Detailed Account of Foreign Service Oral Assessment

I promised a more in-depth review of my FSOA experience for my colleagues on the Yahoo! FSOA Groups. I feel this is all within Non-Disclosure guidelines; I don’t go into content of the assessment, just the process and strategies, as outlined by the State web site and a prep session. The only danger is that I will be too in-depth, making this a lengthy journal kind of entry. Still, there may be some who will find the content and style useful. And I have been so grateful for the information provided here, I hope this will help someone else.

This is information on my FSOA experience March 27 at Annex 44.

First, a little about me. I’m 46, married, and have 4 daughters aged 15-21. I work as an educational technology administrator at a small university in a rural area of eastern Oregon. I also teach online web development classes (which keeps me busy and unable to participate in this group as much as I would have liked). My B.A. is in Spanish Translation, with a minor in German. My M.A. is in Educational Technology Leadership.

The Trip

Why go to Washington, DC? Two reasons: it seemed more interesting than San Francisco or Seattle, with which I am already familiar, and I thought it might help me get in the right frame of mind by seeing all those impressive buildings and monuments.

From my little town in Oregon, I have to drive several hours to get to an airport. So I went to Boise, Idaho the day before my flight, and spent the afternoon and evening with my wife – dinner and movie. No cramming over FSOA materials. On the flights the next day, I was glad that I had used frequent flyer miles to upgrade to first class or business class (according to the type of airline). What a difference! I wanted to arrive relaxed, and that helped a lot. I did bring some FSOA materials to look over on the trip – mostly the FSOA summary from State’s web site, my dimensions “stories,” and notes about my strategies for the Group and Case Management exercises. Again, it wasn’t like I was trying to memorize formulas for a chemistry exam, just “internalize” the material. I even took time to watch the movie on the plane!

When I arrived at Dulles airport, I found the ground transportation area, and bought a “ticket” for the Super Shuttle to my hotel. It cost $26 and, with waiting time, took about an hour and a half to get to the hotel. By the way, for the return trip to the airport the morning after the FSOA, Super Shuttle wanted to pick me up at 5:00 a.m. for an 8:30 flight. That seemed excessively early, and I still didn’t like paying 26 bucks. So I took the hotel clerk’s suggestion and took the 5A express city bus. I went to the L’Enfant Plaza metro station, where I caught the bus at the curb at 6:10 a.m. It got me to the airport at 7:10, and only cost $3. Worked great for me!

I took the advice of others on the Yahoo! Groups FSOA board and stayed at the Holiday Inn Capitol, because of its proximity to Annex 44. That was helpful, but golly gee what prices! At about $300 per night, the hotel was more expensive than my flights!

I spent Sunday in travel, then resting up from travel. The food at the hotel’s restaurant was OK, and average price. I spent Monday being a tourist – seeing all those monuments, museums, and such. I had visited DC in high school, but that was about 30 years ago! I was a little taken back by all the security there now – barriers, armed guards, and helicopter gunships. My favorite tourist activity was watching a fighter pilot movie in the IMAX theatre at the Air and Space museum. That evening, I looked over my materials again, ironed my shirt, and did a little rehearsing of my “why I want to join the Foreign Service” speech. I went to bed early, and even took something to help me sleep (I always have a hard time sleeping in hotels). It didn’t help much – I didn’t go to sleep until after 1:00 and woke up at 5:00. So much for the advice to get a good night’s sleep! But I didn’t dwell on it, or worry that all was lost because of it. For breakfast, I went to McDonald’s (because they were open before 6:00 a.m.) and took it back to my room. I also had granola bars and an apple. I saved the granola bars for a break.

The Participants

As mentioned by others, you can get to Annex 44 either by going past the restaurant in the hotel, or by going outside and around the corner. I had scouted it out the day before. If you’ve read much on this board, you’ll already have an idea of how you wait in the lobby until someone comes to get you (BE ON TIME… or EARLY!), then you go upstairs and wait some more. Little things: men, there are plenty of men in white shirts and suits in DC; this is appropriate dress. (Yes, you can wear a colored shirt. I like a white shirt because I know the tie won’t clash!) Women, a business suit (pants) seemed appropriate.

There were five of us there to take the test (1 person did not show), three women, two men. Two people were in their early 20’s, one in his 30’s, and two in their mid-40’s. Three people lived in DC, one in New York, and I was the Pacific Northwest representative. This was the third try for a couple of us, and the second for one or two others. At least a couple of them were familiar with this Yahoo group.

