On the Register!

November 28, 2009 in Foreign Service by melissa | 8 comments

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.

Weekends with the Halfaker Crew

October 18, 2009 in Updates by melissa | No comments

I’ve spent a weekend morning with the Halfaker and Associates for the past two weeks, and I must admit, we’re having some fun. Last week we went to Hartland Orchard in Markham, VA to pick our own apples. Chad and I met up with Allison, Cyrus, The Siglers, Mike and his friend James, and Rebecca and her husband Patrick in the chilly fall air picked some apples, had a picnic then ate some caramel apples. The highlight, besides lunch, was that I got to meet some goats! The rest of the crew went out for a hayride, but I was cold, so Chad and I headed home. We had a lot of fun. Take a look at the pictures!

This morning, in the mist and the cold, we met at Burke Lake in Fairfax for the 3rd Annual Run Around the Lake for the Wounded Warrior Project. Chad ran and I worked a water station, and the event raised over $12,000 for Wounded Warriors. I have a couple of pictures from the water station if you’d like to check them out.

Two Years Down!

October 1, 2009 in Updates by melissa | 1 comment

Chad and I had our second anniversary on Tuesday evening. Here are some of MY highlights from the past year.
- Being and election official
- Thanksgiving with my parents and your mom
- Passing the Foreign Service Oral Assessment
- Getting a new job at Halfaker and Associates
- Getting a new bike!
- The Supinger Family Reunion
- Seeing Turandot and the Kennedy Center for my birthday!
- Surprising Chad with a trip to New York City for his birthday!
- and, of course, making new friends and getting to know some of the old current ones better!
(oh, and dinner at Restaurant Eve!)

What about you, husband? Any highlights?

Server Switch!

September 26, 2009 in Updates by melissa | No comments

I’m switching servers today kids, so things may get a little weird…

EDIT:
DNS switch looks like it went well, everything is pretty much working. Now I just have to mess with the gallery themes…

EDIT:
Since there was a lag between when I uploaded the database to the new host, I lost two posts. They’re back now. =)

Studying for the FSOT (how I did it)

September 7, 2009 in Foreign Service by melissa | 8 comments

I recently convinced a friend to take the Foreign Service Exam – she registered for the last day of the October round.  I really hope she makes it – she’d be an excellent FSO (good luck Carmel!).   As we were talking about the examination process, I realized that I’ve never written about how I studied for the exam.  I believe, despite Hankk’s last comment that studying DOES help. I didn’t pass the first time I took the test, so I increased my preparation efforts and passed the second time around. Here’s what I think.

Use the links I have over the left for the Foreign Service Exam. The Yahoo groups and Wiki are much more comprehensive and valuable as a study guide. Know them, love them, get the daily digest. Everything below

For the General Knowledge Section:
1. Buy, then take the practice test. Enlist someone (husband’s are handy) to proctor and grade your test – try and make it as real as possible. Star or otherwise mark the questions you guessed on. Take a look at the questions you missed and stared and work on that subject matter. For me, I needed to brush up on management theory and basic statistics.

2. Know your world geography. There may not be a whole bunch questions about geography on your test, but don’t throw away points because you can’t pick out Mauritania on a map. Sheppard Software has some great geography quizzes, take them regularly!

3. Know about America. The book that really helped me was The Words We Live By, Your Annotated Guide to the US Constitution. It goes in depth about each article and amendment in the Constitution (and there might be a question or two specifically about the Constitution), which is very helpful in and of itself. However, the other benefit of this book is that it also looks at how milestones in American history affected or were affected by the US Constitution. So you get an added history benefit!

4. Read. For news, I prefer The Economist. You can also take a look at State’s recommended reading list

For the English Expression Section:
1. Take the practice test. If you ace it, spend your time studying doing something else. If you don’t, prepare as though you were studying for the English language section of the SAT. The Internet has many resources to help. :)

For the Biographical Section:
I have no idea how this section works, is graded, or what they’re looking for. It’s my weakest section and ummmm….I can’t help you. Best bit of advice I have: be honest and do well on the other sections!

Essay Tips (FYI if you don’t pass the other sections, your essay will not be scored)
1. All you need to pass is a standard 5 paragraph essay. This means:

Introduction w/thesis
Supporting paragraph 1
Supporting paragraph 2
Supporting paragraph 3
Conclusion

2. Practice makes perfect. Write daily if you need to, but get to the point where you can write (and edit) a decent 5 paragraph essay in 20 minutes. On test day, you’ll have no trouble with nerves on this section.
3. Don’t pick ‘easy’ topics. You will need to make an argument one way or the other. If you don’t feel strongly either way, then just fake it.
4. State doesn’t read your essays, a grader from ACT does. They don’t care about content, they just want to see if you can write.
5. After your intro, write a couple lines for a conclusion just in case you run out of time. Since you’re typing, copy/paste isn’t an issue.

So, that’s what I did to prepare/study for the Foreign Service Officer Test. It all seems so long ago! For a quick recap, here were my (passing!) scores:
Job Knowledge: 60.63
Biographic Info: 46.58
English Expression: 59.74
Total: 166.95
Essay: 8

Would anyone else out there care to contribute their tricks/tips/ideas/methods?

Security Clearance Update

June 30, 2009 in Foreign Service by melissa | 5 comments

Oh my goodness! Two days, two updates!

