Weekly Special: BIDDING Dec 05-2
"As you consider a Foreign Service career, you are probably wondering how your initial assignments and training will work: Do I get to change my assignment? Will I receive training, or will I just be sent to a post? The U.S. Department of State takes seriously its responsibility to prepare new officers not just for their first assignment, but for their career, as well. Here is some general information that will give you an overview of how this process works." - U.S. Department of State website.
"ASSIGNMENTS "
"Each new Foreign Service Officer is granted a probationary period of five years in which to determine if he or she can serve successfully over a normal career span. This five-year period provides an opportunity to see if the officer and the Foreign Service are the right fit. An officer's first and second assignments are made with the probationary period in mind; our aim is to develop an officer's talents and ensure that he or she has language skills and the chance to work in different environments."
"New officers are given the opportunity to rank in order their preferred postings from a list of positions available at the time of their entry into the Service. These preferences, as well as training requirements and medical and educational concerns for family members, are taken into account when making assignments."
"Nevertheless, all officers are considered worldwide available and must be prepared to go where needed. Officers should anticipate doing an average of three years of consular work in their first five years, as over 60% of all entry-level positions have a consular component. Some officers may not serve in positions related to their career track in their first two tours. Officers who come in with critical language skills should expect to serve in positions using their language skills in their first or second assignment." - U.S. Department of State website.
"During orientation, Foreign Service Generalists receive their first assignments, which will govern the type of specialized training which follows. For Generalists, that training could include public diplomacy training, consular training, political-economic tradecraft, or management training. For Foreign Service personnel, their first assignment will often require language training which can last for an additional six or seven months. Newly hired generalists can expect to spend from three to twelve months in training before departure for their first post assignment." - U.S. Department of State website.
"Q. Do I have to accept every assignment that is offered?
A. Foreign Service personnel can express their preference for postings, but must be willing to serve worldwide according to the needs of the Service. " - U.S. Department of State website.
BIDDING
Bidding. That's how you get your first assignments when you enter the Service.
For entering officers, during your first few days of A-100 (Foreign Service Officer orientation course) you will be provided a list of positions which are available for you and your classmates to bid. The list includes such information as when the position comes open, the type of job, where it is located, whether it is language-designated and so forth.
Within a fairly short time, you and your classmates have to submit a rank-ordered "bid list." As an example, your class of 90-100 new officers might be given a list of just over a hundred positions, and you a have to rank order 20 or 25 positions in which you're interested.
Factors to take in consideration when preparing your bid list will vary by individual officer, but there are some common factors everyone takes into account. One thing to bear in mind: never put a position on your bid list which you're not prepared to receive as your assignment. Even if it's not one you're crazy about, mentally prepare yourself even if you put it there just to make the number of positions you're required to submit.
Where. As I recall, as a first-tour bidder, I was enjoined to ensure that I included bids on posts in at least three of the nominally five regions (AF, EAP, EUR, WHA and NEA/SA; NEA and SA being lumped together, WHA being the former ARA) into which State divides the world. This is to prevent or discourage a new officer from filling their bid lists solely from a menu of First World cities, for example, or from concentrating in just one part of the world for whatever reason. When they say "worldwide availability," they aren't kidding.
Cone. Entering officers may be in any of the several Generalist cones (Political, Economic, Public Diplomacy, C0nsular or Management; Management being formerly called Administrative); as noted above however, they will spend an average of three of their first five years performing consular work. Earlier it was 1-2 years on average. The majority (60 percent as specified above) of entry-level positions are in consular work. Entry-level officers (the equivalent of lieutenants and captains in the non-naval military) are at the working level or are first-line supervisors. Some entry-level positions are "split" assignments, that is an officer will do a year of, for example, a 1-year political assignment followed by a year of consular work. Other entry-level positions combine work in two areas into the same job, such as GSO and consular.
Note how consular keeps coming up.
Language. Entry-level officers are, until they're not, on "language probation." Entering officers who are still on language probation become eligible for language training when they are assigned to a position which is "language designated." Officers needing to "get off language probation" tend to bid on language-designated positions so they can receive language training and test-out, thus fulfilling this requirement for tenure.
Family Issues. While all entering officers have to have a "Class I" medical clearance that allows them to be assigned anywhere regardless of local level of medical care, sometimes their family members are not so healthy, whether that condition is permanent or only temporary. For instance, officers whose spouse or child has respiratory problems would be advised to avoid bidding on jobs at posts where there is an air polution problem. Other family issues involve "tandem couples." If an officer's spouse also works for the Department, whether as a Generalist or Specialist, assignment boards do their best to assign them to the same post, assuming their bid lists mirror each other enough to permit that. It's up to the officers involved to make sure its clear they're trying to be assigned together. I recall one case of an officer whose spouse was already assigned to a smaller post in one of the remoter corners of the world; there were no positions open at the spouse's post, but they were able to find a position at a post in a neighboring country, which made all the difference.
