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Puddins posted:Does anyone know anything about the telephone language tests? I took my Chinese (Mandarin) language test last week. The conversation started out easily enough and then tester kept pushing until she hit the edge of my ability to express myself. Coming away from the test, I wish I was more aggressive about directing the conversation, I would have done a lot better discussing international trade than comparative construction methods between China and the US. From what I have been able to read online, the test itself is pass/fail based on whether or not you hit S2, but you don't get your ILR speaking score. Thankfully, super critical needs language speakers get another opportunity to test after passing the oral assessment, and then every six months after that for as long as they are on the register. Apparently, speaking a super critical needs language is worth more towards your spot on the register than a 10 pt veterans preference, so you definitely want to take the test if you can. xanthig fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Jul 20, 2009 |
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Jul 20, 2009 20:40
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A more relevant question than what is a DoS employee allowed to do is what is DoS corporate culture like with regards to getting your hand dirty? US embassies seem to try real hard to be small enclaves of the USA, shutting themselves off from the countries they are in behind fortress walls. So how engaged are foreign service officers with the host countries? Do they get to go out into the field much, or culturally is that avoided as much as possible? How adventurous is you average embassy employee? For instance, how many of them would eat a tarantula when invited to by a host? What defines hardship for a posting?
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Jul 21, 2009 04:22
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What the DoS is talking about when they talk about telegraphs? It gets mentioned in the example scenario test for the OA on the DoS website, and there are reference docs on the DoS website that explain proper formatting. I would have thought that computers would have completely obviated the use of telegraph. What is the QEP looking for? The "resume" section was limited to a 150 character job description per job, and the personal narrative section was so limited, given the vague questions, that it was painful. Everything I can find describes this part of the process as "mysterious," but the rest of the process is respectably transparent.
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Jul 22, 2009 05:36
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AKA Pseudonym posted:It's all been computerized but the State Department still uses telegrams (we call them cables) for official communication. It's a way of retaining everything an allowing posts to distribute things how they'd like, something you really can't do in the same way with email. What's the phase out time frame? Also, do people working for DoS typically maintain houses in the US, just in case? Vile Rat, why management track?
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Jul 23, 2009 05:13
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AKA Pseudonym posted:Soonish maybe? It's still being tested. During a full career in DoS, how much time can one expect to be posted in DC?
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Jul 23, 2009 18:49
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Vilerat posted:As little as you want if that's your aim. They try to get people out into the field and have actual rules restricting how long you can stay in the states before they force you to take an overseas assignment. If you want to camp out in DC forever I'd recommend a civil service job instead. I asked because other agencies with a strong overseas presence virtually require that you work in DC at least a few times during your career.
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Jul 23, 2009 23:59
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patricius posted:What's a good resource (book, website, whatever) to get a really thorough breakdown of what each career cone is like? There's a book called 'Inside the US Embassy: How the foreign service works for America' that the DoS recommends. I found it to be pretty helpful. It's basically short essays by people in different career tracks talking about their job.
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Jul 24, 2009 04:15
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Vilerat posted:I liked some of the strangest places. I thought Khartoum was awesome when I was there, but Mauritius was great too. I'd like to go to eastern europe personally, maybe Croatia? How much Eve playing did you get done in these locations? More to the point, these are some fairly off the grid places, what kind of internet connection did you have at your disposal. Also, what is DoS language training like, do you get a lot of opportunity to learn languages or is it more focused at getting good at one or two during your career?
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Jul 24, 2009 04:21
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What if you already have a background in a superhard language, does that reduce the training time? For instance, I'm between a 2 and a 3 in both Chinese and Japanese. Would I be starting at my current level in these languages and then advancing from there, or would I be starting at day one as if I never had any exposure and progressing through with a whole class of people.
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Jul 24, 2009 14:40
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How much do Washington polotics affect day to day life working an overseas post? Have the different Secrataries of State have much of an effect on post morale when working in places like Mauritius?
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Jul 24, 2009 14:49
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Vilerat posted:If you can test to a certain level in the language then you don't have to take the language if you don't want to I believe. The problem is if you don't get assigned to China or Japan then those languages won't do you a whole lot of good if they assign you to Luanda. I'm indifferent about serving in either China or Japan, I've already spent enough time in both that there's really no glamor in going to either of those countries. On the other hand, I get a big boost to my placement on the register if I pass the Chinese language spoken test, but I'll also be required to do two tours there. I would rather serve in Luanda, but if speaking Chinese gets me into the system, I'll run with it. I'm wondering how that would count against language training time.
