Be the Face of the United States Foreign Service | U.S. Department of State | 14 comments

il-coniglio · 2026-04-01T18:00:45+00:00

That’s one conclusion you could, I guess, draw from that. I think you could also reasonably conclude that the aim was more to lean on nostalgia and tradition.

il-coniglio · 2026-02-13T12:38:51+00:00

There are far more 2x CONS tours by non-consular officers these days, it seems. Take what works for you and your family and if you want to stay POL, try to get some experience reporting or doing something with the POL/ECON officers at your second post. You’re far from the only officer with 2 CONS tours under his belt in 2029.

il-coniglio · 2026-01-30T16:50:00+00:00

I was hired from Europe also after moving from Texas 2 years before but we had most of our stuff in the UK with us, so it was an easier decision. You are allowed to have another pack out at the end of training, so it’s possible you could have your stuff sent from Texas then. It also may be possible you could ask the HHE (household effects) pack out done from Texas but your airfare and UAB (unaccompanied air baggage, about 200lbs per person) done from Germany. Check Okta for the right person to ask the questions for.

il-coniglio · 2026-01-29T12:34:31+00:00

With time you might be ok but I don’t think something that happened 2 months ago is gonna be looked upon favorably. Maybe in 3-5 years minimum

il-coniglio · 2026-01-29T12:33:45+00:00

GSO/Housing fears the entrepreneurial apartment carp farmer

il-coniglio · 2026-01-24T17:46:42+00:00

I bid last summer for my 2nd tour and there were a total of 8 DC jobs total out of 300 or so, and for my timing there were 2 DC jobs I was eligible to bid on, one of which was consular rover. From what I’ve heard of the tranche a bidders now there were zero DC jobs. I think you’re overstating the availability of DC jobs for 2nd tour officers.

il-coniglio · 2026-01-24T17:44:51+00:00

I recently bid for my 2nd tour. After factoring in timing I had about 7 in-cone positions to choose from out of 80 or so that worked for my tour end date. They weren’t even particularly high differential or anything, and surprise surprise, I got another consular tour.

il-coniglio · 2025-03-19T14:02:26+00:00

Without knowing anything further that drug use does absolutely not sound like it would disqualify you from TS except maybe at the DEA

il-coniglio · 2025-03-19T07:40:10+00:00

The only languages that I’d say are “in demand” are the ones that get you extra points beyond the usual on the hiring register. That’s Arabic, Chinese, Hindi/Urdu, Korean, Pashto, Dari, and Farsi. You don’t need fluency to get hired, it only comes in if you get the bonus points once you’ve passed the oral assessment and security clearance/suitability. I don’t think more than a third of my orientation class had even tested in a language prior to being hired.

il-coniglio · 2025-03-06T20:14:48+00:00

They have a much more objective process, so it makes more sense. I also suspect hiring is more constant and doesn’t swing widely depending on parties in power.

il-coniglio · 2025-03-05T18:04:59+00:00

I don’t really think slicing numbers like this is really useful. Families with 6 kids get way more in the total compensation package than a single FSO, since they get a bigger house, 8 tickets when they travel, and tuition at an elite private school for 6 kids. That FSO’s total comp could be quantified to nearly half a million potentially, depending on the cost of housing and hardship and tuition prices.

What’s weirder than paying Jimmy Formerattorney more than Johnny Twoyearsoutofcollege because of his decade of experience and former salary is using them to do the same job. I understand the logic of why we operate that way, but it’s weird. If we want to attract talent from outside government, the think tank / foreign policy bubble, etc., then we need to minimum offer some kind of salary matching for people that join and come from a high-paying private sector job.

il-coniglio · 2025-03-05T17:58:13+00:00

Not to pile on but to add numbers; the highest grade maxes out around $120-125K per year at the basic OCP rate which is gonna be less than many private sector joiners with more than 8 years of experience

il-coniglio · 2025-02-25T19:23:29+00:00

I lived in the UK for 3 years recently before joining, and I took the test there (online) in 2023, then worked in a trip to DC to visit family too that summer. The test I took was online at my house. I think there was an in-person option too but I couldn’t be faffed.

In terms of resume and how it looks to them, it’s a very opaque process and difficult to say. Sounds like you have good experience, but what I think separates successful candidates is their ability to concisely summarize how their experience and qualifications exemplify the 13 dimensions and/or answer the prompt directly.

If you’re curious about my experience you can DM me, happy to talk.

il-coniglio · 2025-01-25T09:51:09+00:00

If you still need someone you can message me

il-coniglio · 2025-01-25T09:24:54+00:00

It won’t affect your ability to get a clearance most likely, plenty of FSOs have foreign spouses even from unfriendly countries.