There were 4 assessors, all male. I recognized at least of a couple of them from previous experiences on the west coast. In my encounters with the two who interviewed me, they weren’t really friendly or warm, but they weren’t mean, either. Just “business-like.”

The FSOA

After a bit of a wait in the reception area, we were taken to a small conference room for the Group Exercise. There was a table with chairs around it, a name tag for where you were to sit, a binder and note pad for each person, and a pitcher of water and cups in the middle. I had brought my own water bottle, which was OK.

During the preparation phase, I started out by putting headings on the notepad for the notes I wanted to take, based on information on the FSOA summary and suggestions on this board: Name and Description of project, upsides, downsides, cost breakdowns, and people involved. Then I took notes accordingly, being sure to keep the mission objectives and the INSTRUCTIONS from the assessor in mind. The content of the exercise was slightly different than before or than I expected, but I adapted quickly. One person was more “outgoing” in our group, so she took the memo form the assessor handed us, and she also volunteered to go first in her presentation. After her presentation, I suggested that we go clockwise (which would make me go second). This worked fine. I gave my presentation covering the major points as I had listed them in my notes. I referred to my notes a little, but avoided going into so much detail that I would have to keep looking things up, and to keep it concise and avoid rambling. I didn’t get an exact read on my watch, but I think I took 4 minutes, and asked if there any questions. There weren’t. Each person gave their presentation in turn; no one stood up for it, by the way. Again, FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS! I was concerned when one person gave a value judgment (like “I wouldn’t do this part of it”) during the presentation. That seemed like the wrong time to do that. One person volunteered to keep time and reminded us from time to time where we were at. During the discussion, we each advocated in our own way. I helped draw out a particularly quiet person, mostly because I supported her proposal and wanted to move the group in that direction. I suggested a solution, giving in some on my project – and stating reasons that were based on the U.S. OBJECTIVES for the fictitious country. One person gave up their project (at our urging), but stated a reason which the instructions specifically said “do not concern yourself with [the aspect she used as her reason to give it up]”. That seemed like not following instructions. Our scribe listed our decision on the memo, and we were done – with a couple of minutes to spare.

I had a 50 minute break next. I can’t recall if I left. I did eat my snack, though.

Next, I had the Structured Interview. I was prepared with my speech about why I wanted to be in the Foreign Service (similar to my Statement of Interest), what made me a good fit, and what qualities I had that would be good for my career track. They interrupted me a couple of times, but it wasn’t malicious, just to clarify and get at the information they wanted. For the Hypothetical questions, I did my best to use common sense and be thorough. The best preparation for this is the “Assignment Abroad” presentations on State’s web site (click on the briefcase). They don’t give you answers, but prepare you for the questions. My other advice is that you may not be able to solve all situations right on the spot; they may seem like a “no win” situation. But you can at least mitigate it and take some kind of action. In my case, ideas came while I was speaking. In the Past Behavior section (where you use your stories tied to the dimensions), I was thrown a bit. The choices were difficult; the questions were fairly specific and my stories didn’t answer them. So I had to think of others on the spot. The fact that I had put a lot of thought into them, though, gave me a pool of experiences to draw on. (Being older, with more life experience may have helped, too, but I wouldn’t get too hung up on that.) The trick is to make mental bullet points so you can remember what you were going to say. Also, if your story doesn’t clearly or obviously answer the question or connect to the dimension, be explicit and explain how it does.

Whew! Another break. This was a 40 minute lunch break. One of the reasons I stayed at the Holiday Inn was that in my previous FSOA attempts, I had 2 hours for lunch, so I had planned on going back to my hotel room for a power nap. No such luck. Back to McDonald’s to stand in line, get some grub, and eat just part of it because I was still nervous.

