Bid Season

Because Dave will finish his D.C. post in less than a year, we are now in the middle of bidding for our next post. The process is a bit different from bidding for the first post - where we had very little input into where we would go, or when. This time we have a list of over 200 posts. From that list, we can pull out our top 30 job / places and rank them from our first to least favorite. Seems desirable, right? Out of a great big world, we get to pick our 30 favorite places to go.

Its not that easy.

Dave did not learn a language for this post - so he must for his next post. That eliminates about one-fifth of the posts on the list.

Dave is not doing Consular work in this job - so he must for his next post. These are both requirements which each junior officer must fill within his first two tours. That eliminates over one-third of the posts on the list.

And most complicated, the timing must work. Each post has a date listed when they desire to fill the job. Likely, that date is when the last employee will leave. Dave will need to finish his current position, take Consular training and finish language training before he can start a new job. Depending on the language, he could take a post that starts between Nov. of 2012 and April of 2013. That eliminates a whole heckuva lot of posts.

Combine these three requirements with the few posts which don't allow children, and our eligible list is 27. And on that list, we have duplicates (where that post is listing multiple jobs). Also on that list, we have posts where the kids ride in an armored vehicle to attend school in another country. Also on that list, we have posts with no English school at all, where our kids (including a then 2nd grader) would learn either Spanish or French through full immersion.

The top 15 or so places on our list are pretty great. The bottom 15 or so are a little scary. I feel confident that we can fall well. Dave feels confident that his lack of seniority coupled with the lack of hardship associated with Northern Virginia gives him zero equity, and zero chance of landing a good post.

We turn in our list early next week, and expect to know by the end of the month.