30 Days of Photos - Day 17

Day seventeen - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently

Yes, that's right...the Department of State. After getting excited about the possibility of joining the Foreign Service a few years ago, I got a little sidetracked by internships and jobs. However, a few months ago, the idea popped back into my head and, instead of just thinking about the Foreign Service, I acted on it and actually took the FSOT...and passed! The whole process thus far has only served as a great reminder about why I got excited about this in the first place so many years ago. Even if I don't make it in this time around, I'm going to keep trying until I do. It's a big challenge to get in, but it's a challenge I'm willing to take because I know it's a great fit for me.

PNQs

One more step in my quest to join the Foreign Service has been completed! I submitted my personal narrative questions (PNQs) last night. Technically, I had two more weeks to work on them because of a technical glitch that meant I didn't get an email notification about my FSOT scores. But, since I had them completed, I figured I'd go ahead and submit on the original due date.

So, now I have six to eight weeks of waiting to find out if I make it through to the next round. According to statistics I've read on various Foreign Service blogs, there's around a 40% chance of making it through PNQs to the OA. So, I'm hopeful but I'm also continuing to go about life as usual just in case I don't make it on to the next round.

For now, I'll just fill my time reading all kinds of Foreign Service blogs...because even if I don't make it this time around, I'm going to keep trying until I do make it in!

PASSED!!

I PASSED THE FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER TEST!!!

I haven't talked about it on here because I honestly didn't think I had ANY chance of passing.  I decided to take it at the last minute, so I only had a few weeks to study for it (and there are people out there that study for years for it!).  Fortunately, my political science education paid off!!!

For those of you who don't know what this means, the Foreign Service Officer Test is a standardized test that people interested in working in the foreign service (for American embassies overseas or for the State Department domestically) take.  No, this does not mean I'm leaving my current job or anything...the hiring process takes about a year and, even with the test passed, there's still several more phases to pass in order to even get on the hiring list.

Next, I have to complete six essays and submit those.  From what I've read, about a third of the people who are asked to do the essays are passed on to the next stage.  After that is the oral assessment (in Washington, DC).  If you pass the OA, you have to get a medical and security clearance, then you're added to "The Register" based on your OA score.  As jobs become available, they take people off of the register and assign them to the jobs based on their skills and scores!  If you haven't been called off of the register after a year, then you get to start the whole process over again.

So, even though there's still a ways to go, it's still super exciting to have gotten over the first hurdle!

And although this probably means nothing to anyone reading this (they base passing scores on t-scores, not your score-out-of-100 or anything like that), here are my individual results:
Job Knowledge: 52.13
Biographic Information: 61.06
English Expression: 55.93
Essay: 10