The Day I met Jimmy Carter: Independence Day 2014

Waiting for Independence Day to begin (credit: US Embassy Oslo Public Affairs)

As a first or second our foreign service officer (known as ELO for entry level officer), you end up doing a lot of things that aren't necessarily in your "job description," to the extent that we have job descriptions.  Among the things that I have been able to work on that don't necessarily fall into the portfolio of an environment and science officer are drafting the annual trafficking in persons report (this year's was release on June 20) and coordinating the Embassy's annual Independence Day celebration.

The garden at the US Ambassador's Residence filling up (credit: US Embassy Oslo Public Affairs)

Planning the Independence Day party is a privilege bestowed upon one of the "fresher" officers in the Embassy each year, rotating between the different sections so as to spread the experience around.  As one of the newer arrivals but with still enough time in country to know a few things, I was the lucky one this year, so it was up to me to be the nominal figurehead for a party of 1600+ people.  In truth, the Embassy has this party every year, so all of the permanent staff are well practiced in making this happen, so my job was just to check-in to make sure we were on track and provide a point where all of the different pieces meet.  After months of planning and many detailed discussions on decorations, invitations, food orders, and bands, on June 19 we celebrated the American Independence Day at US Embassy Oslo. Yes, I realize that the traditional day that this takes place is of course the 4th of July, but with school and Parliament going on summer vacation on June 20, it's prudent to move our event up a bit so as to actually have guests.

The Marine Guards present the Colors (credit: US Embassy Oslo Public Affairs)

After all of the stress and planning, I was very happy when the party day arrived and I could enjoy a glass of wine with some of my good friends and colleagues. It was a great reminder how far I've come in this last year, with so many friendly faces this year. We had a mix of sunshine and rain, but that didn't keep people from enjoying the traditional burgers, hot dogs, french fries, and ice cream.

President Carter gives a signed copy of his most recent book to our Charge d'Affaires (source: ME! I was RIGHT THERE!)

Oh yes, and we had the most amazing special guest! Former President Jimmy Carter was in Oslo for some meetings and agreed to stop in to say hello. As one of the behind the scenes people at the party, I had the amazing good fortune of shaking his hand and getting a picture with him!!  There are not enough exclamation points that can express how excited I was. The thousand plus guests that stayed to hear him speak were similarly starstruck, listening in awe as 90-year old former President Carter delivered a passionate speech about the different challenges we are facing around the world, highlighting the work he is leading through the Carter Center. Speaking without notes for 15 minutes was impressive enough, but when he took some questions from the stunned crowd, I nearly fell over in admiration.  I know that there will be many days like this to come in this career, but this will surely be one I will remember.

President Carter, a great surprise for our guests (credit: US Embassy Oslo Public Affairs). 

After a long day of working and mingling, my colleague/friend and I chatted with Jimmy Carter.  

NOTE: More pictures can be found on the US Embassy Oslo Facebook Page. 

Surprise Invitation

About 3.5 months ago I passed the final Foreign Service exam - at the time providing a thorough run-down of what the next steps would look like here. I had what I thought were pretty realistic expectations about the time and uncertainty involved in getting to the final stage of being a real, live diplomat. I expected the clearance process to take 2-3 months and then many more months of waiting until my number came up, if at all. I even very wisely assumed that I may not get called up at all, so was pursuing Russian studies both for fun and for potential bonus points.

Well, as should be expected, so far things have not gone according to my very prudent plans. My clearances took a mere 30 days, landing me on the Economic register in mid-December. I was nervous that starting my 18 month clock on the register so soon wouldn't allow me enough time either to work my way up the list as others got called up or expired, or to learn Russian well enough to earn bonus points. If I had guessed at that time, I would have said I had pretty much a zero chance of getting an invitation before September 2012, perhaps July as a stretch.

So I was shocked beyond belief when I received an email from the FS Registrar inviting me to the May 21st class of Foreign Service Officers, informally known as A-100. I had just got off a red-eye flight from a lovely weekend in Seattle, so it took a couple of days just to absorb the fact that I had been invited, and a couple more to confirm that, yes, I did want to accept. But, I did send off my acceptance. So it's official, I will be starting my career with the Foreign Service in about 2.5 months.

