FSOA here I come
me: I passed the QEP!
you: the what?
me: the Qualifications Examination Panel reviewed my structured resume and I passed! I get to go to the Oral Assessment!
you: what are you talking about?
me: while I was eating lunch, I checked my email and saw I had an email with the subject of: Foreign Service Officer Selection Process Results (State Department). I logged on to the website and downloaded they letter that said:
“Congratulations! Based on a comprehensive review of your candidate file, you have been selected to participate in the next step of the Foreign Service Officer selection process, the Oral Assessment.”
you: yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! that’s awesome!
me: I KNOW
you: so what’s next?
me: At 10am on Monday I get to call and schedule my assessment for sometime in February or March (the sooner the better I think). If I pass, then I’m that much closer to joining the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer.
Melissa:
CONGRATULATIONS!! And now you are on to another step forward. We’re happy for you & very proud of you as well.
Love,
Beth & Carl
Good luck with the oral assessment. I recommend finding one of the prep sessions in your area (you can find them on the careers.state.gov website). They’ll give you a lot of great tips. I attended one, and appreciated the help so much I assisted with the next two.
If you pass the orals, you might want to check out yahoo groups for A-100-2000. It is a group of folks who have passed the orals and are waiting on their clearances and “the call” (which is really an email). There are several officers on there (me included) who answer questions from time to time. The group is an excellent source of information.
Good luck with the Hebrew exam. I took Hebrew at FSI and I just adore one of the instructors there. She got her degree in teaching language through culture and she is fabulous. She will likely be one of the people you take the phone test with.
Best of luck to you. Though for the record, Tel Aviv is only slightly less intense than Jerusalem! :)