Chicago

In a little less than two months I will be winging my way to Washington DC for the Oral Assessment. But before that, I will be road tripping it to Chicago for a prep session at the University of Illinois - Chicago. Ironically, I probably wouldn't have signed up for the prep session, despite how useful I think it will be, if I wasn't already planning a trip to Chicago in January. After all, I will spend more than 12 hours total in the car for 3 hours in a prep session. But hey, two birds, one stone. I'm super excited. I get to visit Chicago, do the tourist thing, and hang out with friends. Plus, I get to meet other Foreign Service hopefuls, be better prepared for the Oral Assessment, and learn from someone in the Foreign Service. I can't wait.

3 1/2 months

So I was bad and forgot to update the blog on my signing up for the Oral Assessment. Fall is always super busy for me and I got distracted. But enough about that. Registration for the Oral Assessment opened on Sept. 28th and I decided to wait until I got home from work to sign up. Little did I realize that I was the only one waiting. In 9 hours all the assessment slots for November, December, and even most of January were already taken. Sigh. I was hoping to get a slot in December. On the bright side, this will give me more time to prepare. I'm all signed up, booked my flight, and even found a hotel within walking distance of the test site. I'm even looking forward to meeting up with some friends in DC while I'm there. January 27th is the magic day so I better work hard so that I can do my best!

Hello Washington DC!

When I got home today I had an unexpected surprise waiting for me; I am being brought in for the Oral Assessment! I am soooo excited! In about two weeks I will get to sign up for my assessment date and book my trip. I'll likely pick a date in December as that would work best with the temp gig I just started today. That means I have 3 months to prepare for the Oral Assessment so I really need to work hard. This is one more hurdle I've jumped over but there's still more.

Julie & Julia

The husband and I went to see the movie Julie & Julia today. I went in expecting a cute and touching movie about Julie Child and a blogger whose blog was inspired by her. And it was both cute and uplifting. Being a blogger myself, both here and at my HR blog, I expected the movie to be relevant to me. What I didn't expect was that it would be relevant for more reasons than that. You see, Paul Child, Julia Child's husband, was a foreign service officer.

How cool is that? I never knew that the reason Julia Child was in Paris in the first place was because her husband was a diplomat. Of course, the movie didn't really focus on that much, but it was great seeing them interact at embassy parties, Julia speaking with other diplomats wives, moving to different countries, etc. So many things to look forward to if I get through the rest of this process. Just two more months to go until I find out if they are bringing me in for the oral assessment. *crosses fingers*

Personal Narrative

So I have just completed and submitted the answers to my personal narrative. Wow, that strained the brain a little bit. The questions basically assess whether you can provide examples of times when you exhibited certain behavioral traits that are essential to being a Foreign Service Officer. It sounds easy at first, until you realize you have provide current contact information for someone who can verify your examples. I found myself having to reject some examples that came to mind because I did not have current contact information for anyone who could confirm it. That's a big reminder of how important it is to network and keep in contact with the people you meet.

However, I found that once I determined what my examples would be and confirmed I had current contact information, the rest feel into place. I tend to be a succinct writer, as the length of my blog posts will attest, so I never ran out of room for my answers. I just hope I was descriptive enough and provided enough variety in circumstances to show a good range of my abilities.

Now I will have to be patient and wait until October to find out if I will be invited to the Oral assessment. I just hope that I impress the QEP and that I compare favorably to the rest of the Management track candidates. For now though, I will continue to prepare in the event that I do move forward in the process.

It suddenly feels real

So I finally received the email I've been waiting for these last 3 weeks. I... passed the FSOT!! Suddenly, I'm not just someone interested, I'm someone who actually has a shot. I'm both thrilled and freaking out at the same time. That's one hurdle, one step of many, that has been cleared.

This is how I look at the process:
Step 1: Pass FSOT
Step 2: Submit Personal Narratives & clear the Qualifications Evaluation Panel (QEP)
Step 3: Pass the Oral Assessment
Step 4: Pass the Background/Credit/Health checks
Step 5: Enter a training group & secure an overseas assignment

So, step 1 has been completed! (does a little dance) Just 4 more left to go. (starts hyperventilating)

I can breathe normally again

So I just got home from taking the FSOT this morning and I have to say that it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be! I'm not saying it was easy, but it wasn't so horrible that I feel mentally drained now. It was a challenge, a stretch of your mind, but not overwhelming.

Here's my breakdown (keeping in mind that I can't go into too many details because then I would get in trouble and no one wants that, especially me):

Job Knowledge Section: This is probably the section I'm worried about. Some questions I feel I nailed while others were plain guesses. Makes it hard to pin down how I did.

English Expression Section: I know I kicked butt in this section, but then writing and grammar have always been things I'm good at.

Biographic Information Section: I think I did well on this section, but it was sometimes hard for me to think of examples in the short time frame and explain them in the brief space provided.

Written Essay Section: I actually found this section to be fun! It was almost like being in debate again. But I had to force myself to go into more detail because I tend to be more concise than expansive.

Overall, I think I might have done well. I always had time remaining on each section, even the essay, and it wasn't as scary as I thought it might be. I do have to say that the Study Guide I purchased was a great reflection of the types of things I saw on the test so I would highly recommend it.

