Thursday, June 27, 2013
Invitation and Prayers, Please
Today, Aaron got the email. He has been invited to the A-100 class, which begins September 9th. Unfortunately, we have had a little snaffoo with housing. Last March I asked an authority in HR whether we could get into the recommended paid furnished housing with our family size. He said yes. Today, an assistant at HR sent over lodging orders to the housing facility, and they came back and said they cannot legally accommodate a family of nine. Uh-oh. The housing facility representative asked them if they could approve two 2-BR units for us, since we were told they could. The authority who I corresponded with is out of the office today, so his assistant said we will hear tomorrow.
What does it mean if this is not approved? Well, we will have to rent something on our own. Per diem will pay pretty well for a few months, but it decreases over time, so that is not optimal. While it may seem premature that I have already sold most of our furniture, we can't bring more than 1200 lbs. with us to D.C., so we have to get something furnished, anyway. Of course, that costs more.
Prayers, please.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
All these Questions
I have gotten a lot of strange looks and what, to me, have been strange comments and questions when I have told people about the Foreign Service. So, I thought I would try to answer some of them for those of you who are wondering just what in the world we are up to.
Me: DH is going to be a Foreign Service Officer. Them: Which branch? No, DH has not joined the military. Think of it like this. Non-military government employees work in either the Civil Service or the Foreign Service. A civil servant may work for the FFA, the IRS, or any number of agencies that operate inside of the United States. The Foreign Service is under the Department of State. Foreign Service Officers work out of Embassies and Consulates worldwide. They are diplomats. DH will be an economics officer, which means that after his first 4-5 years of being a junior officer and learning the ins and outs of how embassies run, he will be analyzing foreign economies and helping with trade relations.
Me: We will be going to Virginia while DH trains in D.C. Them: Where are you going to be posted? We don't know where we will be posted. The bidding process starts during training. We will find out after about 6 weeks in a "Flag Day" ceremony. We won't be in one place for very long, either. For junior officers, posts are only 1-2 years, which means that we will be moving a lot over the next 4-5 years. After that, posts last 3-4 years.
Them: Isn't that a strange career move? Yes and no. As the V.P. of Marketing for a tech company, a bishop for our church, and a board member for several non-profits over the past decade, DH has just the kind of experience that the Department of State is looking for. He understands how to do qualitative and quantitative analysis. He is sensitive to people of other cultures. He has international business experience. He knows how to work as a member of a tight team of people toward goals. Also, this isn't an entry-level position. Yes, a person can get into the Foreign Service right out of college, but their pay is commensurate with their experience. The benefits are pretty good.
Them: How do you feel about this (insert funny face here that implies that I must have reservations about uprooting the family and dragging seven children around the world)? I am completely on board. DH has never been happy schlepping electronics. He is happiest when he is making a difference in the lives of others. Not only do I want him to have a career where he can have job satisfaction, but I want this for me and for my kids. I have always liked seeing the world. My kids have not seen the world. They have been stuck in outlying suburban Minnesota for their entire lives, and do not know how good they have it. They will get to see other cultures. They will get to attend some pretty great private international schools, as well as probably get home-schooled when there aren't good schools available. They will get to see places that others just get to read about. Also, this job comes with a lot more vacation time than DH's last one. In addition to accrued vacation time, there will be U.S. Federal holidays, plus all of the government holidays in the country we'll be staying in. Plus, they will "make us" come home to MN for a month every other year or so. We have never had the privilege of much vacation time, so we are pretty excited about it. Of course, we do understand that this comes at the cost of being away from family and friends, and that there will be some long hours at times at some posts. There is a trade-off. We just happen to think that this sounds like a good one. If you have any other questions, leave a comment and I will add to the list.
Me: DH is going to be a Foreign Service Officer. Them: Which branch? No, DH has not joined the military. Think of it like this. Non-military government employees work in either the Civil Service or the Foreign Service. A civil servant may work for the FFA, the IRS, or any number of agencies that operate inside of the United States. The Foreign Service is under the Department of State. Foreign Service Officers work out of Embassies and Consulates worldwide. They are diplomats. DH will be an economics officer, which means that after his first 4-5 years of being a junior officer and learning the ins and outs of how embassies run, he will be analyzing foreign economies and helping with trade relations.
Me: We will be going to Virginia while DH trains in D.C. Them: Where are you going to be posted? We don't know where we will be posted. The bidding process starts during training. We will find out after about 6 weeks in a "Flag Day" ceremony. We won't be in one place for very long, either. For junior officers, posts are only 1-2 years, which means that we will be moving a lot over the next 4-5 years. After that, posts last 3-4 years.
Them: Isn't that a strange career move? Yes and no. As the V.P. of Marketing for a tech company, a bishop for our church, and a board member for several non-profits over the past decade, DH has just the kind of experience that the Department of State is looking for. He understands how to do qualitative and quantitative analysis. He is sensitive to people of other cultures. He has international business experience. He knows how to work as a member of a tight team of people toward goals. Also, this isn't an entry-level position. Yes, a person can get into the Foreign Service right out of college, but their pay is commensurate with their experience. The benefits are pretty good.
