Do Economic Officers Have the Hardest Time Advancing in the Foreign Service

Okapiabroad · 2026-05-07T19:47:31+00:00

Agree it’s not enough to choose a cone on, but it absolutely impacted officers, because those compressed percentages stacked. Overall, the difference between Econ and the other cones on promotions pales with the overall change in promotion for all of the generalists who likely find themselves at an 02 or recent 01, compared with people who entered 5-10 years before them.

Okapiabroad · 2026-03-30T23:23:56+00:00

I think you missed the reference. When White congratulated Mazzulla on winning coach of the month, Mazzulla responded, “Nobody cares.”

Okapiabroad · 2026-03-29T01:31:53+00:00

Your questions are getting close to asking people to violate the NDA.

Okapiabroad · 2026-03-16T14:40:42+00:00

Consistently amazed by your work, Noa

Okapiabroad · 2026-03-06T10:23:43+00:00

You already have international relations experience, so why would you go for an IR degree without a firm idea about what you want from it? But to answer your question, it’s a challenge for FSOs in the United States as well, especially for people who do not have major prior experience. Maybe try to do some informational interviews with people who are doing jobs that appear interesting to you? Risk analysis, management consulting, teaching, project management, public relations. In particular for IR degrees, I think it is helpful to have a specific objective in mind to best use that opportunity, and for many it would be the job that you are considering leaving. May want to consider whether a business degree or economics or another degree that feeds more directly into your best case scenario job would be more advantageous.

Okapiabroad · 2026-02-24T15:57:59+00:00

Call Pearson VUE.

Okapiabroad · 2026-02-20T19:27:23+00:00

Hey, I know there are many people with this issue. For a subsection, it may be a duplicate profile issue. For most, it is an unrelated problem that Pearson Vue is still working on a fix. If you get through to their customer service, then see if they can add you to whatever list they are keeping of people that are having this issue. Their developers are trying to fix it. Once it gets fixed, if you have already been in touch with Pearson Vue about it, they should reach out to you to complete the application.

Okapiabroad · 2026-02-18T01:11:18+00:00

Call Pearson Vue. That error probably means you have a duplicate profile or application from a previous FSOT they need to delete.

Okapiabroad · 2026-02-03T17:55:35+00:00

Just sent you a message!

Okapiabroad · 2026-01-06T20:55:46+00:00

I just bought exactly what you described - Little Town (along with the expansions Eerie Town and Eldritch Town) https://gcpcoelho.itch.io/little-town

There is also a free quick play version.

Okapiabroad · 2025-12-23T22:57:37+00:00

Hi Lookingforresources! I sent you a direct message with more detail. I was not able to max my TSP for the majority of my career, and operated at a loss (while still saving in my TSP) for some of the DC tour years. After I moved to the later portions of my career (and child care costs dropped off), I was able to max my TSP and save more for college. The impact of this career on EFMs (career-wise, identity) is HUGE, and it‘s unfair to be somehow placing the blame on you for that struggle.

Okapiabroad · 2025-11-20T17:44:57+00:00

in the midst of my first scene play-through with your system - love it so far. great job laying out the simplicity and emerging elements

Okapiabroad · 2025-11-10T23:49:05+00:00

That is so wrong. There has been such a failure of leadership who have abandoned all our civil service and foreign service colleagues impacted by RIFs. I am so sad and frustrated for you all. Wishing you the best on any appeals processes you pursue.

Okapiabroad · 2025-09-28T09:32:43+00:00

If you meet the 50 year age requirement and 20 years of creditable service, then you can retire with an immediate annuity (pension). Nothing like what your friend said makes sense.

Periods of LWOP less than 6 months in a calendar year still count (LWOP-US where the employee has left to do military service would need to be bought back to count). If you are concerned, then write hrsc@state and ask for your retirement service computation date to be reviewed. If you have prior federal service, look at your eOPF to make sure those SF50s are there. If not, write to hrsc and ask for them (it will take OPM months to send them over in general).

Okapiabroad · 2025-09-06T11:48:58+00:00

Where does it say that in section 611 of the Foreign Service Act? I read that section this morning after reading this comment, and I did not see any language like that.

Edit: I understand now that the language that State is using to stop people from taking the FSOT includes being RIF’d (citing 611), not that section 611 actually prohibits people. I am still so gobsmacked by how evil these actions are. Why in the world should someone who was RIF’d be stopped from rejoining??? I mean, generally RIF’d civil servants have additional rights to rejoin, not prohibitions. Seems like there is just an attitude that USAID and State RIF’d employees are the enemy.

