This blog is about my path to joining the U.S. Foreign Service. I'm using it primarily as a motivation tool, to hold myself accountable when I struggle to continue, and to document my success along the way.
I'm 27 years old. I live with my same-sex partner in Texas, and I'm about to start my first year as a public school teacher next month. I'm excited about my new job, but I've also recently found a renewed interest in pursuing a goal I've been toying with since high school. Entering the Foreign Service is extremely competitive, and I know that it can take years to achieve this dream even for people who are very well-qualified, so I expect this blog will exist for quite a while. I'm trying to set short-term goals that are as clear as possible so I don't lose my way.
Right now, I'm working through the suggested reading list. I finished Don Oberdorfer's The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History while I was living in Korea last year, and I just finished John Pomfret's Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China last week. I'm currently in the second chapter of Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States by Hiroshi Motomura. My focus right now is entirely on passing the initial stage of the application process: the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT), which I plan to take shortly before or after next summer (about one year from now).
The reason I'm waiting a year before officially starting the process is because I'm planning to study Spanish in Guatemala next summer in hopes of gaining some language points down the line. I have an undergraduate minor in Spanish, I've studied Spanish in Guatemala before, and I had to pass a translation exam as part of my graduate degree, so I'm not a beginner by any means– but neither am I fluent. I feel like a couple of months of intensive study in Guatemala– combined with my daily vocabulary sessions and the Spanish newspaper and novel reading that I've been doing– will go a long way toward reaching that goal.
So what else am I doing to prepare myself besides working on my language skills and working my way through the reading list? I'm going to have a fairly long commute to and from work each day, so I'm going to use that time to listen to podcasts about current events and foreign policy analysis. Many people have recommended reading The New York Times or The Economist on a daily basis, but I don't think I'll be able to fit that into my schedule. I'm assuming podcasts will be just as effective.
I also intend to study certain subject areas online, especially economics. I don't have much of a background at all in economics, and my U.S. history has a few weak areas, so I hope to make use of some of the great lectures available online to fill in these gaps in my knowledge. The official reading list mentions several hefty college textbooks, and I tried last year to read Nation of Nations all the way through, but I started to wonder how efficient I was being with my time. The FSOT is often described as being "a mile wide and an inch deep," so I'm hoping I can use other resources to get an overview of the information I'm missing without having to make the significant time commitment to reading textbooks.
Finally, I'm going to start a portfolio of my experiences that relate to the 13 dimensions the State Department looks for in a foreign service officer. As a public school teacher, I think I'll have some opportunities to take on leadership roles, collaborate in a team, manage and motivate people (students, at least), and make touch decisions. Since I'm an ESL teacher specifically, there will also be plenty of opportunities to work across cultures and possibly use my Spanish skills. I've taught ESL abroad before, so some of those experiences might overlap, but the more examples I have to pull from, the better.
Just in case that isn't enough, though, I'm also planning to start volunteering with the American Red Cross. I come from a family where volunteering is an important part of our lives, and I think the Red Cross would be a great opportunity to gain some training and skills in crisis management and leadership. I want to enter the foreign service in the consular cone, so I'm hoping to have some experiences that could relate to some of those duties, such as assisting Americans abroad. I also read something about an opportunity to volunteer as an international case manager with the Red Cross, though I'm not sure exactly what that's about yet. I have a new volunteer orientation next week, so I'll find out more then.
So, that's my plan. Foreign service dreams aside, this is going to be a very hectic year for me, so I'm hoping this blog will allow me to stay on track. Even if I manage to make it past the very challenging FSOT, I'll still have plenty of hoops to jump through, so I'm going to need all the help I can get!