Other factors. I recall one officer, a reservist, who managed to convince those making his assignment decision that the only place he could fulfill his military obligation as a reserve component officer was at a certain capital in a highly-sought-after capital in Western Europe. I'm not saying he sold them a bill of goods, but I don't think that's necessarily so. Nonetheless, he got the position he wanted.
(Dec 05-2)
"ASSIGNMENTS "
"Each new Foreign Service Officer is granted a probationary period of five years in which to determine if he or she can serve successfully over a normal career span. This five-year period provides an opportunity to see if the officer and the Foreign Service are the right fit. An officer's first and second assignments are made with the probationary period in mind; our aim is to develop an officer's talents and ensure that he or she has language skills and the chance to work in different environments."
"New officers are given the opportunity to rank in order their preferred postings from a list of positions available at the time of their entry into the Service. These preferences, as well as training requirements and medical and educational concerns for family members, are taken into account when making assignments."
"Nevertheless, all officers are considered worldwide available and must be prepared to go where needed. Officers should anticipate doing an average of three years of consular work in their first five years, as over 60% of all entry-level positions have a consular component. Some officers may not serve in positions related to their career track in their first two tours. Officers who come in with critical language skills should expect to serve in positions using their language skills in their first or second assignment." - U.S. Department of State website.
"During orientation, Foreign Service Generalists receive their first assignments, which will govern the type of specialized training which follows. For Generalists, that training could include public diplomacy training, consular training, political-economic tradecraft, or management training. For Foreign Service personnel, their first assignment will often require language training which can last for an additional six or seven months. Newly hired generalists can expect to spend from three to twelve months in training before departure for their first post assignment." - U.S. Department of State website.
"Q. Do I have to accept every assignment that is offered?
A. Foreign Service personnel can express their preference for postings, but must be willing to serve worldwide according to the needs of the Service. " - U.S. Department of State website.
BIDDING
Bidding. That's how you get your first assignments when you enter the Service.
For entering officers, during your first few days of A-100 (Foreign Service Officer orientation course) you will be provided a list of positions which are available for you and your classmates to bid. The list includes such information as when the position comes open, the type of job, where it is located, whether it is language-designated and so forth.
Within a fairly short time, you and your classmates have to submit a rank-ordered "bid list." As an example, your class of 90-100 new officers might be given a list of just over a hundred positions, and you a have to rank order 20 or 25 positions in which you're interested.
Factors to take in consideration when preparing your bid list will vary by individual officer, but there are some common factors everyone takes into account. One thing to bear in mind: never put a position on your bid list which you're not prepared to receive as your assignment. Even if it's not one you're crazy about, mentally prepare yourself even if you put it there just to make the number of positions you're required to submit.
Where. As I recall, as a first-tour bidder, I was enjoined to ensure that I included bids on posts in at least three of the nominally five regions (AF, EAP, EUR, WHA and NEA/SA; NEA and SA being lumped together, WHA being the former ARA) into which State divides the world. This is to prevent or discourage a new officer from filling their bid lists solely from a menu of First World cities, for example, or from concentrating in just one part of the world for whatever reason. When they say "worldwide availability," they aren't kidding.
Cone. Entering officers may be in any of the several Generalist cones (Political, Economic, Public Diplomacy, C0nsular or Management; Management being formerly called Administrative); as noted above however, they will spend an average of three of their first five years performing consular work. Earlier it was 1-2 years on average. The majority (60 percent as specified above) of entry-level positions are in consular work. Entry-level officers (the equivalent of lieutenants and captains in the non-naval military) are at the working level or are first-line supervisors. Some entry-level positions are "split" assignments, that is an officer will do a year of, for example, a 1-year political assignment followed by a year of consular work. Other entry-level positions combine work in two areas into the same job, such as GSO and consular.
Note how consular keeps coming up.
Language. Entry-level officers are, until they're not, on "language probation." Entering officers who are still on language probation become eligible for language training when they are assigned to a position which is "language designated." Officers needing to "get off language probation" tend to bid on language-designated positions so they can receive language training and test-out, thus fulfilling this requirement for tenure.
Family Issues. While all entering officers have to have a "Class I" medical clearance that allows them to be assigned anywhere regardless of local level of medical care, sometimes their family members are not so healthy, whether that condition is permanent or only temporary. For instance, officers whose spouse or child has respiratory problems would be advised to avoid bidding on jobs at posts where there is an air polution problem. Other family issues involve "tandem couples." If an officer's spouse also works for the Department, whether as a Generalist or Specialist, assignment boards do their best to assign them to the same post, assuming their bid lists mirror each other enough to permit that. It's up to the officers involved to make sure its clear they're trying to be assigned together. I recall one case of an officer whose spouse was already assigned to a smaller post in one of the remoter corners of the world; there were no positions open at the spouse's post, but they were able to find a position at a post in a neighboring country, which made all the difference.
