Last night, I got home late and found a FedEx package on my doorstep. It contained my salary offer and all the paperwork I need to read and fill out in the next few weeks. I sent back the first three of a plethora of forms today.
The packet is a good 3/4 of an inch thick. I need to go back and check how much of that is double-sided. Needless to say, I have plenty of reading material for this weekend.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Finally!
In the middle of May 2006, I attended a seminar outlining opportunities to work abroad after graduation. The options were paltry: Foreign Service, Peace Corp, JET, or BUNAC. The career center even went so far as to say it would be nearly impossible to find another way overseas. Ha! Nonetheless, what the Diplomat in Residence and alumna had to say about the Foreign Service caught my attention.
Never one to enter into things blindly if I can help it, I spent that summer, when I wasn't working, researching the Foreign Service. I had the library drag their lonely copy of Inside a U.S. Embassy: How the Foreign Service Works for America out of the storage facility and I spent days pouring over it, cover to cover. I did a lot of soul searching. I weighed my options to determine where my skills would best be put to use and what I would be most happy doing. I decided to apply for the Foreign Service. When I visited my parents at the end of the summer, I dragged my old A.P. U.S. History book out of a box, figuring that was as good a place as any to start studying for the Foreign Service Written Exam, which was next scheduled for April 2007.
Some time that fall, the State Department said they weren't going to be offering the exam in April, that they were putting a new system into place, and that they would give out more information when they were ready. Shoot! So much for that plan. The history book was swiftly banished back to a dark corner.
I kept an eye on the State website through the spring of 2007, scouring each page for any bit of information. At some point they announced the revised exam would be offered during the summer (but when? July? August? September?). In April or so they posted a recommended reading list for the exam. I casually flipped through the books on the list that I could find at the library. Most of the reading was dense, and I had no time or patience for it. I had plenty of time to stare at State's website, waiting for some new morsel of information. Alas, nothing enlightening was forthcoming.
That May, I ran into a young woman who had recently passed the Oral Assessment and a new Diplomat in Residence at a career fair. She confirmed that the new exam, the Foreign Service Officer Test, would be offered at the end of the summer (Not July! Huzzah! There's time to prepare properly!) and that she would recommend taking a solid six months of studying in preparation for the exam (*blink blink* Six months. Okay. End of May to August or so is... Crap.). I wanted to pass the exam my first try if I could help it. The statistics I had seen were not encouraging. However, I have always been a quick learner, so I figured I might as well give it my best shot.
When I wasn't working or sleeping, I was studying. I read the Constitution and summaries of key court cases on the bus to and from work. I read CliffsNotes about economics and management techniques, books about regional politics and culture, Strunk & White. I read that blasted history textbook cover to cover (it has since returned to the back of my closet where it belongs).
When the application for the FSOT was finally posted online in July, I spent a week filling out the application, revising draft after draft of my personal narrative essays, frantically trying to get permission from contacts to use them as references to verify what I said. I worried that since there were only 5,000 seats for the September exam and since the exam hadn't been offered in more than a year, there would be a mad rush to apply and that I might have to wait until December to take the exam because of demand and the first-come, first-serve policy. Little did I know. Fewer than half of the 5,000 seats available in September were filled.
On September 10, 2007, my boss gave my the day off to take the exam. A friend gave me a ride to the testing facility. I took the exam. Another friend gave me a ride home after the ordeal. I had no idea whether I'd passed or not, but my essay had been so poorly written and so rushed that I didn't have my hopes up. ACT said the exam results would be out in 10-12 weeks, so there was no point agonizing until around Thanksgiving. I settled in for a long wait.
The following week there was a momentary panic when FSI asked me to set up language exams for Chinese and Arabic (each of which I had taken for a couple terms in college), though I had only put a "1" (greetings and very, very basic conversation skills) down for my proficiency. It had been too long since I touched Arabic. All I could do was apologize for taking up their time. I didn't "pass" (i.e. score a 2 or higher on) the Chinese exam either, but I have never been prouder to "fail" something in all my life. Somehow I managed to last through more than 8 minutes of direct interrogation by a fast-talking native speaker on a speaker phone, understand what he was saying (I think), and respond appropriately (I think). Having come from no exposure to or knowledge of a tonal language just a year before, I was delighted with my dismal performance. Language ordeals completed, I finally, truly settled in for what I anticipated would be a long wait. Thanksgiving was still more than 2 months away, after all.
Before October was gone I had driven myself and a friend nearly mad with my anxiety. Had I passed? Was I moving on to the Oral Assessment? Was I going to have to wait for the following September to start all over again? If I didn't pass, where had I been cut off? The multiple choice portions? That miserable essay? The QEP? I can't stand not knowing something when it directly impacts me! And Thanksgiving didn't seem to be getting any closer.
November 16, 2007, FSOT results were sent out. I passed. Not sure how I managed that, but the letter indicated I should sign up for an OA slot at the end of the month, and so I did. Judgment date was set for Tuesday, January 22, 2008, in Phoenix, AZ.
I spent December and January preparing. Much as preparing for the FSOT the previous summer had ruled my life, the OA occupied my every waking thought. Fail there and it'd be back to square one in November (the next FSOT sitting I'd be eligible for).
The OA came and went, a whirlwind experience. Once more, somehow, I passed.
At the end of February, I received a Class 1 (worldwide availability) medical clearance.
After a lot of back and forth and a second set of finger prints, Diplomatic Security was equally relieved to see my security clearance issued toward the end of June.
I was added to the register before the week was out and told I would receive an official invitation to join the September 15th, 2008, A-100 class in a couple of weeks.
True to their word, the registrar's office extended that invitation earlier today. Finally.
