Last week I proctored the
Foreign Service Officers Test (FSOT) in the Embassy. As I watched the test takers, it brought on a strong sense of nostalgia and lingering disbelief. Three times I sat where they were. Having somehow made it through myself, now I was proctoring the test for others. I reflected on the whole process and how lucky I still feel to have made it.
For those who don't know, getting an invitation to join the Foreign Service is like running the gauntlet. The test is only the first step, with cryptic essays, an enervating oral exam, and, in my case, a foreign language test still to come.
I took the written exam twice around 2003-2004. I failed both times. To pass you must have a broad scope of knowledge. Questions cover topics as varied as the 13th Amendment, Georgia O'Keefe, and the Ottoman Empire. (There are also essay, grammar, and biographic info sections.) Many people maintain "You can't study for the FSOT." I didn't...the first two times. But 5 years later I tried again. This time I read history books, the Constitution, and an atlas. And I was 5 years more experienced. I passed. Step 1, done.
Then you have to respond to five essay prompts via mail. In 200 words each, if memory serves, I tried to demonstrate how I possessed the
13 dimensions that State believes make for a good Foreign Service Officer. You must be pithy to set the scene and answer the question in just 200 words. I guess I did it, because I received the invite to "The Orals" (dun, dun, duhhhh). Step 2, complete.
The
Oral Assessment is intimidating. It took about 6 hours to complete the entire day. There are three phases: the group exercise, structured interview, and case management exercise. On my day there were 18 of us. Some extremely impressive people, which can also be intimidating. But fortunately you aren't competing against each other...although a few didn't seem to grasp that. Theoretically, everyone can pass. But few do. In the end, we all sat in a room and waited for the examiners to call us out, one at a time, to discover our fate. That's a moment I will
never forget. It was like waiting for the hang man. Ultimately, I was led into a small room where three of us received the good news. Step 3, over...kind of.
Everyone who passes the orals receives a score and is put on "The Register" in rank order. If you get a low score (5.3 is minimum) you'll probably never get the invitation before you cycle off in 18 months. In that case, you start all over again. My score was moderately good, even though I only passed one of the three Oral Assessment phases: the structured interview. (There must have been some returned Peace Corps volunteers on my panel who liked my stories.) With federal budgets tightening and hiring slowing, I saw my chances dim. To get a whopping .17 additional points, I decided to brush up on my Portuguese and take a language assessment by phone. Fortunately I lived in Providence, RI, home to the Lusophone diaspora in America. For only $10/hour Joe from the Acores spiffed up my Portuguese. And since I didn't have the required landline for the test in my house, I took it in my pastor friend's church offices. Perhaps I got some divine support because I passed. Step 3.5...acabado (finished).
Finally, I was through and guaranteed to get an invite...depending on a medical exam and background check. I jumped from around #75 to #17 on the register and got "the e-mail" in days. Elyse and I remember it like it was yesterday. That was September, 2010. Joining the Foreign Service certainly changed our lives. And the adventure continues.
If you are interested in becoming a diplomat and representing the U.S. in a new country every few years, give it a shot. The process is challenging, but it's free. And you can take the FSOT once a year, and just keep trying until you make it. It may be hard, but at least it's an objective selection process, which is more than I can say for most jobs. Good luck.
If you happened to listen to 97.9 Image Radio Nepal Monday morning, you might have heard a familiar voice (for those who know me). Or, more precisely, you would have heard an American's sad attempt to speak about the Diversity Visa in Nepali. Wow! That was a humbling experience. The station apparently has more listeners than any other in Nepal. I'll bet they don't anymore. For about 30 minutes I tried to explain a large portion of our immigration law in Nepali. The key word there is, tried. I do dozens of visa interviews in Nepali daily. Due to their repetitive nature, I've gotten pretty good. This was a whole new ball game. It was different subject matter combined with the stress of a microphone and fast talking radio personality. (He told me he'd speak slowly!) And of course Nepali and Yoda still have the same syntax: