Foreign Service Application Process

On June 11, I took the Foreign Service Officer Test. This is the first step for those who are interested in a career with the U.S. Department of State as a professional diplomat. The hiring process is extremely competitive - only about 10-12% of those who take the test end up with a job offer. I've always been interested in a diplomatic career, but life just happens and takes you in different directions. You can't plan it. But now I'm at a point where I feel that all of my cumulative career experience has possibly prepared me well for a career in the Foreign Service. Since I'm exploring a career change anyway, I figured I'd sign up for the exam. It doesn't cost anything, so what the hell.

Some say that you can't effectively study for the test. I studied anyway. I checked out a great book called The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy from the library. I had a study guide and I practiced writing timed essays. There are four sections to the test: job knowledge, bio, English expression, and essay. I was really concerned about job knowledge and the essay. I worried about what the essay prompt would be, so I was trying to brush up on all sorts of current events, domestic and international. After a while I relaxed about it because I realized there's no way I could prepare for it (and I was right!).

On the day of the test, I was feeling OK. When I arrived at the testing site, I started getting nervous. The test is taken on a computer and it's multiple choice (except for the essay, of course). The job knowledge section was first. I thought - for sure I'm not going to pass, based on that section. I found it extremely difficult. The bio section was OK, it's hard to tell how they score that, becanuse you're just answering questions about your own experiences. The English section was unbelievably easy. I would be surprised if I missed more than 2 or 3 questions. The essay prompt was something general enough that I felt comfortable typing up a decent answer. You have to get 6/12 points to pass the essay and I was pretty sure I accomplished that.

I left feeling rather defeated and quite disappointed. However, I got an e-mail about 3 weeks later informing me, much to my surprise, that I had passed! Shocking. I was pretty excited but knew there were more hurdles to overcome. I believe 45-50% of people taking the written exam pass. Next, we were instructed to submit 5 short essay answers discussing our leadership, management, communication, etc. skills. We have three weeks to submit them. I've been spending quite a bit of time on my answers. It's been very frustrating to write these stories in such limited space, only about 200 words. However, I feel I've done my best and I think I have some fairly good essays. I'll submit them online tomorrow.

Then it's back to waiting. I will find out by October if I am invited to move on to the next step, which is a daylong oral assessment. I can't believe it takes up to 3 months for the examiners to make this decision. In the meantime, I'm going to pursue other foreign service opportunities, but with different agencies. The US Dept of Commerce and the US Agency for International Development both have foreign service officers. The hiring process is still competitive, but doesn't seem quite as grueling. I feel like I'm fairly well-qualified for positions at any of these agencies, but there are thousands of people applying for a limited number of openings. From what I know, the State Dept will be hiring many more foreign service officers than in past years, so it seems like it's a great time to be applying. The US government is investing in diplomacy, which I think is a wonderful idea!