Ok, so I'm giving blogging one more try. I thought I'd start back up with a recap of a major event that happened last week:
FSS FMO Oral Assessment Recap
So, I took the oral assessment for the Foreign
Service Specialist Financial Management Officer on Thursday, March 13,
2014. I am pleased to announce that I
passed – I scored 5.7 (out of 7; 5.25 required minimum score). Also, I passed all three sections. Because there is not much around about
Specialists’ oral assessments, I want to share my recap of the day and the process,
NDA-compliant, of course.
Background:
I think I truly decided to enter the Foreign Service late
in 2010, after spending some time with a friend who is a foreign service officer. At the time he was posted in Pristina,Kosovo. My partner and two of our
friends stayed with him on a trip through the Western Balkans (Kosovo,
Montenegro, Albania, and Macedonia). I
enjoyed hearing about his experiences and seeing first-hand some of his life in
the Foreign Service.
I took the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) in October, 2011 and passed. I submitted my Personal Narrative Questions
(PNQ), but didn’t get an invite to an oral assessment. I took the FSOT again in October, 2012. I passed and again submitted my PNQ. This time around I did get invited to an OA
and I went in May, 2013. Unfortunately,
I only scored a 5.00, and only passed the structured interview portion. Sad, but not discouraged. (BTW – I was in the
management track.)
I saw the FMO vacancy announcement about two weeks after
my (failed) OA and I applied. I passed
the preliminary qualifications and then passed the QEP stage and got an
invitation to an oral assessment – about nine months later. Went to DC, took the OA, passed, and here we
are.
The Oral Assessment:
I flew down to DC a day early and stayed at the Holiday
Inn Capitol. It’s basically attached
to the State
Annex 44 building, the assessment center for the Foreign Service. Smart move as it was COLD on Thursday morning
and I didn’t have to walk outside to get to the assessment center. I arrived about 30 minutes early (of course,
though, I had been awake since 4:30 that morning). While waiting to be escorted up, I met and
talked with another FSS OA’er, Jose, who was assessing in the IMS
specialty. We were escorted up at about
8:55 and told general instructions and given lots of paperwork to sign – one of
which is a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), which means that I can’t get overly
detailed about some parts of the OA.
General tip:
read the official Foreign
Service Specialist Oral Assessment Study Guide available from the Department
of State. It will tell you what to
expect and how to prepare. Also, if you
get invited you will get a letter further detailing what to expect. Study it, too.
The Specialist’s oral assessment is made up of three
parts: (1) Written Memo (timed), (2)
Computerized Test (timed), and (3) Structured Interview. The structured interview is further divided
into three parts: (3.1) Motivation and Experience,
(3.2) Hypothetical Scenarios, and (3.3) Past Behavior. Since I had passed the structured interview
portion last time and also since I am currently in a master’s in accounting
degree program, I was most anxious about the written memo part of the day. While writing is part of my degree program,
timed writing in the style that State wants is not. Before the OA, my biggest fear was having my
time expire and not being done.
Written Memo:
I had 45 minutes, as explained in the study guide and
invitation letter, to write a memo on a specific topic relevant to my specialty: financial management. I can’t tell you the topic or issues, but be
assured it will be tailored to your specialty.
I read the instructions first (ALWAYS
READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS), then set about writing my memo. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself
done with about 10 minutes to spare, so I proofread for spelling and grammar
and ended up restyling some phrasing. I
was done with two minutes to go, and I felt really good about what I had
written.
My tips/tricks on the writing portion:
- If you aren’t used to writing quickly – practice,
practice, practice. Check out the FSOA yahoo group for
Case Management files in the files section and use them for timed writing
practice. Also, you can look online for
business school cases (HBS, etc), or just pick stories from a newspaper or
magazine to write about. What’s
important is that you don’t get to the OA without having practiced timed
writing.
- During your practice, time yourself at 30 or 35
minutes instead of 45. This way you will
build in slack that you can use for editing and proofreading.
- Don’t get discouraged if you can’t write in your
allotted time during your first couple of practices. It takes time, but keep at it. Like all skills, you need to develop this if
you aren’t already proficient.
- Be concise, concise, concise! One to two pages really means no more than
1.5 pages, not a full two pages. Also,
we all know you’re smart, but leave the big words out. Simple, clear, and to the point.
- Don’t rely on spell- or grammar-checking during
your practice.
- Think about this format:
- Paragraph
1: Introduce yourself, the issue, and
say what’s in the memo.