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Jul 24, 2009 16:07
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I think you can get a really good sense of what different degrees of danger mean by studying this form: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/79967.pdf What makes a post a hardship post? Also, how often do you get stationed with the same people but at different posts? Is there a master list of US embassies/ consulates around the world?
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Jul 25, 2009 20:03
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What is tenure? Why is it required? How do you get it? When moving to a new post, what kind of things do you typically take from post to post, I assume the living quarters are furnished? What about pets? Are you allowed to own pets that are legal in the host country, but not typically allowed in the US (monkeys, wallaby, etc.)?
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Jul 26, 2009 17:25
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Smeef posted:Just thought I'd chime in on my FSOT experience and gripe about the QEP. The more I hear about the QEP, the more it sounds like a big dose of mysterious subjectivity into an otherwise amazingly objective process. Which career track did you apply for? Also, for you FSOs out there, is there anything against applicants sharing what they wrote on the PN essays with others?
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Jul 26, 2009 23:44
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TCD posted:Last I heard, for FSOs, 1 of your first 2 tours will be cons. In talking with a recent A100 class, that was certainly the case. Some got their cone on first tour others got the cons tour. What's the general gripe against consular work? As a starting FSO doing your first tour, does the consular work consist solely of working the visa section or do you get to do some of the more advanced stuff, like filing marriages, repatriating bodies and visiting prisoners? Consular officers are like god when you need them. Granting or withholding their blessing can really make or ruin someone's year.
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Jul 26, 2009 23:58
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So what are the advantages/ disadvantages of the management career track? NPR has a radio program about foreign affairs called America Abroad, and recently they had a show about the future of the State Department. In it they discuss DoS programs run in the field to help host governments solve law enforcement and social issues. "Plan Colombia" was the project they focused on as an example. Which career track puts you most directly in line for participating in that sort of program. Here's a link to the program. http://www.americaabroadmedia.org/programs/view/id/132 Also, how do the DoS Econ offices and Commerce Department overseas offices differ? xanthig fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Jul 27, 2009 |
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Jul 27, 2009 15:09
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Do you have to obtain SLI level 2-3 in the language for every country you serve in? If after your first two tours you have to get hired into your new assignments, and that usually happens on a regional basis, can you end up serving in the same country for several assignments? Does having too many assignments to any one country hurt your ability to advance? xanthig fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Jul 27, 2009 |
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Jul 27, 2009 17:36
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Business of Ferrets posted:Taking too many jobs in a single country might not slow down a career too much as long as plenty of good jobs are available, but at the senior levels one could run into problems -- after all, there is only one ambassador to a country, and plenty of ambassadors are political appointees anyway, not career diplomats. Which brings up another question, do you ever get political appointee ambassadors that are completely unfit for the job? I imagine that there have been more than a few political fund raiser types that got ambassadorships after they aggregated several hundred thousand dollars for a presidential campaign. How does the professional staff deal with that sort of situation? What percentage of ambassadorships would you guess are career diplomats? Does that number differ greatly by administration? xanthig fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Jul 28, 2009 |
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Jul 28, 2009 15:27
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I would love to see a similar pro/con breakdown of the management track.
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Jul 30, 2009 17:38
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Vilerat posted:Heh. Every item on the list would be both a pro and a con. My day's were full of making decisions about consulate tasks and leading around a team of "do'ers" accomplishing catch all things that other sections needed completed. Lots of budgetary crap and Human Resources stuff as well. Could you be more specific?
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Jul 31, 2009 04:45
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How do couples in the foreign service handle pregnancy? Pregnant FSOs? Pregnant Spouses? Infants?
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Aug 3, 2009 03:16
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Vilerat posted:An interesting aside I learned Friday. The cone you apply for MATTERS. If you sign up for Pol officer and don't make the cut (higher than most) but have a score that could get in one of the less desirable cones they won't just move you down. You could have scored high enough to be a consular officer but since you chose pol officer and barely missed it they just fail you. Just keep this in mind. They make this abundantly clear during the testing process. From what I can gather the length of the register differs greatly between tracks, such that there is almost a 1.5:1 ratio of applicants to openings for consular and management, while other tracks are more like 3:1. My suspicion is that this is also why they make it very clear that switching tracks is nigh impossible; to keep down the number of people who have political as their ultimate goal, but chose consular to get their foot in the door. If you take the short "which track is best for me?" quiz on the website, the historical demand for each track is displayed. here's a link http://careers.state.gov/officer/career-track.html xanthig fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Aug 3, 2009 |
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Aug 3, 2009 03:22
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Omits-Bagels posted:Can you give us a quick rundown of their resumes? All resumes count for is getting past the QEP. With the extremely limited space given in the web application to describe previous jobs it can't be that important to the process.