I will have to go into the details of A-100 another time, but the short story is that on May 21st I start the A-100 class, which is about 6-weeks long. Around week 4 you find out where your first country posting will be, which determines what additional training you will need. Most new FSOs then spend another 4-6 months in D.C. in various skill and language training before shipping off to their new homes and their first tours. So my official timeline, updated on the left, ends up leaving my about 1 week shy of year between taking the written test and starting A-100, warp-speed in State Department terms.

Stay tuned.

Lake Wenatchee in Washington State- days before learning that I would soon be a new FSO. 

This was the year....

...that I turned the corner.

I started 2011 in a bit of a down spot. I'd just come off of a fabulous 9-months working at the State Department and was faced with settling back into the job that brought me to D.C. in the first place. A job that I love and is absolutely perfect for me, but one that didn't quite feel the same after my short stint as a world-traveling enviro-diplomat. I knew that I still had lots to learn back at my old desk, and was grateful to have such a rewarding place to work, but I also felt in my gut that I eventually was headed back to State.

Thankfully, 2011 also brought some issues to my work that kept me busy and challenged while I decided how and when I would make my way back to the diplomatic world. I also moved into my very own grown-up one-bedroom apartment and had a full itinerary of travel for fun and work planned. In March, I bounced around Spain for 10 days with one of my best friends, drinking wine, sampling tapas, and admiring Picasso and Gaudi. After a short 20 hours back in D.C., I turned around for a work trip to Copenhagen that allowed me to get a quick fix of the international side of my job and also gave me a chance to see how Scandinavia celebrates St. Patrick's Day. At the end of April I headed to Costa Rica for a good friend's wedding festivities. It was the first time, probably ever, that I had gone on a vacation with the goal of sitting in one place and letting someone else figure out my activities. It was bliss.

The summer kicked off with a week in June in Denver for leadership training topped off by a weekend with my sister. Then 4th of July weekend in Seattle/San Juan Islands for a friend's bachelorette party. Another week in August for family camping in the North Idaho mountains, where there wasn't any huckleberries or cell phone reception but there were plenty of bugs. In September I headed way north and way west to experience Nome, Alaska for a work event with a quick stop in Anchorage on my way back to D.C. A few weeks later it was back to Seattle in for a wonderful wedding of two amazing friends. In October I turned 30, a low-key cabin affair with breweries, wineries, and waterfalls. I then managed to stay out of an airplane until December for my recent Christmas trip home.

Between all of the traveling and working, I also started to settle into my current job while paving a course for my future. This is where the corner turning really happened. After two plus years of working, I started gaining more responsibility and confidence in my career. All of sudden I was the go to person for certain things, and I loved it. Going to meetings and not only having something to say, but being expected to lead.

And finally, as I've documented here on this blog, my quest towards the foreign service has gone forward surprisingly smoothly. I took the written test in June, passed, was invited to the oral exam, and then passed that in November. I'm now on the register to be a foreign service officer, which was pretty unimaginable one year ago. Quite unexpectedly, 2011 turned out to be an amazing year filled with a comfortable combination of settling down in my current life while seeking out my next life. And so 2012 begins...

Foreign Service Oral (Part II: What comes Next)

So I've already covered the fact that I passed the final step in the foreign service officer (FSO) selection process - the notorious and much feared Oral Assessment. So what happens next? My score is a 5.5. out of 7, with scores above 5.25 passing. A score of 5.9 is considered very high and anything above 6 is almost unheard of, so I am in the middle/lower of passing scores. Many candidates also get additional points for Military Service and for difficult language skills, which you get to add on top of your passing score before you go on the "register."  I’ll get to the register in a moment, but first comes clearances. After passing you have to be medically cleared and receive a security clearance. I already have a current security clearance from my time at State, so that should go pretty smoothly, just some updating. And I’m not too worried about the medical tests. They have a Foreign Service Medical Unit two blocks from my work and I’ve already had every test known to mankind from both before and after my Peace Corps service. But all of this will take some time.