Next I had the Case Management exercise. I dreaded this because I am a somewhat slow reader and verbose writer (can you tell?). I certainly wanted to pass this section, but told myself that it was possible to pass the FSOA without passing all three sections. So no doomsday feelings for me – just diving in and doing my best. Plus, I had given thought to my strategy and knew where I was headed. I read the first few pages in the packet carefully to ensure I understood what the situation was and what was expected of me. Then I went ahead and started the memo on the computer, laying out the formatting, etc. If you don’t know how to format a memo, take a look at http://oregonstate.edu/dept/eli/buswrite/memos.html. Another idea is to just use the same format as the fictitious memo to you in the packet of case materials. I also went ahead and typed an intro sentence, a closing, and simple headings. Next, I started to write a sentence in the body of the memo to summarize each page as I read it. But I soon stopped because I felt I was adding bulk but not direction; it wasn’t going to flow this way. So I mostly jotted notes on the scratch paper. Later, I ended up summarizing what I had typed and jotted, and deleted those early extra sentences in the memo. As I worked along, and watched the clock, I got a little panicky. What to do?! What should I recommend?! But by this time, I had a good idea what the problem or question was, so I summarized that in the memo. I also worked with the numbers more on the scratch paper, to further clarify the problem and see if they offered any solutions. A couple of alternatives came to mind, so I briefly outlined them in the memo, with their pro’s and con’s and supporting figures. One stood out, so I made that my recommendation and gave my reason why. Wow! It was done! I had about 5 minutes to spare, so I looked over it, clarifying and tightening where needed. Whew!

Last break! This was the worst because now I did have more than 1 hour, and nothing to do but wonder how I did. I went to my hotel room and “freshened up” – splashed cold water on the face, that is, and did some relaxation exercises.

When we all returned, the administrative assistant moved us from the reception area to the computer room where we did our case management exercise, then closed the door. I assumed this was to avoid interacting with others as they got their good or bad news and left. Aagh! More waiting. One person, probably the youngest and least experienced of the group, felt she had done awful and had even contemplated not returning after lunch. Although I don’t know what she scored, she was the first person called out. Each of the next three were called out relatively quickly after that. I was left alone for what seemed like forever (probably 10-15 minutes). I kept wondering if that was good or bad. I felt like I had done well, but I had felt like that before when I didn’t pass. Finally, one of my interviewers came and took me to a room where all 4 assessors were standing. I knew this was a good sign. They told me congratulations, etc. My head was swimming, and I was doing my best to remain professional. One of them said, “If you’re going to yell and scream, now would be the time to do it.” So I did a victory dance!! We shook hands all around, then the two who didn’t interview me left. The other two and I sat down. They handed me a packet, which included my results, but I didn’t look in it. Instead, the assessor went over lots of information – and pointed out that it was repeated in the materials they gave me, so I didn’t have to remember it. They urged me to get started on my medical clearances and language test (if I was going to take one) right away. Another congratulations, and it was off to meet with the security person.

This was brief; we didn’t discuss the details of my eQIP (electronic security form) really. Just made sure it was all there and signed the forms. She commented that she was glad I had followed directions regarding the eQIP and signature forms, and that she was amazed how many people didn’t. We tried to release the eQIP on several computers, but it seemed to be down. So I did it later in my hotel room. She finished by fingerprinting me, and explaining more of the process. When I asked if I should tell my boss he might get a visit from an investigator, she mentioned I could tell my boss this was something I was looking into, but that nothing was going to happen immediately. But, yes, do count on a visit from a field investigator. Luckily, I’m in a position that’s not easily replaced, and have a good relationship with my boss. I don’t think this will be a problem.

The Denouement

When I went downstairs (5:00 maybe?), 3 of our group were waiting for me. The first person had left already, so none of us knew how she did. It was nice to visit with the others. They were all very supportive, even if I was the only one who passed. (They told me their scores, but I don’t feel that’s my place to divulge.) We spent some time chatting. One person urged me to call my wife, and loaned me her cell phone to do so. It was nice to close the process this way. I had a fall-back plan to go to an open house my senator was holding in his office, so I decided to do that anyway. Two of the locals went on the metro with me, which gave us more time to chat. The senator couldn’t make it, so the chief of staff was chatting with a small group of constituents. I only stayed for a few minutes. I walked back to the hotel. I don’t think it was that far, but I was kind of fuzzy-headed.

I returned to the hotel to change before foraging for food. Being a praying man, I decided to first kneel and offer thanks. Before I could, I burst into tears – from relief, gratitude, excitement, fatigue. Interestingly enough, that felt good. What a day!!

Now I’m going to work on medical clearances, give a heads-up to people I’m sure will be contacted for security interviews, and get ready to take the language test. Yes, I’m excited. Yes, I know there’s still a lot to do, with multiple points of possible setbacks. But I’m a lot closer than I’ve ever been.