Me? A Diplomat?

The following is a message I've sent to a few friends and family:

After long, hard thought, followed by long, hard work, I decided to try to make a difference (OK, a very, very small one) in the direction of this country by joining the Foreign Service - the diplomatic corps of the U.S. State Department. This is an arduous process, which I started about 4 years ago - when Colin Powell was Secretary of State. (I would have enjoyed working for him.) After passing the once-a-year written exam (and the essay portions, which they only grade if you pass the knowledge portions), you get invited to the oral assessment. (On average, about 4,500 out of 20,000 pass the written exam each year.)

At the oral assessment, which starts at 7:00 a.m., 6 - 12 hopefuls come together. The first exercise involves a group exercise. You read a proposal a supporting documents for a fictitious country, and prepare to give a presentation about it. Then the assessors come into the room and observe while each person makes their 6-minute presentation. Then you have about 25 minutes as a group to reach consensus on which project to fund. You are scored on your ability to work in a group, while finding the right balance between advocating for your own project and reaching consensus on just one project. After a break, the next portion is an interview that includes questions about motivation and experience, how you would act in hypothetical situations, and specific "stories" from your background that show certain characteristics they ask you about (and you don't know what all the questions will be ahead of time). Finally, after your lunch break, you have the Case Management exercise. This is a tough one for me! You have 90 minutes to read through about 30 pages of memos, e-mails, spreadsheets, and charts to understand the issues surrounding a particular problem, then write a two-page memo with a recommendation (or two) for what to do about it, being sure to cover policy, budget, and personnel concerns. A lot of reading and fast typing!

For each part of the assessment you are scored on a scale of 1 - 7, although scores between 4.1 and 6.1 are most common. Then the scores are averaged to give you your final score. You have to get at least 5.25 to pass. Of course, it's better to get higher, because you get placed on the list of eligible hires according to your score. Just barely passing may still not be enough to get an actual job! About 1 in 5 pass the orals. (In the end, only about 5% of applicants get this far.)

• The first year I started this process, I passed the knowledge portion of the written exam in Sacramento, but missed the essay portion by 1 point!


• The next year I passed the written exam, and went to the orals in San Francisco, where I got a 5.1, passing only the interview portion.


• The next year I passed the written exam, and went to the orals in Seattle, where I got a 4.9, not passing any section. That's depressing!


• This last year I passed the written exam in Boise, and went to the orals in Washington, DC. I had prepared much more diligently - and tried to find the right balance among confidence (without getting cocky), preparation, and faith. The results? I passed!! I passed all three sections, with a total score of 5.5. This is just about what I thought would be a good score - not unrealistically high, but high enough to have a real shot at getting "the call."

I can also boost my score by .17 if I can demonstrate proficiency in a language. I feel fairly confident about passing the Spanish test over the phone.

The next steps are to get a top secret security clearance, and pass the medical exams. You have to be healthy enough to live anywhere they send you. This will take a few months. Then you get put on *the list* and wait for the call. If and when the actual job offer comes, they give you a couple of months notice before you have to show up in Washington. So it would likely be a year before we would move. Then it would be a few months of training before being sent... wherever.

So I'm pretty excited!!!!