So You Want to be a FSO Part 1

Wow, a post so soon? That's right, peeps, that's just how we roll at the Corner. We like to switch the shit up. Also, there are five kids in my house, so I am pretending to be hard at work so they will be quiet. Work with me here, people! Anyway, ever since I joined the Foreign Service people have come out of the woodwork from all aspects of my life and said, "Pu, you're so awesome. I want to be just like you when I grow up. How can I join the Foreign Service, too?" Okay, so maybe they just said the last part, but I know what they were really thinking. When the first person asked, I wrote up a quick e-mail response. When the second person asked, I dug up the first response and added a little to it. And, now...well, let's just say it's grown to a bit more than what you can put in an e-mail. I know when I was looking to join the FS, I searched high and low for a good breakdown of the hiring process, which is long, arduous, stressful, and, at times, confusing, so hopefully this will be of some help to someone. If not, well, too freaking bad, I'm posting it anyway.* Without further ado:

So You Want to be a FSO Part 1

Basically the process goes like this - 1st you register to take a written exam known as the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT). It is given 3 times a year (generally in Jan/Feb, Jun, and Oct). You can resister for the exam on the State Department’s website under the Careers tab. When you register (which is similar to filling out a job application, in fact you should probably think of it as a job application) they will want to know which cone you are applying your candidacy to. There are five cones: Consular, Management, Economic, Public Diplomacy, and Political. The State Dept offers a self-assessment test on their Careers page to help you in deciding which cone is best for you. It is important to note that this selection applies to your whole candidacy, so if you do make it through the whole process, and you decide at some point within the process that you made a mistake in which cone you selected, it is too late, so pick wisely! Personally, I didn't find the test to be any harder than any other multiple choice test I've ever taken, and certainly it is the easiest part of the whole process. It is mostly a general knowledge test, much like the GRE, broken up into 3 distinct sections with a 30min timed essay at the end.

First you have a section for English Expression, which includes general English comprehension, grammar, and vocabulary questions. Then there is a Job Knowledge section. This section can be tricky to study for (disclosure: I did not study at all for the FSOT) because it really covers just about everything else outside of English Expression. Questions could cover subjects like history, civics, economics, etc. In my personal opinion, if you are well read, well-rounded, and have a decent grasp on history you should be just fine. The third section is known as the Biography section. A lot of people report having trouble with this section, which is unique to anything I have seen on a test before, but as long as you are consistent with your answers and you use bullet format to complete your responses it shouldn't give you much trouble. I forget how much time you have for each section, but I did not find the time limits to be restrictive and was able to answer all of the questions with time to spare on each section; however, if you are a person who gets test anxiety or just doesn’t generally do well on standardized tests, it would probably behoove you to practice.

After the three sections are completed you move on to the essay portion. When I took the test in June 2010 there was only 1 essay prompt. I have heard there are now two essays to complete, each timed for 30 min, so 2 essays in one hour, but I would check the State Dept official hiring site for the latest and greatest info. This is the only section where I felt crunched for time. I consider myself a fairly prolific writer, and I am used to writing under time limits (nothing so extreme, of course, but I have certainly taken timed essay tests before), so YMMV. I have heard lots of people say they studied for this, especially those who have been out of school for a while and those who are not fast typists. Essay topics could be anything, so it is mostly important to make sure you are familiar with how to write a basic 5 paragraph persuasive essay. Ultimately the topic doesn’t really matter. ACT (who grades the exams) isn’t looking at the content to see how strong your arguments are, they are looking at how well you write. Your knowledge of the particular topic is mostly incidental.

So that is the written exam in a nutshell. You can get more information on the exam and the process through the FSWE (Foreign Service written exam) yahoo group. 




*Everyone who goes through the FS hiring process signs a non-disclosure agreement regarding its contents. All of my comments are meant to be helpful without disclosing any actual test content. Sorry!