CurrentFSO

Other Foreign Affairs agencies, like USAID, Commerce, Agriculture, etc. have internship programs, too. Other federal agencies may also have internationally focused offices where you could intern. There are any number of think tanks, NGOs, etc., where you could intern.

The FSO hiring process is indeed quite different than the Civil Service hiring process. I don't have any experience on the Board of Examiners or in HR, but as far as I know, the process is as straightforward as it seems and it is really your performance on the various parts of the assessment process that counts. The entire process is based off of how well one demonstrates the 6 precepts/13 dimensions, and as far as I know, there's not a "gotcha" or an "edge" that will get you in or not. Back in the early 1900s, the Foreign Service really was a sinecure primarily for affluent people, but at some point (and I'm fuzzy about what happened when) they made a decision to swing the other way and make the hiring process as fair as possible. There has been legislation like the Rogers Act, the FOreign Service Acts of 1946 and 1980, etc. that have created the staffing, hiring, and promotions process that we have today. So, the hiring process is as egalitarian as they can make it.

You're welcome!

First things first, keep in mind that about 20,000 people take the FSOT each year and State hires anywhere from 250-750 new FSOs a year, meaning that only about 1-4% of the people who take the written test are ultimately hired, and hiring has been on the low end of that for the past few years. You may very well be one of those people hired, but it's always best to keep the Foreign Service as a Plan B until you actually get an offer for an A-100 class. So, I'd look at it in the context of whether you think the MA would open other doors that would be of interest, rather than just whether or not it will get you ahead in the Foreign Service. The promotions process is based only on one's performance while in the Foreign Service. A MA would only benefit you professionally in as much as the skills/knowledge you gain during your MA help you to perform better. For example, maybe you improve your writing skills while doing your MA, and consequently you write better cables which gets you promoted faster, etc. An MA also affects your salary determination when hired.

You're welcome! DIRs are great resources, so definitely reach out to him/her. It wouldn't be a problem throughout the testing process. Your security clearance investigation may take longer due to living overseas, in multiple places, etc., but many FSOs have extensive overseas experience and get their clearances without issues. Additional citizenships won't be an issue in the testing process, but will come up in the security clearance process. It'll depend on how you acquired the citizenship, your ties to that country, and which country it is. I know FSOs who are dual citizens and it did not impede their security clearance, but it's certainly something that will require scrutiny. You can check out https://careers.state.gov/uploads/8f/f7/8ff7b0bab879946e78f30e62c859c0f1/DualCitizenship.pdffor more info. FSOs are paid on the FS pay scale, not the GS scale. The two scales are similar, but not exactly the same. You can see the FS pay scales at http://www.state.gov/m/dghr/pay/ You can see the SOPs on FSO salary determination at https://careers.state.gov/work/domestic/benefits/fs-entry-salaries/fso:-sop-134a2 So, entry level FSOs start out anywhere from the equivalent of a GS 9 to the equivalent of a GS 11, depending on education, experience, and prior salary. The salary determination is made off of the salary table with Overseas Comparability Pay, so a new FSO with just a bachelor's degree and no work experience would start out making about $50,000/year and a new FSO with a graduate degree, six years of work experience, and a high previous salary would start out making a little over $91,000/year. Hardship and danger differentials are an additional percentage of your pay on top of your base pay plus the Overseas Comparability Pay. So, if you were serving in Kabul which has 35% hardship and 35% danger pay, and you made $70,000/year in your base and OCP, you'd get an additional $24,500/yr in hardship pay and an additional $24,500/year in danger pay. For the Priority Staffing Posts I mentioned in an earlier post (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya), there may also be some additional allowances that kick in, but those change a bit from year to year and I'm not sure what those are right now, but you might get some extra differential for working essentially a 6-day week in some of those posts, for example. You can see differentials for different posts at http://aoprals.state.gov/web920/location.asp?menu_id=95 The Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) is based off of a certain percentage of your pay, not the whole thing, and the percentage varies based on the size of your family, etc.

