How to Pass the Foreign Service Exam
Tough Test, but you can pass it
On June 21, State’s Inspector General released a devastating report on the functioning of the American Embassy in Libreville, Gabon. It is instructive to see how bad it can get at a US mission overseas.
There are charges of nepotism, a too cozy relationship with a US energy producer, and almost no reporting to the Department.
I’ll be doing a YouTube screencast to highlight the failure of management and leadership in Libreville.
In my YouTube video #5 to help you prepare for the Situational Judgment part of the FSOT, I promised to supply additional online (and free) SJ tests. Here they are:
Yes, that’s right, you can register online starting January 2 for the Foreign Service Exam which will be held during the week of February 2-9. PearsonVue administers the test under contract with the State Department.
As I described in an earlier post, when you register for the Foreign Service Exam you must select your career track (cone). There are five cones: Consular, Economic, Management, Political, and Public Diplomacy. The decision is tough and unfair. How are applicants who’ve never worked in an embassy supposed to decide their Cone? It’s a decision that will guide your entire career of 20+ years.
Check out my recent post — Difficult Choice — What’s Your Career Track? — which provides books and online resources to help make your Career Track decision. I also recommend that you not try to game the system. For example, an applicant believing the Management Track is underrepresented so if you pick the Management Cone you’ll have a better chance. First, I’m not sure where applicants can find out which Cones are underrepresented. Second, if you do succeed in joining the Foreign Service as a Management Cone officer, but realize one year in that you hate management work, then you’re stuck. The Department rarely allows you to change Tracks after you join the Foreign Service. Do yourself a favor, review the Career Track materials, and make an honest decision.
The Career Track decision requires thought and honesty with yourself. The earlier you decide will help because the sooner you register the better chance you have of scoring a seat close to where you live. I have known one poky applicant who ended up with a test center three hours away. The registration opens January 2 and closes January 30.
Government Shutdown: I don’t know what to tell you. The State Department has furloughed a lot of civil servants and Foreign Service officers, including those folks who staff the Bureau of Human Resources. I’d like to think the budget will be sorted out quickly, but the craziness in Washington, DC could last weeks (or longer!?). Still, since PearsonVUE is under contract, it’s possible they are still gearing up to offer the February Exam. Please let me know if you have trouble registering or PearsonVue tells you the February FSOT date will slip.
One of the first hurdles to joining the Foreign Service happens even before you take the FSOT.
The State Department makes you pick your Career Track, aka Cone, when you register for the Exam. That’s right, even before you’ve worked in an Embassy, you must select your Career Track.
Worse still, remember that your will guide your cone for your 20+ year career and it’s impossible to change it once you’re in the Foreign Service. Daunting, no?
Don’t worry. I have organized the information from Careers.State.Gov. I’ve also identified two books that will help in your search.
There are five Career Tracks in the Foreign Service: Consular, Economic, Management, Political, and Public Diplomacy.
All of the Career Tracks offer varied and interesting work, and it’s no longer true that only Economic and Political officers become Senior Foreign Service officers, DCMs, and Ambassadors.
Many applicants choose to become Political or Economic officers because that’s the job that’s depicted in books or films. You know, pencil-necked, introspective quislings who invariably ends up relying on the hero of the story to survive. Seriously, that’s a myth and FSOs are usually courageous (at least most of the time!)
You need to take a closer look at the Career Tracks to make your decision. Do the following:
— Read the information at Careers.State.Gov, take the Career Track Quiz and listen to the Diplomats@work (yes, a bit cheesy, but they can help)
— Call a Diplomat-in-Residence (however with the current government shutdown, which has affected the State Department, the DIRs may not be working). Also check out nearby if there are nearby recruiting events. (Be warned, the search engine is not great);
— The following books are excellent ways to help you pick your Career Track:
1) Inside a U.S. Embassy: How the Foreign Service Works for America, published by the American Foreign Service Association, available on Amazon. ISBN-13: 978-0964948846
2) America’s Other Army: The U.S. Foreign Service and 21st-Century Diplomacy (Second Updated Edition), author Nicholas Kralev, ISBN-13: 978-1517254513
I also have a few videos on YouTube that focus on these specific topics. Search for FSOT Prep.
Disaster…
I’ve just sorted out a major problem with my hosting company and have lost posts and other changes since roughly June 2018. It’s partly my fault. Never rely on a hosting service for your backups; make sure you do your own on a regular basis.
Meantime, I will be switching hosting companies so there shouldn’t (fingers crossed) be any more hiccups. I’m rewriting the posts that dropped off as well as recommended books for the writing parts of the FSOT.
Cheers and registration opens for the February 2019 FSOT January 2.
