|
Welp I got an air kiss from my fourth choice. Top choice made me #2 out of 50+ bidders, so that's either really great or I'm the first loser. Second and third choices told me to pound sand. At least I'll be happy where I'll end up - good job and quality of life, albeit without the supervision responsibilities I really wanted. And I don't have to go back to DC - aces.
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2020 09:06
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 22, 2024 09:24 |
|
|
1of7 posted:The ones for IRM are out today. Thank goodness, it looks like my #1 is working out as I didn't really have any backups. Congrats! I got mine today too.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 26, 2020 11:02
|
|
|
Natural Ice posted:Things played out as I expected on my end. Didn't end up as BLC for any of my bids, and consular bidders let me know that even the 'low bid' posts i've added have all already been accounted for. Basically been told to just wait until after handshake day and see what's left. RIP me. The top two candidates for my current position dropped out this week - after BLC emails went out - due to unexpected health issues, so it's definitely true that good positions will pop up at random.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 28, 2020 06:38
|
|
|
Hurrah, we have funding - no shutdown today. I am so exhausted by this entire charade of funding showdowns every year.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2020 08:28
|
|
|
Real winners all around. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/26/diplomat-online-activity-blood-and-faith-471755
|
|
#
¿
Feb 26, 2021 21:34
|
|
|
Check out today's cables from Ankara - one of my subordinates got a Queen joke into a cable title. I'm so proud I could burst.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2021 18:58
|
|
|
Tyro posted:Must be a monkey fist out there with a curled fingat. Jesus, I am so sorry. Get well soon, and feel free to remind your boss "JFC I have Covid!" if s/he's still being a poo poo about your EER.
|
|
#
¿
May 2, 2021 07:22
|
|
|
Tyro posted:Well all's well that ends well I suppose, I'm back in the US, my EER was rammed through and described as "very strong" by the SFS chair panel, and my boss put me in for a MHA. Congrats! Glad you survived it all, prepare for reintegration and financial ruin!
|
|
#
¿
May 11, 2021 10:26
|
|
|
TheLemonOfIchabod posted:Hi all, new to the thread. I recently made a couple of posts on the English professor thread griping about my experience in a literature PhD program that I (thankfully) just completed. I feel like applying for the Foreign Service might be a good next step for me. I have considered the career for a while, but I have trouble choosing a track and committing to it. Politics and Public Diplomacy seem, on paper at least, to be the tracks of most interest to me. Politics is maybe of slightly more interest, but I suspect that my resume is more appealing in Public Diplomacy (although I think writing and editing experience are good for both?). What are the factors I should consider choosing between these tracks? I know that Politics is the most competitive track, so I am tempted to go for Public Diplomacy instead, but I know that does not make sense if Politics truly is of greater interest to me. I wouldn't look at what you think your resume prepares you best for but for what interests you the most. You manage people, money, and programs a lot sooner in PD work, and there's a lot of outward-facing events to attend. In POL, academic writing actually isn't usually a good training ground for the written work; it's more about meeting people, asking the right questions, and synthesizing disparate sources into a coherent, short, relevant narrative. Have you spoken to the DIR who covers the region where you live? S/he can probably give you more detailed info. For me, as a closeted introvert, while POL work at the entry/lower mid levels is all about outward facing engagement with people, I still find it much less emotionally taxing than PD work can be. As I'm moving up the ranks, I've found that I enjoy the management side of POL work - managing people and processes, policy recommendations rather than straight information gathering - to be more enjoyable than what I did for my first decade as a poloff.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 25, 2021 03:16
|
|
|
laxbro posted:https://www.plainlanguage.gov/ Precisely - though it will get ripped apart even if it is direct, brief, and clear. It's just how clearances work in an idiosyncratic organization. My all-time record is explaining the significance of the ruined church where the Nicean Creed was promulgated for contemporary U.S. foreign policy in 2 sentences.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 25, 2021 20:19
|
|
|
Spacewolf posted:I realize you maybe can't (or at least shouldn't) go into detail, but that begs for an explanation. What was or is the significance to contemporary foreign policy? This was several years ago, so nothing surprising here. Upshot is that the church was turned into a mosque in the 1400s, abandoned following the 1922 population exchange between Turkey/Greece, then turned into a museum in the middle twentieth century. The government at the time wanted to turn it back into a mosque as a political statement for domestic consumption, which was relevant for how the Turkish republic dealt with the country's ethnic and religious minority communities and major cultural sites built previously, which ties in to the U.S. foreign policy objectives of promoting religious freedom and human rights overseas, as well as the activities and interests of organized lobbying groups in the United States (in this case, the Greek-American diaspora population). It also affected Greek-Turkish relations, unsurprisingly, which causes a major headache inside NATO and in the Eastern Mediterranean more broadly. I had predicted at the time that turning Hagia Sophia back into a mosque would be a bridge too far, even if this specific site were re-mosqued, but in the ensuing decade, two economic crises, one wave of terrorism on civilian sites in major cities, one failed coup, and one pandemic all put the government on such delicate political footing that a grand gesture such as that was deemed politically beneficial. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The cable itself described this much more succinctly. Took me drat near two hours to get that right. TL;DR: writing in the Foreign Service is an intellectually fun exercise that also can be maddeningly difficult.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2021 02:13
|
|
|
Should you or any of your partners ever contemplate pregnancy during a post-to-post PCS, kindly reach out to me so I can dissuade you from this terrible idea. I am currently unable to procure any obstetric care on home leave because the American healthcare system is trash.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2021 22:47
|
|
|
The State badging office at SA-9 is straight-up evil. I said it. They yelled at me for 15 minutes today because I... followed their instructions which had changed but they hadn't distributed new instructions?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 4, 2021 23:58
|
|
|
Magic City Monday posted:Y'all know anything about the availability of the next generation passports? I read that some diplomats had already been getting the new ones, but I assume it won't be till next year that the fees increase and you can expect to receive one if applying for a renewal? I got next-gen ones for our new dip passports - we applied in March and got three-digit passport numbers in May! Our consular chief asked if she could keep them for a week to show them around to everyone in the embassy. They're pretty cool!
