We got back from our five day trip to DC on Wednesday. Traveling with a four month old wasn’t as difficult as I expected. There were several lessons learned and we feel more confident in knowing how to sync Malosi’s schedule with the travel schedule.
The main reason for our trip was my interview with the Foreign Service. I applied in August for the position, along with about 125 other applications to miscellaneous companies across the globe, and didn’t think much of it until I got a letter about two months ago requesting my presence on June 21st at 9am for an oral assessment and exam.
The first step was a written test. After this myself and another candidate were escorted back to the lobby for a short wait. I made my way to the restroom where I encountered a man transitioning from commuter biker gear to work gear. He seemed to be taking a paper towel bath, wiping his brow hunched over his gear bag. I commented on the heat outside just to be friendly and break the awkward tension of walking in on a man toweling himself. He hesitated a bit from his paper scrub down and rebutted my statement that it really wasn’t that bad. I then quickly realized I wasn’t in Texas and friendly exchanges about the weather were not culturally appropriate (at least in the State Dept building) as they could turn into full-scale global warming debates and the impact this is having on the barometric pressure of an Artic Wales upper intestinal chamber (did I mention while in Fiji I gave the prime minister of Tuvalu a book debunking not so solid science behind the religion of man-made Global Warming?).
After the break we proceed back to the exam room for a multiple-choice test. The next step was a brief wait (through lunch) in a large open lobby with about 25 chairs, TV with CNN, and several copies of State magazine. Surrounding the lobby were issues of a cartoon that is published on the back page of each State magazine. I found these amazingly funny and was in tears on a couple of them. The best part is I understood about half the punch line due to its pointed focus at insider life as a foreign service officer. This definitely helped loosen the mood a bit and made me realize that humor would definitely be needed if I actually make it through the next steps.
Next was an interview with a FSO and FSS in my specialty. After the interview I was ushered to the waiting room again and then brought back for a review of my scores. I was informed I passed and allowed the opportunity to ask questions. My brain was so fried at this point I just tried to string a few complete sentences together to try and show my excitement. I think they were pretty zonked I made it as well.
I then had a security briefing on next steps for this process and soon found myself heading back to the hotel about 5 hours later. I was now in possession of a conditional offer of employment from the State Department in the Foreign Service. On my walk back to the hotel I looked at everyone with suspicion and checked for trails. Isn’t that what James Bond would do? Oh whatever and who knows, get me some food!
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