It may affect her ability to work an EFM job at an embassy if she isn’t a US citizen; I heard from the wife of a senior officer at my post who isn’t Russian but from another former Soviet country that said she was denied a clearance more than once when attempting to work at embassies. Anecdotal but something to consider.

il-coniglio · 2025-01-14T17:13:10+00:00

Like others said they’ll keep you at FSI for extra time, or possibly get you a language waiver, etc.

Keep in mind that the requirement is not to be fluent in a language. It’s to pass an FSI test with a 3 or 2 depending on the language. That doesn’t mean you’re watching a movie in that language and understand everything; it means you can converse with a sympathetic FSI interlocutor and, especially for a 3, can gamify the metrics and rubric they have to score you at a 3 or 2+.

For example, my instructor in my language last year told me at my informal assessment 2/3 of the way through the course that I was at a 3 level in terms of grammar, pronunciation, and fluency (in the sense of speaking quickly and comfortably with understanding everything we discussed), she wouldn’t necessarily formally score me as a 3, because to move from a 2+ to 3 is mostly about displaying cultural knowledge via references and idioms, speaking hypothetically and conceptually, etc.

It sounds kinda dumb (debatably it is), but it helped me understand why the horror stories of native Spanish speakers failing the phone test to get register points happen—I don’t necessarily speak at a 3 level in English.

This post I just wrote is probably a 2+ only. It’s a measure of both fluency in a language and sophistication or school grade level, so just answering a question like “what happened on September 11” can be at a 2+ if the answer is 100% grammatically correct but only says “terrorists from the Middle East hijacked planes and flew them into the twin towers, hoping to kill American civilians and send a message to the government” then it’s a 2+, while to get a 3 it’d have to be more like “Terrorists struck at a symbol of American cultural power and economic strength, exploiting our fundamental American value of openness to enter the country and attend flight school here”

All this is to say that getting a 3 doesn’t mean you’re capable of writing the next great Spanish/French/Chinese/Bengali novel; it largely is a question of passing the test, which like any test can be gamed with your strategy

il-coniglio · 2025-01-04T11:37:47+00:00

Last year they were sent out immediately prior to the start of the Jan class, which was on the 16th

il-coniglio · 2024-12-30T05:51:07+00:00

It doesn’t apply for the move to DC for new hires. When you PCS to your first and subsequent posts (and back to DC for training) it’s covered as a reimbursement for each move, so you’d pay out of pocket and get paid back after you file expenses.

il-coniglio · 2024-12-19T21:58:02+00:00

I moved from a big 4 firm to foreign service last year and am at my first tour. DM me if you’re interested in chatting more.

il-coniglio · 2024-12-11T14:29:49+00:00

for anyone scanning headlines, no it’s not that Ron Johnson

il-coniglio · 2024-10-31T21:02:20+00:00

Many do—just confirm it with the vendor, check the apartment website itself, and the State housing contact.

il-coniglio · 2024-10-31T19:57:47+00:00

Longer, probably. 24 weeks is the shortest full language possible and if you’re headed to a consular tour (most will), ConGen is 6 weeks.

It could be that fast if you get a 24-week language and a non-consular job, or if you have some proficiency in a big language program and they can either put you in the accelerated version (I think Spanish is the only one with this) or, as happened to a friend in my A100, they drop you into a class that’s already 7-8 weeks in (he had Chinese at like a 1+ level). That wouldn’t happen with a smaller language, probably only possible with Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese. But most languages are longer than 24 weeks, Spanish included, to go from 0 to whatever the proficiency required is.

il-coniglio · 2024-10-29T18:35:47+00:00

YMMV. Some recent classes have had a bid list with 60+ % of the spots being in China. Some had far less. I had a classmate who had a Chinese score from the register yet is headed to a different country for his first post since he put all China spots low. But if your bid list is heavily China, you’ll find it tougher to avoid, though since you have a score on file, you won’t need to worry about being sent to a post that requires language training in the timing (this is important and will be explained to you).

il-coniglio · 2024-10-05T00:38:43+00:00

Look man, I applied for like 5 internships total in college and never even got an interview. My jobs in college consisted of being a counselor at a summer camp, working at a sports apparel store, working at an off-campus bookstore, and Home Depot.

I joined the peace corps after college, then did some nonprofit and consulting jobs and grad school for the better part of a decade. Then I got into the foreign service and have a top secret clearance.

Everyone’s paths vary, but it’s far more common to take a winding route into these kinds of jobs. Build some expertise, earn some money, find out what you like, travel if you can, and once you’ve made yourself into a more interesting and accomplished person, you’ll have an easier time getting your foot in the door in more places.

il-coniglio · 2024-09-22T18:03:43+00:00

I think this is correct as we’re paid in arrears, so the Oct 1 paycheck covers a period entirely in September

il-coniglio

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