Other factors. I recall one officer, a reservist, who managed to convince those making his assignment decision that the only place he could fulfill his military obligation as a reserve component officer was at a certain capital in a highly-sought-after capital in Western Europe. I'm not saying he sold them a bill of goods, but I don't think that's necessarily so. Nonetheless, he got the position he wanted.
"The Call."
"The Call" is what happens when someone other than yourself gets every one of the positions you listed on your bid list and you're asked to take a position other than one of the ones on which you've bid and for which you've mentally prepared yourself. This is "worldwide availability." It can be where you start earning "equity," which you can cash in when it comes time for your next assignment.
(Dec 05-2)
posted by Consul-At-Arms at 5:01 PM
15 Comments:
C@A--
I'm disappointed with you. You're selling the party line. Everyone knows that answering the "Call" gets you squat, it does not earn you "equity" to be cashed in later. Although Iraq service seems to be changing that. And you need to fess up that to get most jobs you need to be willing to commit some level of sucking up, or much worse. Qualifications have nothing to do with it, knowing people in important positions has everything to do with it. And be willing to spend a HUGE amount of time on it, instead of doing your job. And beware of Office Directors who are running their own little power games. Twice, we had a PDAS who wanted to get us tandem jobs in a bureau, but the ODs were saving them for their own favorites. So much for friends in high places!
Oh well, makes it more interesting!
Delilah
Del: Thanks for commenting. Perhaps I should be more clear that I'm talking about ELO/JO bidding, where assignments are done more-or-less centrally. You may be right about "the call," but I've seen that taking a hardship post or more demanding (i.e., visa mill) position can get you something nicer for the second tour. My own first tour was a visa mill, if only in the 10-15 percent differential range; the follow-on tour was a much nicer post, if still a visa mill.
I'd love to hear more about your experiences.
C@A
Great article! One issue, though. The following is not in effect anymore:
"Within a fairly short time, you and your classmates have to submit a rank-ordered "bid list." As an example, your class of 90-100 new officers might be given a list of just over a hundred positions, and you a have to rank order 20 or 25 positions in which you're interested."
Nowadays, A-100 students rank all posts on the bid list, and do so as "high," "medium" or "low," according to perosnal interest. This has been in effect for the past few classes and has been accepted favorably. For example, every member of the 126th class got a "high" post.
Thanks again for the great blog!
Bill,
Thanks for the timely update!
As someone who has gone through the exam process several times, I've always found the early stages of a FSO career a bit mystifying. If a junior officer may not work in his/her cone at all during the probationary period, how can the service judge his/her suitability for a career in that cone? An officer might be great at, say, visa and GSO work, but does it make sense to grant career status based on those skills and then assign the JO as a political officer and hope s/he is good at that too?
I'm a Navy officer and the Foreign Service way of doing things seems like the military's assignment philosophy turned completely on its head. Instead of starting narrow and gradually broadening an officer's exposure, the FS does the opposite. At least that's my impression as an outsider looking in.
Brian
That's interesting that they now make you rank ALL the posts on the JO bid list, at least in ranges of "high," "medium," and "low." In the "old days" you'd always have some naive soul - a fool, really - who'd put Port Moresby or Lagos as his number 25 pick, thinking that he'd never get it because he ranked it so low. Of course, if you put a place like Lagos on your list - ANYWHERE on your list - you'd go there. Under the new system everybody, including the naive soul, will be putting Port Moresby and Lagos as a "low" (except, of course, the rare, honorable few - usually ex-Peace Corps types - who actually WANT to go to such posts). Thus, there's a good chance that a person who is not a naive soul, i.e., someone who never in a million years would've put such posts on their list of 25, could end up going to a place like Lagos or Port Moresby. I'd imagine there was a lot of grumbling when that rule was made. No longer can you just hope that the Peace Corps types and the fools would absorb all the Lagos and Port Moresby slots. What they ought to do is allow a 48-hour period of wild, stock-exchange-like trading right after the assignments come out: let the JOs swap amongst each other in a full free market until some sort of equilibrium is reached. Then have Flag Day.
Esteban: IIRC, we were enjoined to mark our bid lists in the same manner, but it was still just a fraction of the entire list. Your point, and it's very well taken, about not putting anything on the list at, say, the bottom because they would never give you that bottom post is. . . unclear thinking. You have to really take that "worldwide availability" concept to heart. They're not kidding.
Brian: Thanks for the naval officer perspective. The Department was fortunate to have Sec. Powell in charge for awhile and he did make some positive changes to how some personnel issues are not handled, more in a way which would seem familiar to someone coming out of one of the services, but it's still a vastly different corporate culture overall.