- Paragraphs 2, 3, 4: Talk about your…whatevers: solutions, proposals, ideas, etc.
- Paragraph
5: Wrap it up and maybe propose next
steps/actions.
- This
is a good general format which can easily be adapted to suit a particular
problem or scenario. This is basically
how I approached it.
- When you’re at the OA and sitting in front of
the computer ready to start – take a deep breath, then read the instructions first.
Computerized Test:
Next up was the computerized test designed to measure
your competency in your specialty. I was
not too worried about this part of the OA, and I was not surprised. Certainly, know your specialty. Read each question carefully, especially if
you haven’t been in a test-taking environment. Right before my OA I had already taken two Auditing exams and another exam in
Graduate Financial Accounting II. If
there are conceptual issues in your specialty, perhaps peruse a graduate-level
textbook or other reference source.
Other than that, I don’t have much advice on this part. Either you know your stuff or you don’t, and
this portion will help the assessors determine that.
Structured Interview:
Think of this as a very thorough job interview, because
that’s precisely what it is. In the
study guide it will tell you that the interviewers have been trained to be
stone-faced. This is true, but they are
also human beings. Don’t be put off by
this. For many, this is the most
stressful part of the OA. In my case, I’ve
been interviewing for jobs since the summer of 2012 and I’ve worked with a career counseling and coaching group
after my layoff in 2012. This was
invaluable experience. If you haven’t
done much interviewing lately, I highly suggest practicing or even seeking some
professional help/advice.
Here are more tips:
- Have your “stories” ready to go, and know which
stories align with which Dimension. You
don’t want to tell a great story only to have it be unrelated to the Dimension
being evaluated.
- Breath and relax. If there is water available, take advantage
of it; you’ll be talking a lot.
- Like the writing portion, be concise and stay on
topic. No wandering.
- Be organized and be specific, especially in the
hypothetical scenarios section.
- If you are given any instructions, follow them!
- Be polite:
offer water, stand up if someone comes in the room, offer your hand and
introduce yourself.
- Be yourself:
if you normally talk with your hands (which I tend to do), then do
so. If you get excited about something
specific, it’s OK. Especially when
talking about your motivation to join the foreign service you want to show some
of your passion.
- However, be conscious of things like your
posture (sit upright, toward the front of the seat, and lean forward slightly),
eye contact (DO, even if they aren’t looking at you all the time), acknowledge who’s
speaking, fidgeting (DON’T), etc.
Basically, you want to be fully present during the interviews.
- Use humor if appropriate (it’s in one of the
Dimensions, even).
I felt that I did OK in this part, but there were
definitely times when I thought to myself:
did I really just say that? or, what do I say now?. Also, the interviewers took a lot of notes,
which the official study guide tells you they will. A Lot Of Notes. And I
found myself once or twice mentally stammering, then telling myself to stop
that, and then feeling like I lost my train of thought. Remember, it’s OK to take a few seconds to
compose your thoughts before speaking, especially if you have to talk about organization
of actions or items or such.
Results:
Before the OA started, I was most concerned with the
writing and least concerned with the interviewing. After the last section and while waiting for
the results, that flipped: I felt good
about the writing and, honestly, thought I might not have passed the
interviews.
Waiting for the results felt like it took forever. Actually, I think it only took about 15
minutes, maybe 20. During that time,
though, everything went through my mind:
did I write well enough? did I
make stupid mistakes on the competency test?
did I impress the interviewers or bomb?
Then I told myself that it’s taking so long because they have to put
together a whole lot of paperwork and information for my “Congratulations”
packet. Yeah – that’s why it’s taking so
long.
Finally, one of my interviewers got me and took
me back to where we interviewed. This
was the truly nerve-wracking part, because I’d been here before with
not-so-good news. When they said “Congratulations…”
I visibly slumped a bit in my chair – I was so happy. I could see that the interviewers were happy
too, with big smiles on their no-longer-stoney faces. I felt so good in that moment.
I know there are more hurdles to jump and passing the OA
is only one of them. But, really, it’s
probably one of the toughest parts to get over.
So now it’s on to clearances, hopefully onto the register in a good
position, and then on to an Orientation Class in the not-too-distant future.
One last piece of advice I received from the Diplomat in
Residence for New England (BTW, if you can talk with or meet the DiR for your
area, do so): you’ve passed the
qualifications, you’ve got the experience and education they’re looking for;
now what they really want to know is are you a person who won’t freak out at
post. That’s very important – not freaking
out.
