Thursday, December 04, 2008

Political Registry

I made it on the list! Now everything that needs to be done, in order for me to become a Foreign Service Officer, has been done: it now depends entirely on how many new FSOs the government needs - and on how many are on the list with higher scores than mine (there is one more thing I can do to affect that, viz raise my own score by passing the German exam, which I will attempt for a second time on December 18).

I am now in the 35th position on the registry of 95 Political career track candidates. Here's hoping the rush of Obama administration appointees takes up Diplomatic Security's clearance-granting resources and prevents too many people with higher scores from popping up ahead of me. ;)

I had a scary couple of moments when I called to enquire about being on the registry. Today marks one month since I was granted the security clearance, so I phoned to see if any progress had been made on getting the Final Suitability Review. At first the answer was the best: "You were just put on the registry on December 2" - but then it quickly became the worst: "You're number 92 on the list." Fortunately, I stuck up for myself, questioning that number several times until we realized that they thought my score was a 5.3 (the minimum passing score)! I assured her that I was pretty sure I had a 5.5, and when she checked (man, THAT was a nervous minute or two), she found I was right and fixed the typo, jumping me up to my rightful place.

The clock has now started; I can stay on the registry until I (hopefully!) get an offer, or until 6/2/2010 (a total of 18 months) before dropping off and being back at the very beginning.

3 comments:

Digger said...

Have you checked out the yahoo user group for folks who have passed the oral assessment and are waiting for "the call"? I found it a great way to obsess, I mean, stay informed, while I was waiting. And there are a number of FSOs, me included, who are still on there and try to answer questions from time to time. The group members announce when any of them have started getting calls and in which cone and with what score, which often helps you have a better idea of if you will get an offer for a particular class. Plus, you end up getting to know several folks from your A-100 before you start.

You can find them at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/A-100-2002/

Digger said...

Nix all that...I see you are already part of the group (unless someone has exactly the same story about being 92nd!).

The Warpiper said...

Congrats on making it to the register! I am currently 30th on the CON register, so maybe we'll cross paths at some point in the near future.