When you accept an offer of employment as an FSO, you agree to worldwide availability, meaning that State can send you wherever they need you. Your first two tours are directed tours, meaning that you get a bid list of available jobs, provide input on which jobs you want and why you want them, but at the end of the day, HR tells you where you're going. So, you have input but limited control over where you go for your first two posts and could end up with something you don't really want. That said, in my experience, people haven't been sent to unaccompanied posts without volunteering. There are Priority Staffing Posts that are unaccompanied, and currently include Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Yemen (though DOS doesn't have people posted in Libya and Yemen right now). Currently, DOS policy is to not send first tour officers to those posts. There are limited positions for second tour officers in those posts and there are typically more volunteers than there are positions available. People are interested in the jobs there because they're interested in those issues, like the financial incentives, like the career-enhancing aspect of them, etc. There are some other posts that are at least partially unaccompanied, meaning that perhaps adult spouses can come but not school-aged children. Some examples I can think of are Tunis, Algiers, and Beirut. Those can appear on a first tour bid list, and you could be directed there, but again, my experience has been that there have been more volunteers for those types of posts than jobs available. There are also danger posts that are considered accompanied, so family members can accompany FSOs at those posts. A couple of examples of these that spring to mind are Mexican border posts and Bogota. You could be assigned to any of those posts and depending on the post, there may or may not be a lot of people interested in it. There are also posts with high crime rates that are not considered danger posts. I'm far from an expert on how hardship and danger differentials are calculated, but general crime falls under hardship. So, Caracas, which has a very high crime rate, has a high hardship differential due to crime and other factors, but does not have any danger pay. Again, a new FSO could be sent to those posts. After your first two tours, the process becomes much more of an interview process. So, you choose to bid on 6-15 jobs normally, and it's then up to you to convince the people in charge of staffing decisions that you're the best candidate for a job. So, if you don't want an unaccompanied or danger post, you don't bid on those. There may be tradeoffs you have to make to avoid those jobs, but it may be possible to avoid them for quite some time. I've known people with children who were directed to danger posts and people without children who have not (yet, at least) served in danger posts. So, having children or not won't necessarily have a bearing on whether you might be directed to a danger post. I did not specifically request the danger post I ended up in. It was a large post with a high need for entry level officers, so someone had to go. I think that one can manage the timing of danger posts in their career and can make some tradeoffs, but the fact of the matter is that we need people to go to danger posts to do important work and it's not fair to ask the same people to go to those places over and over again. So, I think that it's highly likely, if not inevitable, that FSOs entering the service today should expect to do a tour or two, at the very least, in a danger post over the course of their career. Though, given all of that talk about danger and unaccompanied posts, can you guess what I've heard over and over that the leading cause of death for FSOs is? *drum roll* Car accidents.

No one can pre-adjudicate a security clearance, but debt in and of itself is not necessarily a dealbreaker. A lot of FSOs have significant student loan debt and it didn't hinder their security clearance process. For the most part, as long as you've been responsible with your payments, 50k isn't a problem. There are a lot of recovering lawyers in the Foreign Service with significantly more than 50k loan debt.

Well, there's only so much they can put on the website. You might want to check out the books "Career Diplomacy" by Harry Kopp, "Inside a U.S. Embassy" by Shawn Dorman, and/or "America's Other Army" by Nicholas Kralev for more info on the different career tracks and life in the Foreign Service.

I won't weigh in on the other parts of your post, but what I included in the quote box is false. AFSA, the Foreign Service union, compiled info on which schools FSOs attended and you can see the info graphic here. Currently serving FS members have 1190 degrees from Georgetown and 1116 from GWU. Georgetown is a great program, but it does NOT produce as many FSOs as the next three schools combined.

