS blogs and current events in DC and provides commentary with a good deal of snark: https://diplopundit.blogspot.com Zoots fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Nov 14, 2011 |
# ? Nov 14, 2011 16:15 |
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Yeah I'll update the OP with your stuff soon. Walked into main state today, was going in the door as Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough were walking out. That was pretty rad.
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# ? Nov 14, 2011 21:22 |
Diplomaticus posted:Yeah I'll update the OP with your stuff soon. Yeah once you've been in for a bit you'll end up with a lot of weird 'holy poo poo was that just..." stories. I was in DC working on some radio equipment at some DS posting somewhere and the Dalai lama walked by me in the hallway. It was a real what the gently caress moment. My favs were the secretary's detail trips where you'd deploy and set up all the comm gear for the visit, work the visit, then pack up afterwards over the course of 5-6 days. Every time Powell went on a trip with his wife he'd order salads, any time she wasn't there out come the burgers.
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# ? Nov 15, 2011 09:04 |
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Can anyone tell me anything about working at INR? They're one of the bureaus I applied for an internship with because it's a field I'm interested in, but their doesn't seem to be that much public information on them (which makes sense when you think about it). Has anyone here worked for or with them?
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# ? Nov 16, 2011 03:31 |
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themrguy posted:Can anyone tell me anything about working at INR? They're one of the bureaus I applied for an internship with because it's a field I'm interested in, but their doesn't seem to be that much public information on them (which makes sense when you think about it). Has anyone here worked for or with them? Here you go: "Spy World Success Story" INR is a fantastic bureau with great, smart people who really know their stuff.
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# ? Nov 16, 2011 05:01 |
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Welp, submitted my PNs. I think it went jusssst finnnne.
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# ? Nov 16, 2011 09:17 |
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PNQs submitted after tearing through them with my journo professor, time to hope somebody else thinks my life is cool
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# ? Nov 16, 2011 20:14 |
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Monkey Fury posted:PNQs submitted after tearing through them with my journo professor, time to hope somebody else thinks my life is cool What really messed me up while doing it was reading the help to guide the State Dept. puts out about PNQ's. It was all stuff I already knew, but then they mentioned that in addition to connecting my stories to the dimensions and answering the questions, I needed to mention how it would help me be a Foreign Service Officer. In 1300 characters! What?!
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# ? Nov 16, 2011 23:42 |
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Yeah I have a feeling I screwed the pooch on the PNQs. Despite being warned in this very thread I waited too long to start them. They're not nearly polished enough.
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# ? Nov 17, 2011 00:25 |
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Tyro posted:Yeah I have a feeling I screwed the pooch on the PNQs. Despite being warned in this very thread I waited too long to start them. They're not nearly polished enough. Oh well.
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# ? Nov 17, 2011 01:05 |
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I am more or less satisfied with mine, but my expectations for moving forward with this are so low, that it might just be the joy I found in finishing them.
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# ? Nov 17, 2011 01:58 |
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nm posted:I started the week I got the letter, and I'm still not happy with them.
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# ? Nov 17, 2011 02:42 |
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TCD posted:Yeah... one of my reviewers bailed at the last minute. I have a USAID Mission Director and a Dean at the Foreign Service Institute as some of my references, so here's hoping for the best! Would that be Mr. Wiggins perchance
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# ? Nov 17, 2011 03:13 |
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I didn't feel comfortable with my PN answers either when I submitted them. Reworked them a bunch of times, and ran it by a supervisor to make sure that some of my answers involving clients were within confidentiality rules. But I didn't feel perfectly happy with them when I submitted them, I guess it was good enough.
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# ? Nov 17, 2011 04:25 |
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HOORAY posted:Would that be Mr. Wiggins perchance The Mission Director? No...
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# ? Nov 17, 2011 05:18 |
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Chiming in late here to say my PNQ's got in too. Not enough stories that my friends can verify, I think. Either need some more adventures... or some more friends...
Rangaku fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Nov 17, 2011 |
# ? Nov 17, 2011 17:10 |
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Also submitted my PNQs last night. I'm not too worried about the quality of my writing, but rather, my lack of applicable experiences despite being 26. I guess everyone feels that way, though
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# ? Nov 17, 2011 23:36 |
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TCD posted:The Mission Director? No... No sorry, I thought it might have been the Dean of SAIT at FSI. He's our class mentor and all around awesome dude. Heading down to HST to pick up our dip passports today
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# ? Nov 18, 2011 14:53 |
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Ack, passed 2 out of the 3 sections on the OA for Consular Adjudicator but still got an overall score of 5.1! The Structured Interview again was my Achilles' heel! Welp, looks like it's Peace Corps for me.