Bill
PS I’m up to 10 screencasts on YouTube. I can’t provide you URLs until I get to 100 subscribers (I have 61). You can find them by searching for “FSOT Prep” on YouTube
Folks,
I am currently posting my videos on how to prepare for the Foreign Service Exam on a YouTube Channel. I am walking possible applicants through the process of registering for the FSOT and choosing a Career Track. The State Department has linked the two so when you register for the October test, offered from September 29 to October 6, you must select your Career Track. There are five career tracks: Consular, Economic, Management, Political, and Public Diplomacy.
Fortunately, the State Department has provided good information to help you decide your career track. Most of it is on the main recruiting website — Careers.State.Gov
To access the Career Track information, you need to drill down on that site. To learn what an Foreign Service Officer (FSO), including tasks and responsibilities for Entry Level, Mid-level, and Senior officers in each career track, select the following career tracks, aka cones, here. Consular, Economic, Management, Political, and Public Diplomacy.
In addition, the State Department offers an online, 50-question test that based on likes and dislikes of work can tell you which cone is appropriate for you.This exam is under the rubric of “Which Career Track is Right for You.”
Finally, you can reach out to the 16 Diplomats-in-Residence(DIRs) posted at universities across the United States. These DIRs are made of Foreign Service Officers with years of experience in their respective career tracks. I encourage you to reach out to ones in the cones in which you are interested.
Now, the State Department may frown at you for contacting, say, a political cone officer in southern Florida, if you live in a state outside of the Sunshine State. However, to me that’s ridiculous and you should contact DIRs in your prospective cones to find out more about the career tracks. Besides, everyone who signs up to be a Diplomat-in-Residence is typically open to any questions. I recommend that you first send an email (and fudge the state, if you’re squeamish) and set up a time to talk on the phone with the DIR.
For those few seeking to game the system, applying for a consular or management job in the likelihood it will be easier to get into the Foreign Service. And once an FSO, he or she will just transfer into, say, the political career track. Well, you’re out of luck because the Department only allows “conal rectification” in very rare instances and never/never into the political cone.
My advice is to pick the cone in which you have an abiding interest. For me, I joined as a consular officer mainly because I wanted to help American Citizens. You can have out-of-cone assignments, especially when you return to Washington, DC to work at Main State (the Harry S. Truman building). But in looking back on my career, I served in three consular positions for a total of 7 years and outside of consular work for 17 years.
Finally, the FSOT registration opened today, August 29 in which you’ll have to select your career track where, unlike me, you are likely to spend the bulk of your Foreign Service careers. It’s a big decision and one that is personal.
The FSOT will run from September 29 to October 6. The earlier you apply, the more likely you are to get the test center closest to you. If you’re living overseas, there will be test centers at most embassy or consulate locations.
Good luck!
I will resume coaching for the October FS?OT in July. Details to follow.
Good luck to all taking the June sitting of the Foreign Service Exam.
More encouraging news from the State Department. SecState Pompeo in a May 15 tweet announced that he has lifted the hiring freeze imposed by his predecessor, Rex Tillerson.
I’m pleased to announce that I’m lifting @StateDept hiring freeze on Foreign Service and Civil Service employees. We need our men and women on the ground executing American diplomacy and representing our great nation.
This likely means that the Department will offer the FSOT on the pre-Trump schedule of three times per year: June, October, and February. So it’s a good time to start preparing for the next FSOT!
Mike Pompeo Replaces Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State
The Department has decided to change the format of the first part of the Foreign Service Exam. Starting with the February FSOT instead of having one topic on which to write, applicants will choose one out of three “short topics.”
In the past, some test takers were actually asked to write two essays, not just one. I don’t know how this change squares with that. In those cases, I’ve heard that the testing company and the Department didn’t score the essay, but used it to “improve” the test.
Remember, the graders reviewing your essay are not looking at your opinions, but judging you on your writing skills — fluency, clarity, word choice, and grammar.
This is another reason why writing practice remains the best way to boost your score on the Foreign Service Exam. Writing is a major skill inside the Foreign Service and it is also a major stumbling block for test-takers. The trick is to draft clearly, succinctly, and with some humor and flair. If you emulate the journalists at The Economist, NY Times or Washington Post, your scores will be higher.
Okay, it might be tough to add humor and elegance to your writing in the two weeks remaining before the February exam, but you can become a better writer. To do so adopt the following:
— write for 30-60 minutes every day;
— pick news stories that you find interesting, and practice rewriting them in your own voice;
— practice writing your autobiography.
Writing is a muscle that becomes stronger the more you use it. The goal is to write faster and more clearly. This will give you a major edge on the FSOT and once you pass the first test, it will give you an edge in the next round of the exam process — the Personal Narratives.
Good luck!
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