1.) I honestly don't know. I can't think of any similar instances with people I know, so I just don't have any data points to make a comparison. 2.) In entry-level consular work, you will adjudicate non-immigrant visas and may also have opportunities to adjudicate immigrant visas and/or passport and consular report of birth abroad applications. You may have the opportunity to visit U.S. citizens in jail overseas, but you may not, depending on where you serve and what opportunities available. If you serve at a smaller post, you may have some role in managing locally engaged staff. So, you may be putting our fires, but you may be sitting in a visa window interviewing 100+ visa applicants a day. As a mid-level (so after your first two tours) officer, you'll likely spend more of your time managing entry level officers and locally engaged staff, instructing them on procedures and laws, interfacing with various offices in Washington, etc., but may also spend some of your time doing the same things you did as an entry level officer. As a senior-level officer (not all FSOs will make it this far), you may head a large consular section, be in charge of consular affairs for a whole country, etc.

There are some masters programs you can bid on in the Foreign Service. There's an MPP at Princeton, MS in S&T Policy at GWU, and a few more. Nice to get State to pay for it, rather than worrying about the cost yourself.

Bumping this in light of a recent question posted about the FSOT.

There's a lot of good info on the FSOT at http://careers.state.gov/work/foreign-service/officer/test-process including how to take a practice test, a study guide, a reading list, etc. The best practice for the FSOT is to take the FSOT. I'm not sure what your timeline is, but if you have time to take it twice before your grad program is up (keeping in mind you can only take it once a year and that it's likely to be at least a year between when you take the FSOT and get an offer if you make it through the selection process), it might be worth it to take it sooner rather than later just to get a sense of the exam and your strengths and weaknesses. Then, assess what you need to work on and take it again. If you don't have the time for that, then take the practice test and figure out where you need to focus your efforts based on those results.

When I went through initial training, the director of the language testing unit came and spoke to us. He said that people who majored in a language usually scored around a 2. He did not specify whether that was for a "world language' or a harder language. You can see English examples of the different levels here. The videos should give you a rough idea of the bar for each level. You can take a language test after passing the oral assessment to get bonus points. You can also test in languages after you're hired for assignment purposes and/or to demonstrate proficiency in a language for tenure purposes.

The scoring on the Oral Assessment is 0-7. 5.3 is passing and it's rare to see scores above about a 6.0. So, the .25 and .38 language points make a huge difference. You can also take .17 in non-recruitment languages or in a recruitment language but without an obligation to serve in a job that uses that language, which is a smaller bump, but could still be helpful. It's strange they don't use prior experiences and it isn't. A lot of it is honestly the timing of things. There has to be a vacancy open and the timing has to work out. If you speak Spanish, then probably you can find a Spanish vacancy, no problem. However, if you speak Swedish and are econ coned, there are only going to be may be about 3 economic officers at embassy Stockholm and the odds of something coming open at your rank and where the timing works are small. Then you add that there might be other people who are qualified and want the job, too, and you may well be out of luck. A lot of consulates have economic officers or combined political and economic officers. There are often business issues of interest to the United States in consular districts. Often an political and/or economic officer's focus in a consulate would be state/regional policies, trade promotion, etc.

Economic work does include environment, science, technology, and health. Sometimes, in smaller posts, one officer might have ESTH as part of a larger trade and investment portfolio and other times, in larger sections, an econ officer might have just part of the ESTH realm, like just S&T. Depends on the size of the section, what's going on at post, and how the section management chooses to distribute issues among officers. However, it would be hard to make a career as an econ officer just doing ESTH work. At some point, you'd have to do something more on the trade/finance side of things. Not really. State's actually not the best at utilizing prior experiences. Unless you take recruitment language bonus points (the .25 or .38), there's no guarantee that you'll get assigned anywhere that uses that language. I came in with two languages and have yet to use either of them, despite wanting to. It just hasn't worked out with the assignments. There is definitely a demand for officers in India and Pakistan. Both are large missions with lots of jobs there. My first post was a danger post and I won't lie, it took a toll on me. Living in the middle of a danger zone, where you're constantly on edge does take a toll. I'm not a mental health professional, so I'll stay away from any formal diagnosis of anyone, but I think that, unfortunately, some issues related to serving in a danger post do go unaddressed. There are programs out there for people coming out of danger posts, but I think that sometimes people get too busy to take advantage of them and some people worry about how a diagnosis might affect their medical clearance and/or security clearance, so they avoid treatment. There are opportunities to do political work if you want to. In smaller posts, often the political and economic sections are combined, so your portfolio could cross over both arenas and/or you might back up the person doing political work. It's also possible to do a tour as a political officer. A lot of econ work doesn't really require a strong background in economics, to be honest. A lot of it is negotiation, trade issues, etc. So, there aren't really specific courses I'd recommend. The Foreign Service Institute offers a six-month econ course for econ officers. I think a lot of people assume you need to be an economist to be in the econ track, so I think that's why a lot of people skip over it when they are considering different tracks. So far I've been happy with my choice as an econ officer.