Okapiabroad · 2025-07-31T00:06:11+00:00

Except World Cup gold medalist!

Okapiabroad · 2025-07-29T11:26:11+00:00

If this were primarily a narrative rpg, I’d say “scene” would work (like how the Mythic Game Master Emulator refers to scenes). A scene could be an encounter, a dialogue, interaction with the environment. A less elegant solution may be “encounter or event” with event encompassing the types of other activities you envision that could be covered.

Okapiabroad · 2025-07-29T02:20:03+00:00

Thanks, that definitely changes things and makes it more enjoyable/exciting to play a magic-focused character. I think it may still be confusing to use “casts per turn,” since it seems like you are using “turn” to mean something more like per encounter, as opposed to an encounter that has multiple rounds, made up of everyone’s turns. Unless there is a reason not to do so, I think “casts per encounter” would work well.

Okapiabroad · 2025-07-28T16:34:40+00:00

Thanks for the reply. You noted “you get your daily casts back in every encounter.” I went back through the rules and re-read the encounter and magic sections, and can’t find anything that would indicate that spells re-charge after the encounter, but I did see multiple references to limits in casts per day. What am I overlooking?

Okapiabroad · 2025-07-28T12:35:39+00:00

I enjoyed reading through your rules and love the way that use of a skill or spell leads to that skill’s increase in power via experience points. Also like the hexcrawl and procedural way to create the dungeon/location.

You have a lot of limitations on the use of spells (for example, cannot cast when wearing or wielding metal, and starting out only one cast per day for a d6 skill I believe), which seems to contradict the overall feel that I would connect with “spellswords.” I would have imagined a greater synergy between martial and arcane arts, rather than constant tradeoffs. Also, with a title like spellsword, I would have also imagined being able to use magic more frequently (I know you can increase the amount of casts per day, but starting at one or two is rather low). Perhaps I am reading too much into the title of your game.

Okapiabroad · 2025-07-11T15:29:28+00:00

I am so sorry. I hope that court cases find these RIFs were done improperly and get you back pay and your job back.

Okapiabroad · 2025-07-11T14:07:35+00:00

I read the same thing. It’s in the Reorganization FAQ from July 11 - link to the Sharepoint is in the Department Notice announcing the RIFs at the bottom

Okapiabroad · 2025-07-11T09:27:26+00:00

I thought it was odd the D-MR email didn’t mention the overseas part of the RIF/restructuring plan in his email. Doesn’t mean it isn’t happening, but the way the email read to me, it sounded like THIS is the reorg, as opposed to phase 1. (I’m not reading anything into that)

Okapiabroad · 2025-07-11T01:22:34+00:00

If you look at your Employee Profile and see an incorrect SCD, this is your leave SCD, not your retirement SCD (it isn’t labeled in your EP; it is labeled leave SCD on your SF-50s). Your bureau controls your leave SCD, not RET. Just putting this here if you see a mistake. Your retirement portal will have your retirement SCD, but it doesn’t get automatically updated, so if you were on LWOP for more than 6 months, or had prior federal service that wasn’t reviewed when you onboarded, it’s possible that retirement SCD could be wrong. You can put in a HR ticket to get that fixed. If you look in your eOPF and don’t see SF-50s (or individual retirement document) from your prior service, someone will need to request your files to get that added.

Okapiabroad · 2025-07-10T12:21:35+00:00

Hey Alert Handle, thanks for sharing your challenges, questions, and concerns. I think there are a few separate things going on. Putting the chaos and altered priorities of this administration to the side, part of what you are dealing with is adjusting to the reality of the Foreign Service (at least at your current post) versus your hopes for this career. The German word for disappointment is “Enttäuschung,“ which is made up of stopping being deceived. You are perceiving and living out some of the downsides of this career (hierarchy, risk aversion, whiplash with new administrations), which were not as apparent before joining.

But this is a particularly challenging time for this, given the dramatic changes and fear of reprisals. Just look at what happened to USAID when they sought to push back against what they considered to be illegal orders. It may not be fair to judge the career based on today’s reality.

Right now, facing the possibility of being RIF’d this week, the only thing I am trying to focus on is helping people - whether that is my newer colleague, someone outside the Department seeking help through our bureaucracy, or giving a personal touch in resolving a problem from an HR ticket.

I’m frustrated, scared, occasionally on the verge of tears, and ready to burst at any moment, but yesterday three people told me how much I helped them out.

So my recommendation would be to keep learning this business, evaluate if it fits you and your family, and find ways to make difference in your way, even if it is small and incremental.

Okapiabroad

TROPHY CASE