lots of news! well, just one really big piece of news! take it or leave it!

on tuesday (11/23) i took and passed my foreign service oral assesment. yay!

the day, in as much detail as i'm allowed:

i arrived at 7am (is that really what goes on in the "real world"? you have to go to work at 7am? cuz maybe i'll just stay in grad school). the security guy at the front desk commented on my smile, saying that he knew i'd do well, because i had the right attitude. i was the last to arrive, so the 12 of us were immediately taken upstairs to a suite of offices and rooms, and were instructed by our drill sargeant, linda, to put all our stuff in the corner ("you won't need it all day"), get a clipboard ("but wait til i call your names!"), and sign the 4 forms that were on it ("and DO NOT walk away with my pens"). the first thing we had to sign was a non-disclosure agreement. state started making "candidates" sign that when they discovered the large internet groups that were circulating their test materials in the hopes of increasing scores.

at 8.15 we got started on our first task, the group exercise. the 12 of us had been divided into 2 groups of 6 (group 1 and 2) and into letters (a-f). i was 2f. group 2 were ushered into a conference room where we sat down in front of placards with our names and binders of information (which we had strict instructions from linda not to mess up. we could mark on the plastic sleeves that the pages were contained in with dry-erase marker, but were not to write on the plastic with "ink pens" nor take the pages out of the sleeves.) we had 30 minutes to read through the information, some of which was common to the group and some of which was particular to a project that only we knew about. we were not to talk at all during this time, not even to say "bless you" if someone sneezed. our task was to prepare a 6 minute presentation to the group about our project, which was competing with the others for limited funding.

after 30 minutes, 4 examiners entered the room and sat in the corners. they instructed us to decide among ourselves the order of presentation, and to go ahead and start. we took turns making our presentations, each leaving a few seconds at the end for questions. after all our presentations were done, an examiner told us how much money we had as a group, and started a 25 minute timer. we had to negotiate as a group to decide on one project to get full funding and others to get partial funding. my group was very congenial, and we got through the funding process with 45 seconds to spare.

after the group exercise we had a coffee break, then were divided up again for the second exercise. letters a-d had their structured interview, and e and f (me) had our case management section. we were put in a room with a bunch of computers (all marked "unclassified". welcome to the government!) and binders. we were told that we had 90 minutes to complete the task, and god help us if we messed up the binders.

the room was very warm, even for me. but i quickly forgot about that as i got into the information. the binder had 30+ pages of information in it: memos from various people, a letter from my "boss", data on embassy statistics, etc. the task was to read through the information then write a 2-page, single-spaced memo to the ambassador laying out the situation and recommending a solution plus an alternative.

state recommends that you spend 30 mins reading, 45 writing, and 15 revising. i say to hell with that. i like to read and write at the same time, so i dove right in, reading each document, and summarizing it in a sentence or two. after reading all the documents, i had over a page of notes, and was able to quickly turn them into a coherent summary of the situation. then, i felt like it was pretty much common sense to deal with the issues. i finished writing with 5 minutes to spare, so i read through and made sure i spelled stuff right. right at 90 minutes, linda came in and made anyone still writing stop, told us to print 3 copies, and sent us on our way to lunch.

that exercise may have been my favorite of the day--it was interesting, challenging, and logical. i felt like i was getting stuff done. it would have even been fun, if it wasn't so high stakes.

as a e/f letter, i had 2 hours for lunch, so i wandered a block to the national museum of the american indian, the newest smithsonian. good things: the museum is beautiful, the exhibits are pretty, it is free, like all smithsonians. bad things: the first two floors are devoted entirely to a cafe and shop. no exhibits to speak of. the 4 exhibit halls are on the upper 2 floors. as i said, they are pretty, but i was seriously underwhelmed. mostly, the exhibits are just boring. paragraphs on the wall, artifacts hanging in cases, not much description about how the things are *really* used, or what those particular objects meant (where they came from, who they belonged to, etc). there were lots of video monitors, showing interviews with people, native ceremonies, cheesy ocean views with superimposed pseudo-poetic prose, you know the type. but in a brand-new museum, i expected more interaction, more fun, more engagement. i don't see myself going back.

anyway, after that disappointing visit to the NMAI, i had a #2 meal at the mcdonald's in our building (i know, i know. it was my bi-annual mickey-d's meal, to remind myself why i don't eat there more often.) i reported back to the lobby at 1.45, per linda's instructions.

at 2, we started our structured interview. the other group (a-d) were well into their case management section. one by one, me last, we were shown into small rooms with 3 chairs. two chairs at one wall, one at the other. as linda left me, she said "you'll do great, you have the right look." she was referring to the fact that i was smiling and happy.

after 5 minutes, two examiners came in. the structured interview has 3 parts. the first was "experience and motivation," which is most like a typical interview. you know, why do you want to work here, etc. i had prepared for this section and the third section by thinking of situations in my life when i had exhibited the 13 dimensions.