I concur with Gov2School's assessment that management skills and at least basic budgeting skills are important in the Foreign Service, no matter what your cone for pretty much the same reason he/she lists. However, I don't really know how much a couple of grad school classes on management and/or financial management will really help. My graduate program did include a couple of those classes and I'd be darned if I can tell you much that I learned in them only six years later. So, I'd say it probably wouldn't make much of a difference one way or another. Not that those skills aren't important, they certainly are, but I really don't think that a couple of classes will really help you be much of a better manager.

I've not served on the Board of Examiners that reviews the resumes/FSOT scores and invites people to the OA, etc. However, I don't think it would make much of a difference. You're unlikely to spend your whole career in any one region, even if you have a specific regional interest. I've met plenty of people who have MA/IR degrees and plenty who have MAs with a regional focus. Gov2School is spot on. For State, most of the jobs at missions to international organizations will be filled by Foreign Service Officers/Specialists. There may be opportunities for Civil Service folks to do what they call excursion tours and/or TDYs. I'll also add that you can also check USAJobs for some detail assignments and term assignments to some international organizations, like NATO (though not all). Many of the missions will have multiple departments and agencies represented, so some other agencies might fill their positions with civil service folks on a detail assignment.

I haven't been part of the board of examiners, so I don't really know exactly what they look for in the hiring process and whether a degree from a prestigious school will make much of a difference. Anecdotally, I know people who've attended all kinds of schools, from Harvard Law graduates to people with a BA from Nowhere U. So, I can't say that it doesn't make a difference at all, because I haven't worked in that office, but anecdotally it doesn't seem to make a difference. There are plenty of SAIS/GWU/Georgetown grads, but I also think that a higher percentage of students in those programs are interested in the Foreign Service than at, say, Nowhere U. So, there's some correlation between FSOs and grads of certain programs, but I'm not sure there's causation.