One thing about cones; FSOs are called Generalists for a reason. You have to be prepared to work in all the areas with some level of competence (given the appropriate tradecraft training back at FSI). So the Service selects, IMO, for quick studies.
C@A-
Actually, I love your blog. As the lone surviving FSO blog, I'm pulling for you. My first assignment was in visa mill hell Santo Domingo -- we had 17 JOs in the Consulate! But I loved the country and am going to visit friends who still consider me family at Christmas. I came in under the "Great Unconed Experiment" one of the Dept's stupider ideas, which left us full of angst for 5 years. I didn't get the cone I wanted but sucessfully pursued "conal rectification" (yes it is was painful as it sounds.)
I tried twice for an assignment to a lovely European post, where I spoke the language, had studied there in college, and had been the INR analyst for 2 years. The second time I was so clearly the better candidate, that the assignment went to a "shoot out" at panel, but the other guy got it, because "he was EUR's preferred candidate" period. Actually the best assignments my tandem spouse and I ever got were when we didn't lobby at all. Friends from previous assignments say our names on the bid lists and recommended us for a post we had been lusting over for 10 years. In another case, the OMS network (a very powerful tool) worked. A friend of an OMS we had befriended in a very difficult post (2 degrees of separation) recommended us. We hadn't even contacted post, and they offered us both great jobs. I now have an inside OMS connection at that EUR post, so keep your fingers crossed for me next time.
Delilah
Del: Thanks so much for your very kind words. As full of opinions as so many FSOs are, I can't understand why there aren't dozens more blogging.
Santo Domingo has figured high on my bid list at least once, I've had friends go there and they really liked it.
Conal Rectification? The phrase that brings smirks to so many faces. It's already on my list of topics for a "weekly special" this coming May '06, but I don't know that much about it. If you're interested, you could submit a guest post as a subject-matter-expert and I'd be happy to post it here. Totally up to you.
Being posted in Europe is kind of cool; it's my first time here as a civilian (not counting when I passed thru as a TDY-er going places less pleasant) and I like the change. Good luck getting that dream job. It always pays to be nice to FS specialists; or at least not be a snob to them. Too many FSOs don't get that.
I'd imagine the reason there aren't dozens of FSOs blogging is that it would be very, very difficult to blog without at some point giving away what post you're at. Then, once everybody at Post knows it's you, it becomes impossible to ever say anything critical of the Department, much less individual officers. The Department doesn't like critics and a JO out there saying things that aren't exactly party line could get "punished" with a bad EER, which could result in denial of tenure. At best, the officer would be forever pegged as "the Blogger" and he'll have a hard time getting a good assignment in the future if every prospective supervisor in the FS thinks he could end up as the butt of some joke on this guy's blog. There's also the danger that "L" could get on your back, Free Speech be damned, if you're out there saying things that go against Department policy. Then, of course, if the Blogger is a consular officer, and word gets out about his identity, there's the possibility of harrassment from visa applicants, both prospective and already-denied ones.
Actually, there are a number of FSO blogs. Like probably almost any representative sample, they are updated with varying regularity and range from simple family photo album to "real" commentary (like this fine one). A good starting point is Prince Roy, then under "diplomat demarches" on the left. (And no, I'm not Prince Roy.)
Oops, make that "diplomat demarches" on the right.
Esteban: Quite. Thus, in the time-honored tradition of “X,” Yours Truly chooses to be as discrete as possible, both concerning the Department, myself, my post, and my fellow officers and staff members. My colleagues personal business is their own, nor will I often delve too deeply into my own personal issues, at least I hope not.
I take considerable care to never blog regarding personalities at my current or former posts. My identity isn’t precisely a secret (although I’ve been discrete enough that Mrs. At-Arms only yesterday learned I’ve been blogging), but it seems only reasonable and prudent not to publicize the fact, especially while serving overseas, for reasons you state quite well.
When I first began blogging, my initial concern was more for OPSEC (operational security), especially as I’d only recently returned from Iraq. Enough time has passed that I’m not giving anything away by posting pictures from my tour, although I review each with OPSEC in mind before posting. I spent a certain amount of my Army Reserve career in an OPSEC position so that review is professional-grade.
Similarly, I make a point of not criticizing the Department. The Department has a sufficiency of critics already, I’d rather act in an explanatory fashion, commenting on events and so forth. Like Dr Demarche and Smiley before me, I don’t think it’s out of place to comment or discuss immigration and visa issues in general, without giving away any “secrets of the trade.”
So far, no visa applicants have come “a-knocking” at this web log. Those who might consider doing so should bear in mind that little brings me greater joy than finding a good solid reason to deny a visa, like harassing me online.
Bill: Thanks for the tip, I'll be adding some of them to my sidebar when next I mess around with my template. That's usually no more often than once per week and I did it earlier today.
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