A Hard Right Turn

I'm 40 now, and as the title of this blog says, I am making a hard right turn in my life. 18 months ago I decided it was time for a change in career. I have always wanted to travel, see new things, visit lots of places, and meet more people.


But how was I going to do this? I certainly didn't make enough. I don't have a trust fund. So what was I going to do?

So I started looking at options. Teaching at the American Schools, working for the DOD as a civilian contractor running rec programs. Both possible, but I wasn't finding jobs I thought I was qualified for. Then a friend suggested I look into the US State Department. I did, and I was immediately hooked. Foreign Service Officer! That looked like the job for me! Live in different countries, meet lots of people, see new things. Everything I wanted and they were going to pay me to do it too.

There was a catch though. There were tests involved. Three of them. Apparently they were very hard and the only people that knew how they were scored weren't telling. The first test, the FSOT, was a three hour test, much like the MCAT, GMAT, AFOQT, CPA exam, etc.

Hard.

So I signed up and checked out the online resources. The reading list (pdf) was rather daunting and dammit, I had to go back and learn US history again. I didn't get a seat during the next round of testing so had to wait until June of last year before I could take it. I got to the testing site and the computers couldn't connect to the test server. JOY! But Lo, the IT gods were smiling and they got it to work and I took the test. Three weeks later I was told I passed, and oh by the way, will you please answer these questions and send them back to us in three weeks. Kthanksbye!

So I answered their questions, sent them in, and waited. And waited, And waited. Mind you, I sent them in July. It was now September. I still waited, until a member of a Yahoo group for the Foreign Service Oral Assessment (FSOA) announced that invitations to the Oral Assessment (OA) were coming out.

And Lo! I answered the mysterious questions correctly and received an invitation to sign up for the OA, and oh by the way, here is the window of time where you can sign up. So on that day I stalked the signup site and the system overloaded and I couldn't refresh fast enough to get signed up. I waited 15 minutes and went in to sign up again. Would you believe that 80% of the available dates were already taken?! But I got a date in January of this year and bought my tickets for D.C. I wont bore you with the details, though I know there are OA hopefuls out there who wish I would, but suffice it to say, I passed on my first go. I passed with the lowest score possible, but I passed. So what next?

Let me tell you.

Nearly every detail of my life for the past 10 years was peered into by the State Department, trying to figure out if I was a security risk and if I was going to die soon of cancer or a heart attack. Or maybe I was depressed, or used drugs. Lucky for me I was clean enough that they gave me a clean bil of health and said I was trustworthy enough.

What does that all mean? It means I got put on the bottom of the depth chart for a Management position in the Foreign Service. It meant that unless I learned a language, I was never getting off that list and getting a job offer. So I started studying Mandarin in hopes of getting off the list in 18 months, the total time you can stay on the list before getting kicked off and having to start over. On a chance, I sent in my DD-214s from the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard to see if I could get any Veteran's Preference points to help my score, and what do you know, it did. I got moved from 137th on the list to 37th! That's right, 100 spots! I was blown away. I had a real shot at getting a job offer this year (2011).

Soon I was 25th on the list and I was told that only 15 to 18 would be chosen for the September A-100 class, the class that introduces you to the Foreign Service and must be gone through by every new member of the Foreign Service. I was sweating because I didn't know how many of the people in front of me had deferred or were on the Do Not Call list. Then word came out on June 27th that not only were offer letters going out, but that there were going to be 22 offers for Management. Talk about torture! So I emailed my HR contact and asked "where was I on the list and can you please, pretty please, tell me where I am on the list and are you really taking 22 people?"

Crickets.

Not a peep out of them.

And then, on the afternoon of the 28th, I got the email that every candidate wants to see. You have been accepted! And there, about a month before my 40th Birthday, my life began what is shortly to be, a hard right turn.