Your starting salary will be calculated based on your education and work experience. A master's degree from SAIS will get you the same starting salary as a master's degree from Unknown U. So, as far as the State Dept is concerned for your starting salary, it really doesn't matter where you went to school. Each year somewhere around 20,000 people take the written exam and between 300-700 are usually hired. Hiring is determined by funding from Congress, so it's a bit erratic, much like Congress itself. The FSOT is graded on a T-score, so the passing level depends on how people do and HR can determine the cutoff. HR also determines how many people get through the QEP in each career track. They have pretty good data on what percentage of people will pass the FSOA. So, under normal conditions, they can make a reasonable projection of how many people to invite to the OA to get X number of candidates on the register to roughly match hiring needs. However, the hiring process takes about a year if everything goes smoothly and changes in budgets can throw those projections out of whack. When they had a hiring surge in 2009-2011, they nearly cleared the registers because they got unexpected funding to hire a lot more people and it takes time to ramp up hiring. Likewise, when sequestration kicked in and they had to cut hiring, a lot of people expired off of the register, because they had so many people in the pipeline and all of the sudden didn't have the money to hire them. No, I haven't really felt like I've had to compromise my principles. Sometimes, I've gotten requests or instructions that made me scratch my head, but nothing that I really objected to. A graduate degree will get you a higher salary when you start and will probably make you more competitive in the hiring process. While a graduate degree is certainly not required, roughly 2/3 of FSOs have one. Most FSOs come in with some work experience and a graduate degree, so it does make you more competitive in the hiring process. It won't make much of a difference in promotions, as your promotions are based on your annual reviews. That is correct. You will bid on jobs off of a list. The mechanics vary, depending on where in your career you are, but you'll get a list, bid on jobs, and then eventually get one. You're not guaranteed any specific job or place. In the hiring process, you'll be expected to draw a link between your skills and experience and the work you will do as part of your career track, but you don't necessarily have to be an economist to be an economic officer. You could use experience running a business, or whatever to demonstrate that you have skills that apply to the econ career track. Yes, you do get a say. FSOs do sign a worldwide availability agreement, so the FS can send you anywhere. However, in practice you get a say. It works differently at different points in your career. For your first tour, you'll get a list of about as many jobs as there are people in your training class. You'll get a chance to tell your assignments officer what's important to you (schools for your kids, regional interests, whatever) and you'll rank your posts high, medium, and low. Then you'll get your assignment, which may or may not be one of your top choices. For your second tour, the process is similar, though with a larger number of posts and bidders and they also take in to consideration where you're serving for your first tour, so people in Saudi Arabia will get assigned before people in France, for example. For your third tour and beyond, it's much more like an interview process where you have to convince a post/bureau that you're the best officer for the job. Most entry level tours (your first two tours, usually) are two years long and most of the rest of your tours are 3 years long. Places that have extenuating circumstances may have shorter tours of duty. For example, Iraq is a one year tour, Saudi Arabia is a two year tour, etc. I like that the work changes every few years. There are a lot of ups and downs in the Foreign Service, but you're rarely bored. Careers.state.gov provides the following info: Here are a few suggestions that may help you prepare for the process. Contact a Diplomat in Residence near you if you have questions. Check if there are any Test information sessions hosted by a DIR near you. Use the Guide to the Foreign Service Selection Process, (pdf) which contains sample test questions. Consider purchasing the Pearson VUE Study Guide. Review the Suggested Reading List (pdf) View the Suggested Course List (pdf) Read Career Diplomacy: Life and Work in the U.S. Foreign Service, by Harry W. Kopp and Charles A. Gillespie. This is an insider's guide that examines the Foreign Service as an institution, a profession, and a career. Read Inside a U.S. Embassy, published by the American Foreign Service Association, the book takes readers inside embassies and consulates in over 50 countries, providing detailed descriptions of Foreign Service jobs and first-hand accounts of diplomacy in action. Read Realities of Foreign Service Life, which contains essays that cover topics ranging from children's education overseas, to the Nairobi Embassy bombing. The night before the test, get a good night's sleep! I'd concur with most of that. I also think that reading a good newspaper or weekly news magazine is helpful. Brushing up on how the U.S. government works is a good idea. You might consider practicing your ACT-style essay writing. A lot of people who write for a living get tripped up by the essay because they're not used to the essay style the test requires. Not really sure exactly what you're asking. Spouses and families can come to most posts. It may require compromises on your spouse's career as it's often difficult to maintain a spouse's career through different posts with different work situations. There may be licensing issues with some professions, language challenges, work permit challenges, lack of network, etc. Kids adapt to the FS life differently. Some are fine, others have difficulty with all of the changes. Depends on the kid. Review the 13 dimensions on the careers.state.gov website. The FS hiring process is not without its issues, but it's one of the few jobs where they clearly state what they're evaluating you on, so it pays to take a look at that. Also, FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. I say that "shouting" because so many people don't pay attention to the instructions in the hiring process and they're the ones that don't get through. You may be the best thing since sliced bread, but if you don't follow the instructions, you won't get hired.

