On the Register!

I was working late on Wednesday evening, so Chad came out to have dinner with me and a coworker (Mike!). He handed me a fantastic letter, dated November 20:

On behalf of the Board of Examiners for the Foreign Service, I am please to inform you that your name has been added to the register of those awaiting appointment to the Foreign Service as an Entry Level Officer in the Consular Affairs career track.

I could hardly believe it. After all of the time I spent pending investigations with Diplomatic Security (eight months and one day, from April 8 – November 9), I had finally cleared the second to last hurdle towards becoming a Foreign Service Officer.

So what’s next? I say that because that’s the question I’ve been getting all (Thanksgiving) weekend from my family. So I may as well share the answers with you too.

For each career track, or cone (Consular, Management, Public Diplomacy, Economic, and Political) there is a list of people awaiting an offer to attend a training class called the A-100. The register is dynamic, and my place on it depends on two things: my score from the Oral Assessment, and the date I reached the register. Since my score was very low (but still passing!), and I was added to the register VERY recently, I’m pretty much at the bottom of the list. I’ll email the board of examiners (BEX) on Monday to ask for my ranking, and I’ll give an update of where I actually am. Over time, I’ll move up and down the register depending on how many people make it onto the list after me, and how many people are removed from the list as offers go out. I could improve my standing by taking a language test, but I haven’t been able to study like I hoped to, so I’m still undecided about taking a language test.

Offers for A-100 classes start going out about 8 weeks before the beginning of training. The size of the class mainly depend on the needs of the state department and budgetary considerations. From what I’ve heard, the January class was a little bit smaller than they’ve been lately due to some budget constraints that will hopefully be resolved with the passing of the upcoming omnibus bill, which should go for a vote in December.

My hope right now is that class sizes will go back to the levels they had last summer/fall, when BEX was clearing out the register lists and people would get offers before they even knew they got their security clearance. Right now, I think my chances are still pretty good due to the number of classes scheduled for the 2010 federal fiscal year, which are currently scheduled for:

January 4, 2010
February 16, 2010
March 29, 2010
May 10, 2010
June 21, 2010
August 02, 2010
September 13, 2010

So before I schedule a language test, I’m going to wait an see how the February class turns out. I’ve got until May 20, 2011 to get into a class, so for now, I still have time to wait and see.