the second section was "hypotheticals." here, they give you 2 situations that you might encounter as a foreign service officer, and ask you how you'd handle them. they could be consular, public diplomacy, or management situations. a typical consular situation might be "you're the duty officer at the embassy. everyone else is out of town. you get a call from your contact saying that an american has been found dead in a northern district of your host country, and his wife has been arrested for the murder. what do you do? a typical public diplomacy situation might have a US senator visiting the country and making an ass of himself, leading to an unfavorable write-up in the local paper which he reads and blames you for. what do you do? management situations might involve two of your employees who aren't getting along, and whose public fighting is bringing down morale in the whole embassy. what do you do? anyway, in each of these situations, they allow you to answer the first question, then throw a wrench into the works (ok, that didn't work, now what?) and ask you to deal with that.

i got two of those situations. i had prepared for them, at least for the consular ones, by reading the relevant parts of the foreign affairs manual. at one point, i tried to make a small joke, which fell completely flat. i do not doubt that it was my fault. however, i take some solace in the fact that they are supposedly trained to restrain their emotions; they are not supposed to show approval or disapproval during the interviews.

the third section was "past experience," where they asked me questions about how i have responded in various situations in the past. this is clearly a place to demonstrate the 13 dimensions.

there it was, 3pm, and we were done with the hard part. or so i thought. the a-d candidates had been on a break while we finished up our interviews, so they trickled back in slowly. once all 12 of us were back, linda shuffled us back to the case management room to wait. she gave us more strict instructions not to touch anything, including turning on the giant industrial fan, even though the room was still very warm. she left for the weekend.

the 12 of us sat in that room, nervously chatting and sweating (the heat, really!) for about 20 minutes. and for sure, that waiting was the hardest part of the day. i hadn't had coffee since 7am when my dad bought be a good-luck cup as he dropped me off, but my heart was pounding. after 20-25 minutes, an examiner came to the door and called a name. that person got up and left, with our wishes for good results. mine were a bit half-hearted because i had read in an online chat group that the people who passed were called last. each time an examiner came to the door i mentally pleaded "don't call my name. don't call my name."

the third examiner who came to the door commented on how hot it was, and turned on the giant fan, saying that she'd take responsibility with linda. heh. but from then on, i couldn't hear the names that were being called, and was thankful each time that when the examiner said something, someone besides me got up and left. when there were six of us left out of the original 12, i got worried because we noticed that we had been in group 2 together at the beginning of the day. i wondered if everything i'd heard was wrong, and that they had called group 1 first, and were now going to call group 2.

two more people were called, leaving 4. the next examiner who came to the door called my name, and one other woman's. i got a little excited, because i had heard that they sometimes do call passers in groups. which makes sense, of course: you have to tell people bad news by themselves, but you can tell people good news in groups.

we were taken to the conference room where we'd had our group exercise, and the two examiners gave us the good news--we both got ICOs. now, ICOs (immediate conditional offers) are not as good as they sound. they just mean that you get to go on to the next step: getting your security and medical clearances. they don't mean you will definitely get a job. but regardless, we were both very excited, and listened as calmly as we could to the scripted congratulations speech one examiner gave us. he described the next steps, and warned us not to go selling our houses and quitting our jobs just yet. they both congratulated us again, and let us look at our scores, in the packet of stuff they had given us.

BAITED BREATH: MY SCORE

i got a 5.7. out of 7. though apparently it's rare-to-impossible to get more than a 6.1. what this means is not completely clear. after my clearances go through (which will probably be close to a year, since i've (a) lived in russia, twice, and (b) have a non-citizen live-in boyfriend who is only in the country on a work visa. but whatever, that gives me time to finish my degree (if i don't spend all my time on diaryland!)) i'll be put on the register of cleared candidates, at which time i will be eligible to get The Call to invite me to the next a-100 class (training class for entering FSOs, named after the room in which it was first given). whether or not i get The Call depends on my rank on the register, which is determined by my score of 5.7. i think that 5.7 is pretty high, though of course things can change. the register changes all the time, as candidates get hired, or expire off the list, and as new candidates come onto the list as their clearances come through. what i know is that for the last several years, 5.7s in the consular track have tended to get hired, but the last several years have also seen increased hiring (because of 9/11), and that is coming to an end. to sum up: i don't know jack.

but back to the captivating minute-by-minute story of my day. after the congratulations speech (and oh, by the way, one of the examiners was retiring after that day, so we were it for him. hope it was a good ride!) we were taken back to the waiting area where the other two candidates were waiting (i guess their congratulations speech was quicker). the 4 of us all got ICOs, and we gave each other hearty congratulations. the last part of the day was to have a security interview. we got fingerprinted, then sat down one-on-one with a security officer. mine went over all my forms (basically, everthing about me for the last 10 years) line by line, stopping in places to ask for more information. he was concerned about my trips to russia and about karl, but otherwise it was straightforward.

now, a few days removed, i'm still happy about it, but am certainly dreading the conversation i'm going to have to have with my advisor about how (a) he's going to get a call from the government about me and (b) i don't want to be in academia anymore and want to finish up this pesky dissertation toute suite. as in, i want to do the absolute bare minimum necessary to satisfy my committee and get the hell outta here (and on to zimbabwe! or moscow! or paraguay!)