I can't wait to get started. September 15th will be here before I know it, I'm sure. There's so much to do before then, some of it pleasant, some not so much. Friends and family to inform, suits to buy, jobs to quit, bosses to disappoint, and so many things I can't begin to fathom right now.
It's time to start taping to-do lists and reminders to the wall again, I think.
So here I am. This is really happening. I seem to be the only one who's still surprised. And yet, there's that little part of me that is thinking it's about time.
Never one to enter into things blindly if I can help it, I spent that summer, when I wasn't working, researching the Foreign Service. I had the library drag their lonely copy of Inside a U.S. Embassy: How the Foreign Service Works for America out of the storage facility and I spent days pouring over it, cover to cover. I did a lot of soul searching. I weighed my options to determine where my skills would best be put to use and what I would be most happy doing. I decided to apply for the Foreign Service. When I visited my parents at the end of the summer, I dragged my old A.P. U.S. History book out of a box, figuring that was as good a place as any to start studying for the Foreign Service Written Exam, which was next scheduled for April 2007.
Some time that fall, the State Department said they weren't going to be offering the exam in April, that they were putting a new system into place, and that they would give out more information when they were ready. Shoot! So much for that plan. The history book was swiftly banished back to a dark corner.
I kept an eye on the State website through the spring of 2007, scouring each page for any bit of information. At some point they announced the revised exam would be offered during the summer (but when? July? August? September?). In April or so they posted a recommended reading list for the exam. I casually flipped through the books on the list that I could find at the library. Most of the reading was dense, and I had no time or patience for it. I had plenty of time to stare at State's website, waiting for some new morsel of information. Alas, nothing enlightening was forthcoming.
That May, I ran into a young woman who had recently passed the Oral Assessment and a new Diplomat in Residence at a career fair. She confirmed that the new exam, the Foreign Service Officer Test, would be offered at the end of the summer (Not July! Huzzah! There's time to prepare properly!) and that she would recommend taking a solid six months of studying in preparation for the exam (*blink blink* Six months. Okay. End of May to August or so is... Crap.). I wanted to pass the exam my first try if I could help it. The statistics I had seen were not encouraging. However, I have always been a quick learner, so I figured I might as well give it my best shot.
When I wasn't working or sleeping, I was studying. I read the Constitution and summaries of key court cases on the bus to and from work. I read CliffsNotes about economics and management techniques, books about regional politics and culture, Strunk & White. I read that blasted history textbook cover to cover (it has since returned to the back of my closet where it belongs).
When the application for the FSOT was finally posted online in July, I spent a week filling out the application, revising draft after draft of my personal narrative essays, frantically trying to get permission from contacts to use them as references to verify what I said. I worried that since there were only 5,000 seats for the September exam and since the exam hadn't been offered in more than a year, there would be a mad rush to apply and that I might have to wait until December to take the exam because of demand and the first-come, first-serve policy. Little did I know. Fewer than half of the 5,000 seats available in September were filled.
On September 10, 2007, my boss gave my the day off to take the exam. A friend gave me a ride to the testing facility. I took the exam. Another friend gave me a ride home after the ordeal. I had no idea whether I'd passed or not, but my essay had been so poorly written and so rushed that I didn't have my hopes up. ACT said the exam results would be out in 10-12 weeks, so there was no point agonizing until around Thanksgiving. I settled in for a long wait.
The following week there was a momentary panic when FSI asked me to set up language exams for Chinese and Arabic (each of which I had taken for a couple terms in college), though I had only put a "1" (greetings and very, very basic conversation skills) down for my proficiency. It had been too long since I touched Arabic. All I could do was apologize for taking up their time. I didn't "pass" (i.e. score a 2 or higher on) the Chinese exam either, but I have never been prouder to "fail" something in all my life. Somehow I managed to last through more than 8 minutes of direct interrogation by a fast-talking native speaker on a speaker phone, understand what he was saying (I think), and respond appropriately (I think). Having come from no exposure to or knowledge of a tonal language just a year before, I was delighted with my dismal performance. Language ordeals completed, I finally, truly settled in for what I anticipated would be a long wait. Thanksgiving was still more than 2 months away, after all.
Before October was gone I had driven myself and a friend nearly mad with my anxiety. Had I passed? Was I moving on to the Oral Assessment? Was I going to have to wait for the following September to start all over again? If I didn't pass, where had I been cut off? The multiple choice portions? That miserable essay? The QEP? I can't stand not knowing something when it directly impacts me! And Thanksgiving didn't seem to be getting any closer.
November 16, 2007, FSOT results were sent out. I passed. Not sure how I managed that, but the letter indicated I should sign up for an OA slot at the end of the month, and so I did. Judgment date was set for Tuesday, January 22, 2008, in Phoenix, AZ.
I spent December and January preparing. Much as preparing for the FSOT the previous summer had ruled my life, the OA occupied my every waking thought. Fail there and it'd be back to square one in November (the next FSOT sitting I'd be eligible for).
The OA came and went, a whirlwind experience. Once more, somehow, I passed.
At the end of February, I received a Class 1 (worldwide availability) medical clearance.
After a lot of back and forth and a second set of finger prints, Diplomatic Security was equally relieved to see my security clearance issued toward the end of June.
I was added to the register before the week was out and told I would receive an official invitation to join the September 15th, 2008, A-100 class in a couple of weeks.
True to their word, the registrar's office extended that invitation earlier today. Finally.
I can't wait to get started. September 15th will be here before I know it, I'm sure. There's so much to do before then, some of it pleasant, some not so much. Friends and family to inform, suits to buy, jobs to quit, bosses to disappoint, and so many things I can't begin to fathom right now.
It's time to start taping to-do lists and reminders to the wall again, I think.
So here I am. This is really happening. I seem to be the only one who's still surprised. And yet, there's that little part of me that is thinking it's about time.
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