I thought I’d post a little update about my security clearance, or current lack thereof. On June 16 I sent an email to diplomatic security asking for an update on my case. On June 21 I got the following email:

Your case is pending investigations. Our original target date was 6/12/2009, however, it may take another 2 weeks, at least, as we are awaiting final information to come in.

Ah well, I’ll just email them again at the end of next week and see what’s going on.

Surprise Trip to New York

June 29, 2009 in Travel, Updates by melissa | 2 comments

For Chad’s 30th birthday, I surprised him with a trip to New York City for the weekend.  We left Thursday morning, and he had no idea where we were headed.  At first he thought we would be flying out of National, then when we got into the car and headed north, he thought we might be heading to BWI.  It wasn’t until we were almost out of Baltimore when the sign for I-95 north read New York did he figure it out. But at this point, he didn’t know what the two planned evening activities would be for the weekend.

On the way there we stopped at a diner in Bordentown, NJ called Mastoris. There was just too much lunch for us to eat, but it was pretty good. While we were there, I showed him the tickets for the evening – to a taping of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Chad and I are fans of Jon’s show and interview style, so I made sure to get tickets back in February. Read the rest of this entry »

Foreign Service Security Clearance Interview

June 12, 2009 in Foreign Service by melissa | 4 comments

I’d say I can’t believe I haven’t written anything since Memorial Day, but it’s really not that surprising.

It’s been more than four weeks since I had my interview with Mr. J, the gentleman who is (I think) managing my Security Clearance case.

We originally planned to meet at the Shirlington Library, but then Mr. J found out that they didn’t open until after lunch (we were meeting in the morning). We planned to do the interview at the tables set up outside of the library, but when we saw people going into the library and sitting down at the public computers, we decided to head in side where it was a little more quiet. About five minutes into the interview, the librarian kicked us out, saying that they were closed and they left the doors open for their contractors. So we went back to our original plan; luckily, it was a very nice day.

I’m not going to go into any details about our interview, but I’ll give you a general outline. We went over my SF-86 in detail so I could explain some of the things on there, and he asked me some questions about some of my answers and for more details on the places I’ve lived, foreign contacts, family, finances, etc.

All in all, the interview lasted for about an hour and a half. I think if we hadn’t had to move around so much in the beginning, it would have only taken an hour, but that’s okay. Mr. J was very nice, and very professional (not to mention very tall!). He really made me feel at ease during the entire process. I suppose he needs to bring my guard down if I’m going to feel comfortable answering so many questions about my personal life!

I’ve got two tips that I’m sure will apply to others below. Hopefully, in the next couple of days I’ll be able to post another update about my security clearance, I just need to make a few phone calls first.

Tip #1: If you have anything in your past, or on your SF-86, or on your credit report, and you think it’ll raise a red flag, do yourself a favor and come ready with an explanation. I have a particularly stupid incident on my credit from many years ago, and this is what worries me the most about getting my clearance. It’s been taken care of for years, but it still shows up on my credit report. So I wrote a letter, “to whom it may concern,” explaining the problem, the reason it happened, the steps I took to correct it, and that it will never ever happen again because I’m no longer young and stupid. I gave the letter to Mr. J and he added it to my file. So when the final review board is looking at my file, they’ll have a full explanation from me, and I won’t have to rely on Mr. J’s memory or notes. Of course, there’s room to do all of this on the SF-86 (extra pages and attachments, if you choose), but I decided to wait and see if I actually passed.

Tip #2: If you have any close family members who are naturalized citizens, bring a copy of their citizenship certificate (or US passport) along for your file. I didn’t think I would need this since I included Mom’s passport number and certificate number on my SF-86, but a few weeks later I was asked for it anyway.

This Memorial Day

May 25, 2009 in Family by melissa | No comments

Mark (Marcos) DaAton was a Philippines Scout in World War II , POW, Baatan Death March survivor, and my grandfather. He passed away a little over ten years ago, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized his role in WWII, and I still don’t know very much about it besides the above. However, I’m working on finding out more. One of the reasons I’d like to take a post in Manilla one day (not our first post), is so I can find out a little bit more about my mom’s side of the family.

Last year, my Tito Rob sent this out to the family, and I would like to share it with you:

Attached are some photo’s I took at the museum last weekend of some display changes we made.

An honor to the Veterans of WWII, Korea & Vietnam. The bayonet I brought back from Seaside is used to anchor the display. The flag is a 48 star flag.

Dad’s uniform I took from Seaside and put on display. The cap is mine from when I was stationed in Michigan (1967-60) Both are dated around 1950’s (Korean War) is the reason it is in the Korean period display.

Here is the uniform display, click on the picture for the rest. The album is a little barren right now, but Tito Rob is going to send me a few more pictures, which I’ll post in the near future.


Dad Daaton on display.JPG

I am Worldwide available…

May 18, 2009 in Foreign Service by melissa | 5 comments

…medically speaking that is. Today I received a nice letter in the mail from the US Department of State Office of Medical Services. It included the following:

Reason for Clearance: -> Pre-employment
Medical Clearance Determination: -> Worldwide available
Date Issued: -> 5/12/2009 2:20:35 PM

My favorite part is that they time stamped it. I feel so official now! One more major hurdle to go, my Top Secret Security Clearance. I’ll write a little more about that tomorrow.

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