Foreign Service

The language points that I earned last week have been added to my score, and my position on the registry has been updated. I was #37 when I was added to the registry, and now I am #5.

Invitations to the September class have been sent out (they were sent out two days before I took the language test, rage rage), so I missed that window of opportunity. Historically, there has not been a class in November, which means that the next class will probably be in January. Given the timetable for sending invitations out, invitations for a January class should be sent out in early November.

 

 

Short version: holy cow that Chinese test was hard, but I passed at a level high enough to get all the boost points.

Long version: after driving from Michigan to Arlington the day before (note to self, don’t EVER do that again) and staying in a hotel, I arrived at the FSI two hours before my test (when an over-achieving, type-A personality gets nervous, things like this can happen).

Checked in with security, got my Visitor badge, was was set loose on the grounds of the training center. I had been there once before about ten years ago for an academic thing, but this time I got to wander around and check the place out. “Impressive” is the best word to describe the facility. Nice campus, new-ish buildings, good classroom facilities.

I sat in the cafeteria and did some last-minute studying, and also eavesdropped on some of the people around me. A lot of the people there look professional and all, but so many of them looked so young to me. If I get in to the Foreign Service, I guess that I will have to get used to being the old guy in the group (I’m 47).

Due to NDA restrictions, I can’t say much about the test itself, but I can say that I was not surprised by the format or the process of the test. What did surprise me was the level of the language. I expected it to be hard, but I didn’t expect it to be hard right at the start. There was a bit of an easing into it, but it escalated very quickly. I felt comfortable enough during the speaking and listing section. The reading was very challenging, though. Lucky for me, I could choose between simplified and traditional characters for the test. I’m MUCH more familiar with traditional characters, so not having to deal with simplified characters made the reading less hard.

The testers were pleasant and professional, and I was pleasantly surprised that I got my score right away, after a short wait that lasted about 20 minutes but felt like 2 hours.

I needed/wanted to score at least 3 in speaking and 2 in reading. I scored 3 across the board, which will give me the maximum boost points, and will greatly increase my chances of getting The Call. The staff said that the scores are sent in every Monday. Probably too late to make this round of offers, but miracles happen, right? Right?!

As I was checking out, an administrative staff member mentioned that I was the “first” person to take the in-person test since the implementation of the new boost point rule. I don’t know if that was true, but it wouldn’t surprise me if many people are intimidated by the risk of losing the telephone points if they don’t perform high enough on the in-person test. My OA score was low enough at 5.4 that I really needed the boost if I wanted to get The Call, so it made sense for me to take Mark Twain’s advice: put all your eggs in one basket, then guard that basket!

Drove to DC from Michigan yesterday. Google Maps estimated nine hours, but it didn’t account for traffic. Total driving time was 10.5 hours.

The Turnpike system is really nice. The tolls were steep, about $30 total from three different legs of the trip, but the drive was easy once I got out of the cities. The mountains of eastern Ohio and Pennsylvania are beautiful. There was some light rain, and the grey from the sky was a striking combination when mixed with the lush green of the mountains.

As I expected it to be, the weather in northern Virginia in late June is hot and humid. I will be running from one air-conditioned room to another.

I will take the language test at the Foreign Service Institute in a few hours. I’m not as nervous about it as I was going in to the Oral Assessment in February. The stakes are high, though. I need the language bonus points.

I have been frantically preparing for my Chinese test on June 28th. The test lasts two hours, and consists of a speaking-listening portion, and a reading exercise. The speaking part should not be difficult for me. I do a lot of speaking in Chinese regularly. The reading worries me a little.

Not only is Chinese a difficult language to read (even for Chinese people), but there are two different ways to write characters. The government on the Mainland simplified the characters to make them easier to write, but in Taiwan, they kept using the traditional characters. I have never hid my preference for traditional characters. Not only are they better looking, but they preserve more of the logographic origins of the characters, and in my opinion, they are less abstract than simplified characters.

Take the character for “book,” for example. The simplified form is 书, and the traditional form is 書. If you know something about the etymology of Chinese characters, you might see the components of the traditional form. On the top, there is a brush (the traditional Chinese writing instrument), which is written like this: ç­† and the bottom portion is the character for spoken words (the things that the brush is writing): æ›°. A brush writing words = a book. Not 100% concrete, but not 100% abstract, either. But in the simplified form, the clues about the meaning of the character are stripped away. In 书 you can’t see a brush or the spoken word. There can be no argument that the simplified form is easier to write. Even someone who doesn’t know any Chinese can see that there are fewer lines to write in the simplified form. But is it easier to read? I could make the case that it is more abstract, and thus harder to read, than the traditional form.

So I have a preference for traditional characters. But the US government’s interests in China outweigh those in Taiwan. In all likelihood, if my Foreign Service career requires Chinese language skills, I will be required to be able to read and write simplified characters. Despite my preference for traditional characters, simplified characters seem to be in my future.

In preparing for the test, I’ve been familiarizing myself with simplified characters, assuming that they will be the written form on the test. But then I heard a rumor on the message boards that you get to choose which form you want to be tested on. So I wrote to the Foreign Service Institute and asked about the format of the written test. To my delight, I was told that I could choose between traditional and simplified characters!

It might seem strange to prefer the “harder” form of characters. But since I have focused on traditional characters for the entirety of my Chinese learning experience (over 25 years and counting), it’s a relief to know that I can rely on something more familiar to me for the test.

Now “all” that I have to do is do well on the test.

Wish me luck!