On a personal note, I think I was the oldest person there taking the test and I'm not that old! A lot of college age kids took it with me. And this waiting 3 to 5 weeks for results? I'm so impatient,I want my results now! Sigh. Nothing to do but wait. Wait, and start preparing for the next stages of this process on the chance that I do get to move on.

Tomorrow

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
-Douglas Adams

Holy wow, the test is tomorrow! What the hell happened to May? I'm about to head to bed, I want to make sure I get a good nights sleep, and I'm trying to put the test in perspective so I don't freak out.

Deep breaths, Deep breaths.

I'm going to go in and do my best. Because there isn't anything else I can do.

One down, one to go

So the good news is that last Friday I passed the PHR!!!!!! I've been really stressed out and focused on studying, which is part of the reason why I haven't been blogging here lately.

What really tweaked me out though was that on 4/29/09 I signed up for a time slot for the FSOT! June 6th is the magic date! Which means that I have one month left to prepare! Ok, let me just stop hyperventilating and I'll be good, I promise.

Study, Study, Study

I'm committed. 1 1/2 months from now I'm taking the PHR. 3 months from now I should be taking the FSOT. That means the next few months will be dedicated to preparation for both tests.

Luckily, I have already taken prep classes for the PHR so all I need to do for that is review. As for the FSOT, I've already downloaded the study guide and started requesting books from the recommended reading list. I took the practice test that came with the study guide and it helped relieve some of my worries. I think if I take the time to review things like history, grammar rules, business, and stay up on current events I should be okay. The tests cover a lot of areas, and they can't possibly expect anyone to be an expert on all of them. It contains a lot of information so I can see why so many people recommend it.

The same goes for the book Realities of Foreign Service Life. Far from scaring me away with the often sad stories, the book only increased my desire to join. Two big things I have learned from it: It's hard to be in the foreign service with children and anything involving food is important. It also helped me feel more confident about dragging my husband along. My husband wants to do freelance writing and editing and that's probably one of the easier careers to tag along with a foreign service spouse. I've already ordered the second book and I look forward to a lot of reading over the next few months. Good thing I'm such a bibliophile.

It's official

This has been a busy last month. I ended one job and started another. All in all, I was only unemployed for about a week. Unexpected, but happy. So where does this leave my FSO plans?

Well, on Sunday, March 1st, I submitted my application. And on Monday, March 2nd, I got the confirmation email that around April 29th I'll get an email telling me to sign up for a seat for the June testing window. It's official now. I have 4 months to study and prepare for the written exam. Oh, and did I mention I also signed up for the PHR May testing window? That's right, I have to prep for my HR certification test at the same time.

Can you say glutton for punishment? Or maybe you could just call me driven. Why did I sign up so soon for the FSOT? Well, my new position is contract, not a permanent position, so I have no idea how long it will last. Right now, I have more to lose if I don't jump in and go for it. The next few months are going to be intense though.

A selfish kind of love

This weekend I finally told my mom about being laid off. She has a lot of stress on her plate right now and I have been hesitant to contribute to it. I was talking to her about my plans and mentioned to her that I was planning on taking the FSOT this year, maybe in only a few months (yikes! so soon!) if my job hunt wasn't going well.

Now, I didn't expect her to be happy. My sister isn't even happy about it because she doesn't want me to be so far away. What I didn't expect was for my mom to tell me that, and I quote, she wants me to fail horribly. Sigh. She doesn't want me to possibly go to a country where my life would be put at risk. But really, fail horribly? I guess that's love, if only an incredibly selfish kind of love that has completely effed up priorities.

She also seems to hope I lose my house and have to live with her. Yeah, no. Do other people who join the foreign service face these kinds of issues from their family?

Shifting priorities

I would have blogged about this sooner, but I've been busy (no excuse, right?). Last week I received some bad news; I'm being laid off from my current position on Feb. 6th. Not completely unexpected, but still a big blow. Just when I thought I had laid out some nice goals and plans for 2009, this comes along and shakes everything up.

This is when it is good to be flexible and resilient. Thankfully, I'm both. So how is job searching going to be affecting this blog and my FSO goals? Well, that depends. If I don't have a new position by April/May, I may decide to move up my plans of taking the FSOT. No point in waiting around until Oct. if I need a job now. However, if I secure a position relatively quickly (crosses fingers), then I'll probably push back my plans again. I'm not a job hopper so I would never want to leave a job so quickly, assuming I passed the tests and all.

Things are up in the air at the moment, but the blog will continue! Let's see how things play out.

Hello 2009

It is the new year and I know it will go by fast. I have decided that I will sign up for the FSOT testing window for October of this year. That means I have a lot of preparations to make in about 10 months. Yikes.

This is earlier than I was planning on taking the test because I wanted to give myself more time to prepare. I'm sure that to a certain extent I am overly worried about my abilities. However, I would rather be over prepared for the test than under prepared and fail horribly. But if I don't pass, I can still take it the following year. I lose nothing by taking the test this year and probably have a lot more to gain.

So with my goal set I have a bunch of things I need to get done. Please look forward to posts on that later this month. And no, I'm not making these resolutions, I hate making resolutions.