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Aug 5, 2009 15:40
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Business of Ferrets posted:Yeah, I maybe should have termed it as being for "goons with a pathological need to live on airplanes," but I don't have a good grip on what courier work/life balance is like. You're right, though, that some of them really like it, and doubly right that it is a lifestyle that would drive a lot of people crazy. I've heard that diplomatic couriers don't really live anywhere, that you can be floating for months at a time without a home base. Not sure whether it's true or not, but it sounds like a taxing job.
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Aug 14, 2009 17:42
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Regarding the medical clearance, what happens to FSOs that get a major illness, like cancer or diabetes, later in life? Do you get kicked out of DoS? Do they move you over to a civil service job in the US? Can you finish your career in posts that have adequate medical facilities?
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Aug 14, 2009 17:47
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DoS people, what's your take on this? http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/09/mercs-gone-wild-at-us-embassy-kabul/
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Sep 4, 2009 17:26
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Vilerat posted:Hard to really put a finger on but it seems like they just want you to "know poo poo". Less specific figures and more general knowledge type things in the realm of US politics, history, and constitution and general economic "stuff" regarding other countries regions. I hope somebody else can chime in with something more specific cause I'm curious about that myself. I've passed the written exam twice now, once in 2004 and then again this year. They seem to have moved pretty far away from the "african copper belt" style question in the general knowledge section, and have a lot more really dumb computer related questions. For example "what software program do you use to 'browse' the internet?". I've never found much benefit in studying for the written test, but if it makes you feel better, the study guide is pretty accurate about what you should be doing. To get the best bang for your study-buck, review the constitution and especially the amendments and what they mean, major legislation of the 20th century (there is always a question about the War Powers Act), and major supreme court decisions (major like Brown vs Board, Plessy v Ferguson and Roe v Wade). A thorough review of English grammar can help immensely on the language usage section. As for the biographical section, every time I see it all I can say is "what the gently caress". How that section gets graded is a complete mystery to me. I did prefer the written version of the biographical test to the computerized version. In the written version it was clear from the tiny amount of space that they gave you that you have to keep your examples very short. The computer version is misleading, it has a huge box to type in and the keyboard just cutting off at 120 characters. As for the essay section, as far as I can tell grammar and spelling are more important than anything else. Last time I got a very poorly worded, extremely ambiguous essay question, and spent the first half the test writing and rewriting the same two paragraphs uncertain whether I was on the right track. Finally I just wrote down some bullshit that, in retrospect, wasn't much more coherent than the question itself. I passed, barely, so they must not have cared too much about the actual strength of argument. It used to be the case that you had to score in the top 15%, and you automatically qualified for the oral exam. Now you pass if you score in the top 50% but then go to the QEP.
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Sep 8, 2009 20:12
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Vilerat posted:Anything beyond major landmark decisions or just basic stuff like you'd find on this site? I think if you know what each of those cases listed in the left hand colum was about and what each decided, you're good to go. It helps that the test is multiple choice. One note about the scoring the written test. I wrote in for my score and when I got it back it gave me a bunch of numbers like 55, 60 and 70. It took some digging to figure out what those numbers meant. They are the T-scores. basically they take your raw score of (right answers/ total questions) and figure out how much you differ from the mean in units of standard deviations. They then multiply result by 10 and add it to 50. So a score of 50 is average. A score of 70 (50 + (2 standard deviation *10)) is better than 95% of the people taking the test. 154 is just slightly less than the top 50% of scorers, so saying that it hasn't changed in years is misleading because the only reason you would change the number is if you wanted to accept more or less candidates into the next stage.
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Sep 9, 2009 19:33
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Business of Ferrets posted:If you want to go to Africa, that shouldn't be a problem. An Africa-focused career could be a shortcut to an ambassadorship; there are not too many political appointees clamoring to go to Africa. And there are lots of opportunities to work above one's grade in the Bureau of African Affairs (AF), whether overseas or in Washington. What do they even mean then by "bad for your career" It sounds like Africa is where you want to work, there are some big benefits to your career.
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Sep 10, 2009 20:12
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I got my invitation to the Oral Exam today. I guess they didn't hold my P/N story, of getting arrested in China and then talking myself back to freedom, against me.
xanthig fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Sep 15, 2009 |
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Sep 15, 2009 02:21
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Happydayz posted:
I think this sums up the entire problem with the QEP. Also, gently caress McKinsey...