Them: How do you feel about this (insert funny face here that implies that I must have reservations about uprooting the family and dragging seven children around the world)? I am completely on board. DH has never been happy schlepping electronics. He is happiest when he is making a difference in the lives of others. Not only do I want him to have a career where he can have job satisfaction, but I want this for me and for my kids. I have always liked seeing the world. My kids have not seen the world. They have been stuck in outlying suburban Minnesota for their entire lives, and do not know how good they have it. They will get to see other cultures. They will get to attend some pretty great private international schools, as well as probably get home-schooled when there aren't good schools available. They will get to see places that others just get to read about. Also, this job comes with a lot more vacation time than DH's last one. In addition to accrued vacation time, there will be U.S. Federal holidays, plus all of the government holidays in the country we'll be staying in. Plus, they will "make us" come home to MN for a month every other year or so. We have never had the privilege of much vacation time, so we are pretty excited about it. Of course, we do understand that this comes at the cost of being away from family and friends, and that there will be some long hours at times at some posts. There is a trade-off. We just happen to think that this sounds like a good one. If you have any other questions, leave a comment and I will add to the list.
Chatter
There is a Yahoo Group called A-100. It is a members-only group for people who have passed the FSOA (Foreign Service Oral Assessment), the last step of the testing cycle before getting on a hiring register and attending what has been unofficially named the A-100 class (named for the room number in which the first Foreign Service Officer training class was held). People on this group share information with each other, such as how long it really takes to get through security and medical clearances, how to write a comprehensive resume for salary review, and it even contains shadow registers. I should explain registers. After a candidate's security clearance and medical clearance have gone through, and a final review panel has deemed the candidate worthy of becoming a Foreign Service Officer, the candidate is then placed in rank order by test score (plus any bonus points for languages or military service) on the register of the track for which the candidate has applied. When invitations to a training class go out, they start at the top of the list and work their way down. Amazingly, some people do decline. Others have their candidacies on hold for up to 2 years. For some people, it is to finish a degree or another life event like marriage or pregnancy, and for others it is to wait so that they can mesh their schedule in a tandem couple arrangement. A shadow register is made up of people who have joined the A-100 group and have submitted their score, position on the register, and other helpful information so that others can have a little better idea than just their position on the official register while they wait for up to 18 months to see if they get a job.
DH's track is Economics. He has been on the register for a week or two now with a raw score of 5.7 (meaning he has no bonus points as of yet for language). He started as #5/79, but is now #6/85. Yes, people who have higher scores get to jump ahead. But that's okay. We know from the A-100 group that at least three of those people have their candidacies on hold until after the September class. We don't know about the other two. But either way, another nifty spreadsheet on the A-100 group shows that, historically, invitations have always gone out to at least the 20th person on the register, and sometimes all the way into the 40s. So we're fine.
Yesterday, the Consular candidates had a major upset. The chatter on the board was that invitations to the September class had gone out, been revoked, gone out again, and been revoked again several times. Since they go out by email, it appears there was a glitch in the system. One person on the board claimed that their registrar confirmed his invitation in the end, but the rest claim theirs are not valid. My guess is that the registrar told him that the budget hasn't gone through yet, but when it does (which another thread referencing a discussion with the Management cone's registrar leads me to believe will be next week or at least by July 1st), they will have an offer. The reason I believe this is that DH called his registrar yesterday morning before all that chatter, and she said that the budget for the class has not yet been approved. All of the cones go to the same A-100 class, so how could one have budget approval before the others? If anyone knows, let me know.
Of course, this means that DH did not sleep last night. He is way too excited. He started going through binders of papers that he has collected up over the past 20 years and purging stuff. At 11:40pm, he asked me if I wanted to help him. I had to decline, as I was about to fall asleep, which I did a few minutes later. When I woke up at 7:30am, it was to more papers shuffling around and binders clamping together. He says he slept a little bit, but I don't have any knowledge of it.
Pray for speedy invitations!!
P.S. Just after I posted this, another bit of chatter came up on the board. "I just confirmed that ... offers for PD, Econ, Pol, and Mgmt will be sent out between the 26th and July 1st."
DH's track is Economics. He has been on the register for a week or two now with a raw score of 5.7 (meaning he has no bonus points as of yet for language). He started as #5/79, but is now #6/85. Yes, people who have higher scores get to jump ahead. But that's okay. We know from the A-100 group that at least three of those people have their candidacies on hold until after the September class. We don't know about the other two. But either way, another nifty spreadsheet on the A-100 group shows that, historically, invitations have always gone out to at least the 20th person on the register, and sometimes all the way into the 40s. So we're fine.
Yesterday, the Consular candidates had a major upset. The chatter on the board was that invitations to the September class had gone out, been revoked, gone out again, and been revoked again several times. Since they go out by email, it appears there was a glitch in the system. One person on the board claimed that their registrar confirmed his invitation in the end, but the rest claim theirs are not valid. My guess is that the registrar told him that the budget hasn't gone through yet, but when it does (which another thread referencing a discussion with the Management cone's registrar leads me to believe will be next week or at least by July 1st), they will have an offer. The reason I believe this is that DH called his registrar yesterday morning before all that chatter, and she said that the budget for the class has not yet been approved. All of the cones go to the same A-100 class, so how could one have budget approval before the others? If anyone knows, let me know.
Of course, this means that DH did not sleep last night. He is way too excited. He started going through binders of papers that he has collected up over the past 20 years and purging stuff. At 11:40pm, he asked me if I wanted to help him. I had to decline, as I was about to fall asleep, which I did a few minutes later. When I woke up at 7:30am, it was to more papers shuffling around and binders clamping together. He says he slept a little bit, but I don't have any knowledge of it.
Pray for speedy invitations!!
P.S. Just after I posted this, another bit of chatter came up on the board. "I just confirmed that ... offers for PD, Econ, Pol, and Mgmt will be sent out between the 26th and July 1st."
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