 

 

After today’s phone call with news that I was granted a security clearance, in today’s mail was an official letter from the State Department that I have been added to the Registry. That means that in just a few days, I passed through the Final Suitability Review.

WIth my bonus points from the telephone Chinese test, my score puts me somewhere in the middle of the list. In order to have a realistic chance of receiving an official offer, I need to boost my score higher. The only ways to get bonus points are to be a veteran or to get additional language points. Since I am not a veteran, I will be traveling to Washington, D.C. and taking a two-hour reading, speaking and listening test at the Foreign Service Training Center. I hope to do that some time in June.

Woot woot! says the happy man! I’m on the Registry!!

 

 

My security clearance was granted on May 29. This was the step that required the 7-hour interview with an investigator, a “plethora” of investigators digging into my past, and “adjudication” to evaluate the information that the investigators uncovered. The clearance means that I can be granted a top-secret security clearance, which is an essential prerequisite to being a Foreign Service Officer.

There is still another step before I can be put onto the register: the Final Suitability Review. In this step, yet another panel looks at all my information, and answers the question: is this person suitable for the Foreign Service? That step can take hours or months.

As with every step in the process, my candidacy could end at this stage. A possibility is that the panel decides that I am not suitable. I read one candidate’s report that he applied three times (which means he went through the whole process of the written test, oral assessment, and security clearance three times), only to be denied at the suitability review stage each time. After the third denial, he finally decided to give up his dream and move on.

You have to really want it. Or be really lucky. I think the latter applies to me. So far.

Stay tuned…

 

I passed the Chinese test that I took two weeks ago. This will give me some bonus points. I will need some more points, though, so I will ask to take the in-person test in Washington, DC.

I just took the telephone Chinese test. I can’t give too many details about the test, because I am under a Non-Disclosure Agreement. The test was all speaking and listening, which is not surprising, since it was a telephone test. The interviewer was a Mainlander, so it’s a good thing that I’ve been listening to CCTV news from China. The interviewer’s accent didn’t confuse me.

The topic of conversation was at a high level, focusing on current events in the US and China. I think that I held my own in the conversation, asking questions and giving my opinions.

There was also an interview portion, where I had to ask questions in Chinese, then report back the contents of the interview in English. That part was a little easier for me. My court interpreting experience was very valuable in that task.

I think that I did well on the test. I could have done better, but I was a little nervous at first.

The whole thing took less than 20 minutes. The next step is to grade the test. Another rater will listen to the recording of the test. They will then send my score to the Board of Examiners, who will give me the results. How long will that take? If you have to ask, you haven’t learned anything from my experience in applying to the Foreign Service…

P.S. The title of this blog post isn’t a typo, it’s a family joke.

Stacy’s medical clearance came through. The boys and I were cleared weeks ago, but Stacy has a more interesting medical history, so she needed some additional tests. We thought that the red flag would be Tuberculosis, but it was Hepatitis that the State Department’s medical clearance office was concerned about.

Stacy reported that she was a carrier of Hepatitis B, based on what someone told her when she tried to donate blood back in college. State wanted her to get a blood test, and asked our doctor to give a report of the “viral load and treatment recommendations” for her hepatitis.

Surprisingly, the test came back negative. She isn’t a Hep B carrier after all.

Within a week of sending that report in, she was granted a world-side clearance. She can accompany my to any post anywhere in the world. Hooray!

All of this testing was not done for free. State’s policy is to have candidates bill their insurance company, and submit bills for anything that isn’t covered by insurance. Not surprisingly, quite a bit of the blood tests were not covered by our regular health insurance. I wanted to wait until all the clearances were granted, and all the charges made, before I submitted the bills to the government. Now that we have all our clearances, I can do that.

My next step is to figure out how to submit the bills. Stacy has done her usual amazing job of keeping track of all the bills and statements from the doctor’s office and insurance company. The State Department seems to be very competent and experienced in handling these medical bills, so I’m confident that they will be able to sort everything out correctly, but dealing with paperwork is always time-consuming.

The security background check has entered the phase known as “adjudication.” The plethora of investigators has submitted its collective information to the office of Diplomatic Security, and now an adjudicator is evaluating the information that has been gathered about me.

At this point, my case can go in one of three directions. The first possibility, and the outcome that I am hoping for, is that the adjudicator could decide that I am eligible for a top secret security clearance, and will pass my case on to the Final Review Board. The second possibility is that the adjudicator could determine, based on the investigation, that I am a security risk. That would end my candidacy for the Foreign Service.

The third possibility is that the adjudicator could decide that more information is needed, and dispatch investigators to gather it. That would start another loop of investigation and report back to the adjudicator.

The adjudication phase is an infamous black box. Some candidates are in adjudication for 24 hours, some languish for 15 months. The process is opaque. If your adjudication is taking a long time, you can not know the reason. There is a phone number that you can call to ask the status, but all that you will be told is that your application is still in adjudication. This phase is frustrating for a lot of FS candidates, because, I think, many candidates have Type-A personalities, and want to be in control of their lives. While in adjudication, you can’t facilitate the process, and you have zero control over the outcome.

I am choosing to take a more Zen attitude toward the process, and am focusing on things that I can control, like self-mutilation and eating disorders. Just kidding. I’m enjoying the arrival of spring by running outside instead of going to the gym, and am dieting to try to lose a few pounds.

The Department of State takes this background check very seriously because Foreign Service officers need to have a top secret security clearance. It makes sense that the government has to trust the people who have access to sensitive material.

Thanks to everyone who was interviewed by Diplomatic Security. I appreciate you taking time to talk with the investigator and put in some good words for me.