U.S. Department of State

Hello, I was wondering if you could give me more insight as to how it is determined who advances from the personal narrative (PN) stage to the Oral Assessment? My results letter explains that the FSOT score, PN, and application will all be considered, but is there any way to know how these will be weighted? Is it a fair assumption that a high FSOT score counts more than anything else?

The Qualifications Evaluation Panel (QEP) review complements the written test and the oral assessment by looking at an applicant's total file:  the test scores and essay, the work history, the education, and the personal experiences, as well as any Foreign Service Institute validated critical needs language ability.   So beyond relying on the test scores alone, we are screening for those additional job related qualities that define a person’s chance of successfully performing Foreign Service work.   This credential and experiential review is similar to what major international corporations do in reviewing job applications for their positions.

The panels, composed of trained members of the Board of Examiners, evaluate candidates within each career track, based on how well the candidates demonstrate qualities that are predictors of success in the Foreign Service: substantive knowledge, intellectual, interpersonal, leadership, communications and management skills.  There is no pre-set cut-off score.  Rather candidates receive a relative ranking compared to other candidates.  We then select the most competitive candidates for oral assessments based on this evaluation and our anticipated hiring needs. 

You should know that we have received a record number of applications for the tests this year and while the number of candidates invited to the Oral Assessment remains roughly the same, increased applications makes the process more competitive for applicants. 

Although the QEP is a total file review, with no one element dominating all the factors considered, the one area that you have the most control over is the Personal Narrative.

--This is an important part of your application and is read carefully by the Qualifications Evaluation Panel.  Your responses are influential in determining your rank order in your career track.  This is the place for you to highlight not just what you have done, but how you have done it and what you have learned.  It is a place for you to emphasize how what you have done relates to the precepts and would be useful in the Foreign Service. Draw from all aspects of your life.

--In your responses to the Personal Narrative questions, remember this is part of a job application. Focus on answering the question.

--Be your own best advocate but don't stretch the truth. We do verify questionable PNs.

Thank you for that very thorough answer. I have one follow-up question that I'd appreciate your assistance with. While writing my Personal Narrative I've realized that I do not have the contact information for many of the supervisors with whom I have worked, namely in the Peace Corps and in the Foreign Service. Short of contacting the U.S. Embassy in Spain, where I worked as a graduate student intern last year, is there a way of looking up an email address for a FSO?

Thank you,

Angela Mora, MPA  

I attempted to "pass" the test for Foreign Service Officer about three years ago. I'm 59 now, so I'm "nearly" disqualified on the basis of age alone. But I'd like to try it one more time, just for the hell of it, if nothing else. I'm retired & I've nothing better to do with the extensive time on my hands except to write books and listen to Public Radio & try to keep my delightful Chinese wife happy. She's from The People's Republic of China, where I have lived for two years. Oh, and by the way, I took that goddamned test at the American Consulate in Chengdu, Shishuan Province, costing me travel money and time and nuisance and a good deal of aggrevation after discovering that some body had decided to put the kaibosh on my application---which is plain BULL, as Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" might have put it.

 

Yours

Donald Gardner Stacy 

With all due respect, if you're interested in becoming an FSO,wouldn't it have been more productive to exhibit some motivation besides being bored and  demonstrating positive qualities pertinent to the job rather than ranting because you didn't pass the test on the previous attempt? ACT, not State, grades the written test, and thousands of people compete annually to become FSOs. We're talking about something like a start-to-finish (written test, essays questions, daylong Oral Assessment in DC, medical clearance, security clearance, final suitability review, and entry-level officer invitation) success rate of the low single-digits. Moreover, having to use one's annual leave for long journeys, sometimes paying  for expensive tickets paid out of pocket if one wants to see one's family back home, and dealing with inconveniences are part of FS life. So are worldwide availability, and behaving professionally, BTW. Some people can adapt to the lifestyle; others can't. If what you went through to take the test has you so out of sorts  that you are complaining about it three years after the fact, you might want to think hard about whether you are really interested in becoming an FSO and  trying the FSOT again. 

Well, I'm duly chastised. But, now being in a far less dyspetic mood, I can still maintain with a most serene equanimity that my having failed the first examination shall in no way dissuade me from attempting to pass another examination just like it. This time, however, I will do the sensible thing and study the handbook for preparation which I went to the trouble of purchasing.

As for my ability to adapt to new and unusual (for me) socio-psychological situations, well, one never knows until one tries. And I am doing this for two fundamental reasons: (1.) the work would be inherently interesting, far more so than running a printing press, for example; and (2.) I view the foreign service as a means of being a public servant without going through the travails of a primary and general election.

But I have no illusions that the training would be thorough-going and difficult. I thank you for your response.

Hello, I was wondering if you could give me more insight as to how it is determined who advances from the personal narrative (PN) stage to the Oral Assessment? My results letter explains that the FSOT score, PN, and application will all be considered, but is there any way to know how these will be weighted? Is it a fair assumption that a high FSOT score counts more than anything else?

This question has been answered above in this chain. The FSOT scores are only one element of the factors being considered and do not carry undue weight relative to other elements.

real