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2021 00:34
|
|
|
Howard Phillips posted:How do Consulor Fellow jobs work? When I see it on USAJobs it shows "many vacancies" but I'm trying to target a specific (niche) country where I have language skills. I don't think it works like that - I think you have your own flag day once you come on board, so it's not a guarantee that you get a given country or not. However, if you're coming in under a targeted language, chances are good you'd get that flag... I'm not a consular officer though, so I defer to people who actually know more about this program.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 22, 2021 12:21
|
|
|
I hope the bidding gods were good to everyone this year!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 2, 2021 15:37
|
|
|
Merry Christmas, goons - hope Santa found your DPO boxes and the Chicago sorting office didn't beat them all to hell!
|
|
#
¿
Dec 24, 2021 19:52
|
|
|
zzonkmiles posted:This is encouraging. People will be pissed, but it's unlikely to be the end of the world, especially if your friend has compelling reasons. And if it's for a good reason, who cares what people think? Life happens.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 12, 2022 21:17
|
|
|
I'm finally in a unicorn Western Europe post and wondering why half my office is bitching about the food here. "They don't have good northeastern Chinese food!" "Ugh I can't get a taco anywhere!" *stares in NEA lifer*
|
|
#
¿
Feb 1, 2022 16:12
|
|
|
So fun question for you all. I happen to know the professor who is setting up the Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution MA program at Liberty U, and he reached out to ask for my recommendations on books on those topics he could include in the curriculum. Any suggestions?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2022 20:44
|
|
|
Hey Goons - happy to review EERs if of interest. I am but a lowly senior 02, but I don't suck as a writer...
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2022 22:38
|
|
|
Another year, another round of promotion fuckery.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 17, 2022 07:53
|
|
|
Hey Goons. If you've got the means, kick in to the FSN relief fund for our colleagues in Turkey. Something like half of our LGF in Adana are living in their cars, the consulate building hasn't been cleared for reentry, and we can't set up a tent city on the grounds of the consulate for our local staff + families because tent materials aren't readily available.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 10, 2023 22:13
|
|
|
Tyro posted:Current status, in an airport bar on my way home for R&R from my SIP post. Enjoy your leave, friend! I am also dreading bidding, as well as the 1 September email of doom. So I'm just... not looking? There's no way this can end poorly.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2023 07:40
|
|
|
Fun story friends - get ready to pour out a juice box for Vilerat. At dinner tonight, my almost 7 year old was telling me about his “team” at school, 9 kids from ages 5-10 who compete with another team of kids (15 of them apparently, same age range) in various playground games like tree climbing, long jump, playing jokes on each other, whatever. He said the leader of his group is the oldest, but he is also fair and listens to the other kids. However, the leader of the other group is the oldest but doesn’t listen to others’ ideas and just tells them what to do. So, obviously, I helped my kid brainstorm ways to peel off the other team’s members and bring them over to his team. Next step is introducing him to using those converts to spy on their original team. I’m moderately concerned about what shenanigans my 2 year old will come up with when he’s old enough to scheme in a group. This is what happens when diplomats breed…
|
|
#
¿
Nov 27, 2023 22:09
|
|
|
Carsius posted:Just got the email that I passed the QEP for an IMS role; time for more waiting! Congrats! No words of wisdom on the IMS track, but welcome to another step on the road to our weird fellowship!
|
|
#
¿
Dec 9, 2023 20:05
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 22, 2024 09:24 |
|
|
Carsius posted:Thanks for the advice! Hey congrats, well done!
|
|
#
¿
Feb 3, 2024 16:26
|
|