The American Foreign Service

By and large, our acquaintances in Shanghai are in the corporate sector. Their company has invested in China through joint venture or acquisition, and they have been sent as an expert on the company business to help things run smoothly. This was certainly the case when Dave arrived in Shanghai. Uncle H-- acquired an office here a few years ago, and business grew so quickly that the small local shops were having much trouble keeping up. Dave worked for Uncle H-- on big projects in the states for years, and although he was not a high-ranking manager, he was familiar with managing large clients with seemingly unreasonable expectations on tight time frames. The idea, as we knew it, was to have Dave help the Shanghai team to run on that same level. Over the year that we've lived in Shanghai, his job description has changed at least twice. This is par for the course with expatriates working in corporate Shanghai.

We know a family working for the U.S. armed services, and we know a few families who came to serve the Lord (although they were brought by corporations, work full-time jobs, and live the same corporate lifestyle as the rest of us.) The people we do not know are those working for foreign governments. I wonder whether this is by happenstance, or if those working for consulates and embassies tend to keep to themselves.

Doug, a close friend of ours in Shanghai, plans to apply to the American Foreign Service, and I find the process extremely interesting. Allow me to explain what he is facing.

Step 1: FSOT
The Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) is offered to Americans a few times a year, and is the first step in the application process. The American Consulate in Shanghai will offer the test in February, and so Doug is submitting his application this week and will bone up on his American history and international politics over the next 8 weeks.

Step 2: Pass the FSOT
Doug faces a low pass rate on the test, and so he will face a few weeks of uncertainty before finding out his score. Having taken the exam in February, Doug would expect to learn his status in March.

Step 3: Write an essay
With notification that he passes the exam, Doug will be asked to quickly turn around three writing samples. These will be in the form of essays on personal motivation, interests, experiences and so forth.

Step 4: Oral Examination
After several months, enough people will read those essays and decide whether or not our friend is a satisfactory writer with acceptable personal motivation. If he passes the written portion, he will face an oral examination. Doug's info is a little fuzzy at this point - it seems that he will be looking at a day of interviews, and although an interview is essentially a list of questions, he still can not explain whether these questions are more in interview form or examination form. Suffice it to say that at the end of this day, Doug must have convinced the good people of the U.S. State Department that he can effectively communicate what a brilliant person he is. Facing a several month wait time, Doug estimates that he would take his Oral Examination in June.

Step 5: Acceptance
After another few months of discussions behind locked doors, Doug will presumably be notified that the U.S. government would love him to be their envoy in a foreign nation. This is where Doug's information becomes quite fuzzy. His impression is that once they inform him of his acceptance, things will move quickly. Because Doug currently lives in Shanghai, the process could potentially work differently for him than for the average American Joe. But presumably, within a few weeks he would pack his things and move out of China. His estimate is that this notification could come in the fall - around September or October.

Step 6: Training
Doug will move to Washington, D.C. and begin training to be a Foreign Service Officer. At the end of his training, Doug and the State Department will decide where he will face his first posting. He then enters into the second faze of training, where he learns the language of his next home. This whole training process will take about a year - a year of living in Washington, D.C.

Assignment #1
After learning the language, Doug will be sent to his first posting. As a new officer, this posting will almost certainly be processing visas. The U.S. goverment will not pay Doug a whole lot of money to process these visas - he faces a dramatic drop in salary. But the State Department does promise to house all of their employees, and to provide for their children's education. Because they want him to maintain his ties with America, Doug will spend at least 30 days in the United States every year on vacation. Most assignments last 2-4 years.

Assignment #2
Having finished his first posting, Doug will face dejavu. He will return to Washington, D.C. to learn another language. Once he's well-trained, he will be sent to his second assignment where he will process more visa applications. If he is accepted into this career choice, Doug faces a simple and monotonous job for the next 4-6 years. But once he finishes this second assignment, he'll be dropped into the main employee pool in the foreign service and then things could get really interesting.

As I find the entire process quite interesting, I'll keep posting on Doug's process as long as we're in touch.