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# ? Nov 18, 2011 22:59 |
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Update: Still waiting'. Apparently now I'm going through a Suitability Waiting Phase since my clearance raised some eyebrows. Still heard nothing about an IMS class except a January Rumor, and that hiring will be down in FY 2012. <-- my hopes
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# ? Nov 21, 2011 22:40 |
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Skandiaavity posted:Update: Still waiting'. Apparently now I'm going through a Suitability Waiting Phase since my clearance raised some eyebrows. Still heard nothing about an IMS class except a January Rumor, and that hiring will be down in FY 2012. <-- my hopes Not too surprised to hear about reduced hiring rumors given the current political climate. TCD fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Nov 21, 2011 |
# ? Nov 21, 2011 23:15 |
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Also, according to the yahoo boards for new hirings: FY 2012 Register situation is approximately like this (not counting OA passers awaiting various clearances and fellows, who are additional): PD 159 CONSULAR 138 OR 139 POLITICAL 121 ECONOMIC 139 MANAGEMENT 97 Not to dash anyone's hopes or expectations.
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# ? Nov 22, 2011 00:43 |
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On the other hand, register length doesn't matter a bit if your score is high enough.
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# ? Nov 22, 2011 02:52 |
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Yeah, put it another way, those numbers are way shorter than they were this time 1 year ago. (Pol up in the 250's).
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# ? Nov 22, 2011 16:44 |
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Apologies if this is a really dumb question, but what is "register length" and what does it have to do with those numbers? Related: what do those numbers mean. Yes, I am clueless.
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# ? Nov 23, 2011 08:14 |
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It's the Foreign Service draft picks. When you pass the FSOA and complete all of your clearances, you are placed on a hiring register (there's one for each cone). You are ranked on the register by your score you receive at the end of your OA + any language or veterans points you may have. The highest score will be the #1 position on the register, all the way down for as many names as are on the list. For ties, you are sorted by order of being placed on the register (oldest first). When offers are given out, they start from the highest score on the register, and move down until they run out of offers, skipping anyone on do-not-call status. So, say there are 15 offers in a particular cone for a particular class (e.g. November class, POL cone). The registrars look at the #1 ranked person -- if they aren't on DNC status, they get an offer. Then the #2, etc. Usually a fair amount of the highest scoring people are on DNC status, as their score means they will almost certainly get an offer so they are waiting until it fits their schedule best. So even though in our example there are 15 offers, it is likely that the #17-20 candidates will receive an offer due to DNCs or in rare cases, rejected offers. After 18 months, you are removed from the register, this is referred to as "falling off". Because new people are constantly being added to the registers after each OA session, candidates can move up ranks (as higher ranked people are accepted into classes) or down ranks (as new passers with a higher rank are placed ahead of them on the register). This means that candidates with low scores, generally 5.3-5.5, have little to no chance of being called -- the number of offers is low enough, classes are becoming less common due to budget issues, and the registers are long enough that offers will tend to only make it down a certain distance (lately in the 5.6/5.7 range, though that varies by cone). As a result of self-reporting on the yahoogroups for OA passers, (they have a database called the "shadow register" where people rank themselves by OA passing date, score, language points, DNC status, etc.) you can run the numbers and get a rough estimate of where you fall in the scheme of things, and thus when (or if) you can expect an invite. Or close enough, at least -- when I was up I calculated that I'd get a November invite, and ended up in the March class (my invitation came in January). But, on the round of invites before mine, they called the person in front of me on the POL list, but not me, indicating that's how far they went down. Working backwards, that told me that it was almost certain that I'd be invited for the next class (which I was).
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# ? Nov 23, 2011 08:55 |
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Good information, thanks!
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# ? Nov 23, 2011 09:14 |
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So, is there a goon group in Corridor yet? :-p
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# ? Nov 23, 2011 13:25 |
1of7 posted:So, is there a goon group in Corridor yet? :-p Oh. Facebook for state. What the christ.
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# ? Nov 23, 2011 14:18 |
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Vilerat posted:Oh. Facebook for state. What the christ. Do you have stairs in your housing pool? I see the potential for it - my concern is there's so many tools in place already for State folks to network that adding one more dilutes the effort. Still, it's kind of fun. On a completely different note, I'm super jealous of some of the folks at Post - they're renting a big house in the Italian countryside and doing a big turkey dinner together. As glad as I am that I to get to spend the holidays with my family, I was actually kind of looking forward to another Christmas overseas. The city of Rome really goes all out with decorations and nativity scenes. And a single FSO usually gets tons of invites to other people's homes - so lots of free food! Zoots fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Nov 23, 2011 |
# ? Nov 23, 2011 14:38 |
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meh, nevermind.
Leif. fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Nov 23, 2011 |
# ? Nov 23, 2011 17:21 |
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Oh hey now that I think about it I might get a faster response asking one of you IMS types. Is there a way to make Outlook show the various cable-related columns (MRN, precedence, etc.) in other folders, e.g. an archive folder? Like, if I clean out my cables folder and move them all to an archive folder, it only shows the normal mail columns (from/received/subject/size etc.). I looked around in the "add column" menu but didn't see anything.
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# ? Nov 23, 2011 17:27 |
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Diplomaticus posted:Oh hey now that I think about it I might get a faster response asking one of you IMS types. Yes, but I can't remember how. You're on the right track though. I mean, the cable folder is just a regular folder with the cable fields added. *I think.
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# ? Nov 23, 2011 21:25 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 15:03 |
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So, I log on and see that there are like five new messages in this thread, and I'm thinking it might be something exciting. Government sanctioned social media and tips for Outlook. Sigh.
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# ? Nov 23, 2011 21:36 |