I’m estimating that it will be at least 2-3 months before I get put on the Register, which is the list of all candidates who pass the FSOA and are cleared to serve. There are actually five register lists, one for each of the five “cones” in which an FSO can serve. They are: Management, Consular, Economic, Political, and Public Diplomacy. I am in the Economic cone, which will allow me to work on trade, business, energy, and the environment. The way the registers work is that as candidates pass and are cleared, they get put on the list in order of their score. In you take the test in June and pass with a 5.6, and someone comes along in October with a 5.7 they will skip ahead of you on the list. You get to stay on the list for 18 months, and if you don't get called up, it's back to the beginning, do not pass Go and do not collect $200. 

Whether you get pulled off the list is largely dependent on the State Department budget, as well as the number of retirees and other attrition. For anyone with pulse, you should know that the budget situation is pretty scary right now, but even with that new officers will be hired. Every 2-3 months the State Departments sends out invites for a new class of FSOs. Known as A-100, this is when you are a real deal and are officially an FSO, passport and all. After a hiring spree in 2010, the numbers have dropped and each class is running around 80-100 officers spread out over the five cones. That means about 20-25 Economic officers would expect to get pulled off the top of the list (all my numbers are estimates here for demonstration sake). And if there are 40-50 people ahead of you, and more getting added as they pass, your odds of getting pulled off are not great. So I'm not counting on getting in on my score alone (though it could happen), but I was planning ahead when I decided to start getting some hard language skills under my belt. I'm a few months into studying Russian, and am already feeling pretty good about my progress. I can't exactly hold a conversation, but then again I wasn't really all that focused. Now I have the ultimate motivation. Russian is consider a Critical Needs Language (CNL), which means if you can demonstrate limited working oral proficiency (in a phone test), you get an additional .4 added to you score. This would bring me up to a 5.9 and would make it almost certain that I would get called off the register. 

So here's my plan. I have a job that I really like and no plans of quitting and moving to Russia, that would be crazy. Instead, I'm going to continue going to Russian classes, probably twice a week starting in January (using both formal credit classes and informal free classes through the Global Language Network). I will also take advantage of any and all audio programs I can find (there are tons of free podcasts out there). I plan to devote at least 2 hours a day to studying on my own and start using online resources like Live Mocha more, where you can do online chatting to practice. I think I can get up to basic proficiency (a 1 or 1+) pretty quickly, but getting to 2 will require some immersion. I have a lot of annual leave, so this summer I will take a  month and study in Russia at a language school. I've found a couple out there with good recommendations. After returning I will take the phone test. If I pass, excellent. If not, I can take it again in 6 months. So if I get on the register in March and take the phone test in August, I still (theoretically) have over year left on the register and six months after my last try. The other plan would be to start the process all over again in June and see if I can make it all the way through and get a better score. You're allowed to do this while you wait (it doesn't kick you off the list). I might do this anyways, since there is no harm in it. 

So that's the plan, hope it works out. I've posted my timeline on the left, with a lot of question marks still left, but in all reality it will likely be a year or more before there are any significant changes in my life.  

The Foreign Service Oral (Part I: The Day)

On Monday I took the Foreign Service Oral Assessment (FSOA), an all-day test of mental feats and psychological endurance designed to bring the most self-assured world-traveling foreign policy guru to his or her knees. And before I get too far I will save you the suspense and let you know that I passed, comfortably over the just-barely mark.

So, back to the test. There are three parts, a group exercise, an interview, and a memo writing portion. For legal and ethical reasons I can’t go into any specifics about these, but I can provide a general overview from my perspective. I arrived at about 6:40am to the testing center in D.C., and already there were a number of nervous looking candidates milling about the lobby. We were shortly escorted up the to the actual testing rooms, where we were left to get to know each other and stare at the walls while they prepared for our tests. It was immediately apparent that the candidates who make it this far represent the best of the best, and it was hard for me to fathom that at the end of the day the vast majority of these folks would be sent packing. There were 4 other Presidential Management Fellows (PMFs), all from my year (2009) and one of whom I had actually met during my orientation 2 years ago. There were a few lawyers, several people fluent in Mandarin or Arabic, and many candidates that had worked in Embassies already through details, internships, or through other programs. I tried to keep my confidence up as best I could.