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Sep 15, 2009 08:00
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For those who have taken the OE before, what do you recommend doing to prepare? I get the impression that this is the kind of test most people take two or three times before they pass, so is it unreasonable to hope to pass it the first time out? There's a OE prep session that was recommended in my QEP results letter, so I'm going to that, any idea what to expect? Apparently these prep sessions are scripted to make them homogeneous as possible so that no-body gets any extra advantage from going to any particular session.
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Sep 16, 2009 06:41
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Anthropolis posted:Thanks for QEP thoughts, guys. I suspect the other evil contribution from McKinsey are the management buzzword questions that have been showing up on the FSOT in the last few years. Here's an example from this great article about the FSOT: the economist publishes a series of "pocket guides" which thoroughly explore the jargon of various business subjects. I suggest picking up the management guide. I think it may have morphed into a more comprehensive tome since I picked up my copy, but here's a link to the now out of print version that I have. I found this book incredibly helpful in navigating the jargon. http://www.amazon.com/Economist-Pocket-Manager-Essentials-Management/dp/1861970188/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253197501&sr=8-21 xanthig fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Sep 17, 2009 |
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Sep 17, 2009 15:28
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Is there any way to get a handle on these questions besides reading tons of old Dilbert cartoons?
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Xandu posted:Wow The article is kind of skewed. I took the written test a couple of times before McKinsey got into the picture and it really hasn't change much at all. Sure, it's counterintuitive that the FSWE is a general knowledge test and not a test of arcane geopolitical information requiring a degree in international affairs, but its purpose is to separate the wheat from the chaff. The arcane geopolitical stuff can be learned quickly when its needed but the general knowledge element is hard to fool. As for the verifiable reference, I used some examples of things I've done that were pretty far out there and I found comfort in giving the reader a way to verify my claims if he was skeptical. Ironically I passed without a single one of my references being contacted. xanthig fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Sep 18, 2009 |
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Sep 18, 2009 02:31
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Is there any policy about personal computer/ personal network security? How is smoking treated in DoS culture? Is it looked down upon, or do a lot of people smoke as a way of dealing with the stress of the job. By that same token how is the occasional trip to the bar viewed? How much freedom do DoS employees have in their financial matters. If I left my job for DoS, I would still be collecting royalties on patents for years to come, would that be an issue? What if one of the licensors was a business overseas? If you have family/ friends in the country you are stationed in, is visiting them a problem? What about staying over in their home?
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Sep 18, 2009 02:52
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I just got back from the official Oral Assessment prep session and it seems the information in this thread about the foreign service is better considered and more comprehensive than the information from the two foreign service officers giving the session. Thanks again to the various and sundry DoS employees in this thread.
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Sep 22, 2009 03:59
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Suntory BOSS posted:Thanks, you were right about the speedy response! I wonder if its 1 year from the date of initial registration, or 1 year from the date of testing? Better news than I'd expected to hear either way. You should be able to register for the written test that is approximately one year away from your upcoming test date. I wonder if taking and passing the testing process will speed up the security clearance process of a second application. If you pass the orals, your security clearance process is started immediately, and you aren't placed on the register until it is done. Given the length of time between taking the written test and being placed on the register, it is entirely possible to pass a second round of orals while your security clearance process for the first application is finishing up. Given the cost involved in processing a security clearance, it would make sense that they would build on the first investigation when conducting a second. Then again this is the federal government, so they probably have their own logic about the process that doesn't make any sense to outsiders.
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Sep 29, 2009 16:43
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CherryCola posted:Here's a question: Where can I brush up on immigration law? I'm guessing there's going to be some of that on the test if I'm applying for consular, right? There is no career track specific knowledge testing at any point during the testing process. Your qualification for your career track will be evaluated at the QEP, based on your resume and answers you provide to the personal narrative questions, and you motivation for your career track will be evaluated during the structured interview part of the OA.
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Oct 1, 2009 16:12
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For anyone curious about security clearances and how they work, here are some links that will tell you more than you ever wanted to know. Link to the State Department security clearance guidelines http://www.state.gov/m/ds/clearances/60321.htm#f Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals, security clearance decision appeals. http://www.dod.mil/dodgc/doha/industrial/ The guidelines seem to be the same for the State Department as they are for the defense department. The second link is full of interpretations of those guidelines, which while not necessarily the same as DoS, certainly give a good indication of what is and is not problematic.
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Oct 2, 2009 05:31
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Happydayz posted:I think you need to scale back your ambitions and your opinion of yourself. Thank god somebody said it. The yahoo groups are full of people who failed the process nerd-raging about how the whole process is unfair because it gives no opportunity to show how much of a special snowflake they are. xanthig fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Oct 2, 2009 |
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Oct 2, 2009 05:45
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