Survive and Advance

The October 2014 FSOT results came out yesterday. And just like that, the FSO dreams of about 55% of the October cohort came to a screeching halt or an unceremonious end. Some of them didn't even make the 154 cutoff score. Some of them scored in the 170s or 180s and got below a 6 on the essay. Some of them scored really well on the English Expression and Job Knowledge sections only to totally bomb the Biographical Information section.

Yeah, getting these results letters is always brutal. If the first word in your results letter is not "Congratulations!" then you are basically screwed. One false move and your FSO candidacy is dead for a year. I suppose it's particularly tough getting denied at this particular stage because the advantage of prior experience is limited. People who failed the FSOT on their first attempt may try again next year, but they won't know much about what lies ahead, such as the PNs, the QEP and the OA. If they at least got exposed to these steps, it would probably put them at ease a bit because they'd know what to expect--even if they didn't make it through successfully the last time around.

Anyway, Zz Diplomat is still alive. Candidacy #4 is still on track. I passed the October 2014 FSOT with my best ever score on the multiple choice section. My essay score was good too, but not as good as I thought it would be. For what it's worth, I got a 183/8. I needed a 154/6. Last year I scored a 172/8 and made it to the Oral Assessment. My thinking is that if this cohort of Consular FSO candidates is the same as October 2013's cohort of Consular FSO candidates and if the budgetary and projected hiring data at State are unchanged, I should be invited back to the OA by submitting the exact same Personal Narratives. All things being equal to October 2013, it would seem that a higher test score would ensure my success at the QEP.

But that's what makes the QEP so frustrating. I have no way of knowing how many Consular FSOs State feels it needs to hire. I have no way of knowing how talented the competition is among Consular candidates. I have no way of knowing how much work experience or how many foreign languages my Consular competition has. I have no way of knowing how strong their Personal Narratives are or how many times they can shoehorn the "six precepts" into these narratives. I know I have the highest level of education possible, 15 years of professional work experience, two foreign languages I can speak proficiently, 17 years of experience living or working abroad, and 12 years of experience interacting with nonnative English speakers in the US and abroad. So I think I'm in good shape--but because I have no clue how much these elements are weighted, I can never feel too comfortable.

Anyway, my PNs are already typed up, but I haven't submitted them yet. I will be attending a State Department information session in about two weeks and will have the opportunity to speak directly with Foreign Service personnel and hopefully get inside information about the process and how things look for my cohort. I would REALLY like to avoid having to go through this process a fifth time, so I will take any advantage I can get. Anyway, I will hold off on submitting my PNs until after this meet and greet. Even though my PNs were good enough to get me to the OA last time, I don't want to take any unnecessary risks. So I may further edit these.

But yeah, I'm just glad that my candidacy is still alive. The name of the game is like sudden death playoffs in sports. Either survive and advance or lose and go home.

That's why this process is so stressful.

Back in the Fight

It's been a long time coming, but I have finally freed myself from Foreign Service purgatory, that horrible place you are sent to when you fail any step in the FSO candidate selection process. Whenever you are sent to purgatory, you have to sit on your hands until a year has passed since your last FSOT.

I took the FSOT for the fourth time yesterday. Because I had passed this test three times before, I was not too worried about this. But because I am long finished with school and because my current job is not exactly the most stimulating one out there, I was a little bit anxious about my mind being rusty or forgetting random pieces of knowledge that I had gained over the years.

It turned out that I had been worrying about nothing. The test was challenging, to be sure, but there were a lot of gimme questions there that gave me confidence. And for the truly difficult questions, I was able to narrow my choices down to two possible answers. After the test finished, I researched these questions and was pleased to find that for all of the questions I could remember, I had guessed correctly. The essay was quite easy for me too, especially since the topic had personal relevance to me. In my previous candidacies, my essay scores were 8, 6 and 8. I am expecting at least a 10 this time around.

Unlike at the OA where I knew my odds were not good after that disastrous Case Management exercise, I walked out of the testing center yesterday feeling pretty confident and relieved. It really helps to have prior experience with this process. It does wonders for lowering your anxiety level and knowing what to expect.

I should be receiving my FSOT results around Halloween. While nothing is official yet, I am pretty sure that the first word in my results letter will be "congratulations." There are a few other FSO candidates I've been in touch with who flamed out last year as well and were scheduled to take the FSOT again this month. So I'm rooting for them too.

Not much else to do now but wait.