Nick Brown '06: State Department Beckons...

This great news in from Nick Brown '06, and good advice for anyone interested in a State Department career. Good luck, Nick! Read on...

Hello! I few weeks ago, I passed the Foreign Service Oral Assessment: the final test administered by the US Department of State in admitting applicants to the Foreign Service. I began this process in February of my senior year at UPS, and I am still several months out from getting “the call” to join our diplomatic corps.

Throughout the application process, some of the best advice I received was directly from people who had successfully gone through it before, and so I am happy to extend that same offer of advice or information to any UPS students who are looking into a career with the Foreign Service. So for anyone who is interested, here is a brief timeline of the application process, including some helpful information for prospective applicants.

Please also feel free to contact me should you have any questions regarding the application process or the Foreign Service in general, and I will do my best to answer them myself or find someone who can. From what I’ve learned, a career as a Foreign Service Officer is one that comes with many benefits, and the State Department invests significant resources into its diplomatic corps. Becoming a Foreign Service Officer (FSO) is also a very competitive and at times trying process, so prospective candidates who have prepared and who understand how and why the process works the way it does will be at a significant advantage.

March, 2006

I took the Foreign Service Written Exam (FSWE) at Tacoma Community College on a Saturday morning. I signed up not at all expecting to pass, and I was pleased to see at least three other UPS students taking the test on the same day. There were about sixty people taking the FSWE on that day, and it looked to be a very diverse group of people. The test was long, (approximately 4 hours) but not nearly as grueling as I had expected, and I would imagine that the average UPS student having gone through a few finals weeks in their time would be well-prepared. The test was comprised of several multiple choice sections: a general background section, a section specific to the applicant’s chosen career track, and an autobiographical section. Lastly, there was an essay section. It is difficult to do much to prepare specifically for this exam, although I’d say that the classes I took in the P&G department in addition to countless hours spent listening to NPR over the course of my life were the two most significant contributing knowledge bases from which I drew during the exam.

That said, State is currently in the midst of changing the FSWE significantly, so anyone applying to be a FSO in the future will go through the new process. The new test will be geared more toward measuring candidates’ experiences and backgrounds as a factor, although it is unclear if this means candidates’ job-related knowledge will play a less significant role. Any FSO you talk to will undoubtedly have a strong opinion on this change, although one of my favorite responses was from an assessor: “We could be administering the LSAT for all it matters. All we really need in the initial phase is a way of weeding 17,000 people down to a manageable group that we can pass on to the Oral Assessment.”

July, 2006

I received an email from State notifying me that I had passed the FSWE, and inviting me to participate in the Oral Assessment phase. The Foreign Service Oral Assessment (FSOA) is typically conducted at major cities throughout the country between October and April of every year. I scheduled mine for San Francisco on February 12, 2007.

January, 2007

I spent the month of January working on the obscene amount of paperwork required of candidates at the FSOA: an extensive background form (mine ended up being 50 plus pages), the traditional job application form, and a statement of interest. I met a couple times with a small group of people up in Seattle who were also preparing for the FSOA. Our group formed through the Yahoo FSOA user group, which was a great source of information for me (although the group members tend to be of the highly “Type 1” persuasion) and I would recommend it to any prospective FSO candidates. We also attended an information session by a Diplomat in Residence (DIR) and the University of Washington. This was a great chance to pick the brain of a Senior FSO on an entire host of issues, and to get a better idea of what to expect on the exam day. We also got to watch a wonderfully cheesy video acted out by real FSOs of what occurs during a typical FSOA, along with several examples of how to make an ass of oneself and how not to pass the Oral Assessment.

February 12, 2007 (The big day!!)

Having arrived in San Francisco two days earlier, I was prepared for a long day. I walked the route from my friend’s apartment to the testing center the day before the exam, and then I spent the rest of the day hanging out in the sun and eating Mexican food. A lot of candidates over-prepared and psyched themselves out on the test day, and much like the FSWE, the FSOA is a difficult test to prepare for. The test day began at 7 AM sharp with – big surprise – an hour or so of filling out forms and listening to a lengthy script of directions. The rest of the day was comparatively fun. The FSOA is comprised of three main sections: a group simulation, a personal interview, and an individual memo-writing session. The entire day is structured around testing the “13 Dimensions:” qualities that State has judged to be the most important in determining successful FSOs.

Again, here, a UPS education does a good job preparing candidates for the FSOA: oral communication and presentation skills, group mediation and compromise, analytical writing, and critical reading (with a strong emphasis on prioritizing information given limited amounts of time and resources), and knowing how to think on one’s feet are some of the most crucial skills to being successful in the FSOA. On my test day, there were 12 candidates and 6 assessors. To my knowledge, two of us passed that day. The FSOA is a non-competitive examination: candidates are not judged at all relative to their peers, and on many days no one passes, and there have been at least a few instances of all candidates passing on a given test day.

February and Beyond…

For candidates who successfully pass the FSOA, more waiting is in store! You leave the FSOA with a large packet of information, and also your overall score which determines a candidate’s place on “the register:” a constantly-updating list of all eligible candidates in each of the five career cones (Consular, Management, Economic, Public Diplomacy, and Political). After the Orals, candidates can improve their scores, and therefore their probability of being offered a spot in the A100 class (the quarterly class of incoming FSOs) by passing a language proficiency exam or if they are a qualified Veteran. Depending on one’s score, the period between passing the FSOA and getting “the call” can take between a few months up to 2 years: all depending on how quickly a candidate’s medical and security clearances are processed, and how high on the register a candidate ranks within his or her given cone. After 18 months of being on the register, candidacy expires, and hopeful applicants must start the process all over again in order to improve their relative score.

Helpful Resources:

Department of State Careers Website:
http://careers.state.gov/

FSWE Yahoo Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fswe/

FSOA Yahoo Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fsoa/

A100 Yahoo Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/A-100-2002/

American Foreign Service Association:
http://www.afsa.org/

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