So You Want to be a FSO Part 3

The Oral Assessment (OA) is really the last hurdle that you have any control over. This is essentially a day-long interview broken into 3 parts. There is a group exercise portion, a written exercise (case memo), and a structured interview. Each section is graded equally on a points scale from 0-7, and the overall score is averaged to give you your final score. A score of 5.3 or better is passing. There is yet another yahoo group (FSOA yahoo group) that has lots of helpful files and information on what to expect and how to prepare for the OA. At the end of the day they will call each person out one by one (I had a group of about 9 in my OA, but I know of other groups as large at 24) and let you know if you received a passing score. 2 people passed the day I took the OA, which is higher than average based on info I've gotten from others, but there are days that lots of people pass and there are days when they don't pass anyone. If you pass the OA, diplomatic security (DS) will take your fingerprints and your SF-86 (a big, long application where you list everything you've ever done in your life - or at least for the last 10 years - if you've held a clearance before, you're intimate friends with this form) and start the process for your TS clearance. I've heard some people claim that DS will accept current clearances from other agencies and perhaps that holds true in some cases. As for me, I have held a higher clearance than the one I was required to get for this job from another agency since the mid-1990s and the Department still wanted to do their own investigation.* You will be given info on how to get the exams done for your medical clearances. You will also be allowed to test in any languages you might have. From there, assuming your clearances come through no problem, you have to pass through one final hurdle known as the Final Suitability Review, which is basically State's last chance to say "no" if they should uncover something derogatory during their investigation that didn't disqualify you from getting your TS clearance. Then you are placed on the Register.

The Registers are lists of all of the people who have passed through these hurdles by cone (there are five cones: Consular, Management, Economic, Public Diplomacy, and Political).** The registers are numerical and descend from highest score to lowest. If you have a 5.3 and no extra points, you are likely to hold the last place on the register b/c you are the last 5.3 to have cleared through the process. Your number will move up and down depending on how many people are called up for classes, how many people expire off the register, and how many new people with higher or lower scores get added to the register. You can also be awarded extra points to boost your overall score.***UPDATE: I understand the language bonus points system has changed recently, so please refer to the Dept of State hiring website for the most up to date information. The following describes my personal experience from a couple of years ago*** All veterans will receive a .175 point bonus added to their score. SCNLers get a .4 (except Arabic, which gets .5) bonus, and all other languages get a .175 bonus. So, for example, I passed the OA with a 5.6 + .175 veterans points + .175 for Chinese (before accepting the full points you have to agree to serve in a country with that language at least twice in your career, once as an entry level officer and once in the mid-grades). So I was added to the register with a 5.95 and received an offer without ever having to take the SCNL points (I asked to take them anyway because I want to serve in China).**** My rank with that score was 5/195 in the Econ cone. There were about 15-17 Econ slots for the May class, and I believe people got offers who had scores as low as 5.5. You have 18 months from the time you are added to the Register to receive an offer to join an A-100 class. If you do not receive a call in that time then you will expire off the register and have to start the process all over again. You can use this time to learn a language to boost your score if you so choose (we had several people in my A-100 class who learned very difficult languages like Hindi and Russian to get bonus points to boost their scores, so it is possible!). Many peole who are added to the register ask to be placed on the Do Not Call list. This doesn't stop their time clock on the register, but it does mean they will be passed over to receive a call (some reasons for doing this might be people serving out their time in the Peace Corps or finishing a degree). That means even if you have a rank of 25/195, you still have a good chance of getting a call because there are often people on the Do Not Call list ahead of you. A lot of people go DNC until May b/c of school, so the May, July, and Sep classes are considered harder to get into. If you are offered a spot in an A-100 class and you have to turn it down for whatever reason, you will still be given one more opportunity to be offered a class. If you decline twice, then your name is removed from the Register.


*It took about 3 months and lord knows how many man hours to be granted a lower clearance than the one I already held. Our tax dollars at work!


**all the info on the different cones and what they do can be found on State's employment website - the same place you register for the FSOT


****And we are headed to Hong Kong(!!!!) next, so points are totes worth taking if you love the region whose language you speak!