I did this about a year ago, but maybe it's time for another go, since there's a different batch of folks on the boards now. I'm a Department of State Foreign Service Officer currently based in DC after overseas assignments. Before entering the Foreign Service, I got an MPP. I'm happy to answer questions about the Foreign Service, the hiring process, graduate school and the Foreign Service, etc. I won't tell you where I went to school or where I've served since I'd prefer to try to preserve some sense of anonymity, and I obviously reserve the right not to answer anything that involves sensitive information or could get me in trouble, but almost anything else is fair game. So, go ahead and ask me (just about) anything. As usual, any responses are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, etc. of the Department of State.

There's no one perfect way in to the Foreign Service. People come in with all kinds of different backgrounds. In my A-100 training class we had MAIRs, MPPs, lawyers, journalists, teachers, PR folks, former military, an EMT, a biologist, and others. So, there's no magic ticket in to the FS and no wrong way either. What's important is doing well on the FSOT, the QEP, and FSOA. The State Department posts the 13 dimensions it uses to evaluate applicants on its careers.state.gov website if you poke around a bit and the best preparation is to take the test. So, if you haven't taken the written exam yet, you should give it a try. It's free and just takes a few hours of your time. If you pass, great, but if not then you get a sense on what you need to work on for the next time. Also, I always encourage people who are interested in the Foreign Service to make choices that will serve them well even if the Foreign Service doesn't work out. Each year, somewhere around 20,000 people take the written exam, but anywhere from 250-700 are hired. So, even in peak hiring years, only about 3.5% of the people who take the written are actually hired. So, don't make any decision solely based on what will or won't get you in to the Foreign Service. There's no guarantee of getting in, and there are a lot of other great opportunities out there, too.

Prior to starting A-100, I signed a continuing service agreement saying that if I did not work for the Department of State for at least 12 mos, not including work-related training, I would be liable to pay back the costs associated with my move, travel, etc. So, this can mean different things, depending on the circumstances. If you're hired from DC, so State hasn't paid for any travel or moves yet, and quit when you get your first assignment, you probably won't owe them much, if anything. If, however, you were hired from Alaska, go to A-100 in DC, are assigned to Indonesia, have spent 10 months on per diem learning Bahasa Indonesia at FSI and have been moved to Jakarta and quit within your first month, you might owe quite a bit. Each assignment in the Foreign Service is for a set amount of time and when you bid on a job, you know how long the tour will be. You are generally expected to complete the whole tour before moving on to another post, unless there are exceptional circumstances. So, if you don't like your assignment, you're generally stuck with it unless there's a compelling reason to change assignments or leave an assignment early. While State reserves the right to direct you to any post in the world, practically speaking, I am not aware of anyone who was directed to an unaccompanied assignment (that includes places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, etc) unless they specifically requested it. Now, you might get assigned somewhere tough and/or somewhere you'd rather not go, but it's unlikely to be Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, etc. Those posts are normally 1-2 years, due to the difficulties of living and working there.

I didn't do any specific studying for the FSOT so I can't make specific recommendations for studying. There is an FSOT reading list at http://careers.state.gov/uploads/d8/db/d8db0c4f9dc58bd5620191eebd9ef8f7/3-0-0_FSO_readinglist.pdf but skimming over it, it sounds like a bit of overkill. I think the suggestions I've heard before of reading a major newspaper and/or news magazine on a regular basis and being familiar with how the U.S. government works, basic international relations, basic history, etc. The test is a mile wide and an inch deep, so you'll get questions all over the place but none of them will be too in depth. One thing that might be worth your time is to do some review for the English expression part and also to do some practice with the essays, especially if you're not used to doing timed essays. ACT grades the essays, so it could be helpful to review the ACT essay process and whatnot.

Congratulations on passing the FSOT and best of luck with the QEP. The OA is a day long assessment and I believe that there's a study guide at http://careers.state.gov/uploads/af/20/af206801c2e36fe59f14b319b650bb98/FSO_OA_StudyGuide_2013.pdf that provides a lot of info. The examiners are really looking for you to demonstrate the 13 dimensions. There is an FSOA yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fsoa/ and I found some of the documents useful, though a lot of the posts were speculation and misinformation.