So You Want to be a FSO Part 2

So You Want to be a FSO Part 2

Once you pass the written exam you will be invited to submit personal narrative (PN) essays for the QEP (I forget what it stands for, qualitative evaluation panel or something). If you speak a super critical needs language (SCNL) then you will invited to take a phone test here.***UPDATE - this has apparently changed within the last couple of months. As always, anyone who wants to know the real skinny on what to expect during the testing process should head over to the State Dept's website*** SCNLs are things like Mandarin or Arabic and passing this test can give you an extra boost to your overall score, but I had plenty of people in my orientation class (also known as A-100, which is the course number) that did not come in with any language bonus points. For the QEP there are five or six essays of about 200 words where you describe an experience in which you have showed a quality they are looking for (communication skills, leadership skills, etc.). I think the key on this section is to focus on one experience for each essay. You get about 3 weeks to work on these and submit them. A lot of people have trouble with this stage (I think mainly because the space requirements are so restrictive and because people fail to realize that they are just looking for an example of how you have displayed these traits they are looking for). In my opinion, State has access to your employment history from your original application to see all the awesome things you've done throughout your career, they just want to see how well/how concisely you can answer the question they are asking. Each PN must also have a verifier attached. That is, you must have someone who can verify that the story you are telling is true. It is impossible to have every verifier contacted, and I’m not sure how State decides how many verifiers and which ones will be contacted. The randomness ensures that everyone answers these questions honestly. The QEP is considered to be something of a mystery because there is very little transparency to it. You only get notified that you passed or failed; there is no feedback or explanation as to why.

If you pass the QEP stage you will be notified about 6 weeks later via e-mail. I believe my timeline was submitting the QEP essays at the end of Jul and I heard back in early to mid Sep. Then you will be invited to schedule a date to take the oral assessment (OA). The OA window is a range of dates that cover about a 4 month span. My window opened in Nov, but there were very few dates available that early. There are usually two locations available for each window. DC is always one of those options. I was lucky enough that Atlanta was the 2nd option for my window; coming from Florida this was the closest/cheapest option. Other cities I’ve seen for other cohorts have included San Francisco and Chicago. Since I wanted to take my OA in Atlanta, I had to wait until Jan to get a date (there were no dates in Dec, just a few in Now, and lots in Jan and Feb). Some people like to jump on the 1^st OA date they can get, while others wait for the best deal financially. It doesn’t really matter which date you choose. Each OA is separate and there is no quota of passers. The only person you are competing against is yourself as measured by the 13 dimensions.