Finally, around 8am we are given our instructions for the day, a schedule of where we were to be and when, and were split into two groups. My group of 6 was put in a nice corner office, with windows and everything, and we commenced our group exercise. The basic idea is that you are given a bunch of information about a fake country and projects that your embassy "task force" will be considering. Everyone has a different project and the goal at the end is to come to consensus on what will be funded and what will not, because of course money is tight. You have time to present individually (about 5 mins each) and then 20-30 mins to come to agreement on what to fund given your budget. Our group got along great, and our discussion was easy, logical, and organized. I felt I had done well on this, but no better than anyone else, even though in the end my project had the most support (maybe I’m a better negotiator than I give myself credit for J).  One down, two to go.

Part two was the writing exercise. You have an hour and a half to process a ton of information, provided to you in a binder, and respond in writing to a specific request, usually from the Ambassador or some other official. It’s designed to test your quantitative skills as well as your writing, so there are plenty of spreadsheets/numbers, and you have to make it all make sense. This is where I knew I would have the best chance to score really high, since my graduate program, thankfully, puts all students through a memo writing bootcamp and insists that we all know how to figure out a budget spreadsheet. Seriously, thank you Evans School Public Management courses! I completed the memo with a few minutes to spare, so I made some nice headings to make it an easier read (formatting is an under-appreciated art in my opinion).

I was given a short lunch break where I tried to eat something (yeah right) and returned back for the last part, my interview. It’s only an hour, but you have to get through a lot of information, including responding to hypothetical situations. Overall, I thought I did alright on this, but I wasn’t as organized as I’d hoped and ended up stumbling a couple of times. I came out feeling okay, but figured this might be the section that brings my score down a little.

Then comes the worst part, the waiting. My schedule had my longest break in the afternoon, so after the interview I had about 2 hours before they would start doing exit interviews. I wandered over the Museum of the American Indian, tried to drink some water, and called my mom. I was exhausted, but at least I was done. Once I killed as much time as I could, I went back to the center to join the other nervous candidates in the lobby. We joked about how it was possible that we could all pass, each knowing that only 2 or 3 at most would get a win. Finally, they put us in the computer lab where we had taken our writing exercise and then the torture began. One by one they opened the door and called people out. I kept imagining Top Chef's "stew kitchen", because that is exactly what it felt like. 

Based on reading blogs and online forums, it seems that the last ones standing are the winners, so each time that door opened I was praying that it wasn’t me to be called. Slowly, the room thinned out, and finally there were just three of us for quite a while. Then two. And then just me. For the longest 10 minutes of my life. I assumed this was good, but maybe they had changed it up? Maybe they read the blogs too and didn’t want us knowing the pattern? Maybe they forgot about me? At last the door opened and one of my interviewers called me back to the room where I had started the day in my group exercise. There were 4 other assessors standing there, and before I could put my stuff down, they read me my letter of congratulations. I had no control over my emotions at that point, so I very undiplomatically burst into tears. I pulled it together pretty quickly, shook hands with everyone and sat down to get my first briefing as a conditionally accepted Foreign Service Officer (FSO). 

The next step

So I mentioned a while back that I was going through the process of trying to become a foreign service officer. Every time I talk about pursuing the foreign service, I always feel the need to affirm that I actually have a job that I enjoy, one that is challenging, rewarding, and is exactly what I wanted to be doing when I was in graduate school. In the current economic climate having any job, let alone an interesting, well-paying job that I love, should leave me more than content. But I'm not content, I'm restless. Which led me to take the written foreign service exam back in June, which I passed, and after another screening step that involved submitting some short essays (know as personal narrative questions - PNQs - in State Department speak), I was invited to take the oral exam. The whole process is long and exhausting, so I'm thankful to have lots of other things to keep me occupied, but getting this far has really made me realize how much I actually want this.

I will be taking the oral exam in mid-November, and am now getting my head wrapped around this notoriously challenging day. The day is made up of three parts, a group exercise, a one-on-one interview, and a memo writing section. A detailed description of the day is here, but long story short is that it is grueling, and the people who will be there with me will likely be very experienced and highly impressive. The best part of the day is that you find out at the end of the day if you pass or if you are sent back to the beginning, so either way I'll know in less than a month if this path is something that might potentially pan out.

But I'm really pretty zen about the whole process and am looking forward to the challenge. Stay tuned...

I had it once, I'll have it again - the black passport

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