During most of the time I was studying as an undergrad, my plan for the next phase of my life was to study as a grad student. It seemed like it would be a smooth transition with a lot of continuity. When it got closer, however, I started feeling like I should be doing something more active, working to make a contribution to society. Plus, none of my top choices among graduate programs accepted me. Without any special connections or qualifications that I thought would lead me to cool jobs, I considered various ideas, and ended up living temporarily with my parents (then headquartered in New Hampshire) and focusing on looking for a job in Boston, where I had some good friends and which I regarded as a great town. I was mostly looking at jobs in journalism (even after earlier doubts about being able to find a career there) and at customer-service positions.
Since my father was also looking for a new job at that time, he happened to be looking at a position at the Princeton, NJ corporate headquarters of the Berlitz language schools, and he noticed a posting for overseas English teachers. That sounded fun and adventurous to him, so he shared it with me, and I also thought it looked adventurous and fun, plus it was easy to make a connection to my International Studies major, so I applied. For some reason the particular Web site he'd found only mentioned jobs in Korea, so I only thought of applying there; as I would later tell my students, I knew that I didn't know much about Korea and that I would be interested in learning more, and I also knew I liked Korean food, so there was enough attraction there that I didn't even think of researching teaching possibilities in other countries.
I got the job, and although the visa process took a lot longer than I expected, eventually arrived there and had a fantastic and highly educational year in Seoul with frequent travel to various other parts of Korea. By my third month there, I had decided a few things: that I enjoyed teaching English, that I was good at it, that I loved not only seeing a new part of the world but living there and getting to know it well, and that I could envision myself combining these things by hopping from one country to another and working at Berlitz in each one. That world-wide aspect of the Foreign Service dream career seemed to be within reach as reality, so the thought of actually becoming a diplomat was pushed to the farthest corner in the back in my mind. By my sixth month in Seoul, I had decided that my next country would be Japan, and I had applied for and gotten a job in Tokyo (although I would later find out that I didn't have a specific position, just a general kind of job offer) and started Japanese lessons (alongside my continuing Korean lessons - there was a great employee discount).
When my stopover in the U.S. grew from the two months I'd planned to four months because of that tenuous nature of my employment in Tokyo, I decided to fill the time by making myself even more marketable in my chosen field by copleting a one-month intensive TESOL certification course. Even though I already had my next job, I was looking ahead to the future - I wanted to make sure I'd find a place easily in my third country of choice, and my fourth, and so on, perhaps eventually getting enough experience to come back to the States permanently and work at Berlitz headquarters developing textbooks or something. I was completely satisfied with what looked like the rest of my life would be, and it would have taken something pretty big to change that plan.
To be continued!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
My Background: Part 1, University
Although I love my job, I am currently in the process of trying to become something else. How did I get to this point in my life?
When I started college at UNC, I still had no idea what I wanted to do in life. Freshman year I chose my classes by picking whatever looked interesting, and figured I would have time later to settle on a major, let alone a career path. I had enjoyed working on my high school newspaper and was enjoying the DTH, but although I considered it, journalism was not high on my list of potential career interests, as I tended to view it as an extremely tough environment in which to succeed.
In taking whatever classes seemed interesting at the time, I ended up with a lot of great courses in the Philosophy department, so I did identify that fairly early on as a major I'd likely be able to earn without much trouble. I never wanted to go to law school, though, so I wasn't sure what I'd do with a philosophy degree. My parents strongly encouraged me, if that was the case, to double major. The summer after my freshman year, a study-abroad opportunity in Vienna pointed me on the path to that second major by giving me nine hours toward an International Studies major - I would only need four more classes to complete it, and there was even a good chance that I'd be able to get one or two courses to count towards both majors.
During those two months studying abroad, I became hugely interested in the study of intergovernmental organizations and multilateral diplomacy. In my "slacker" period as a junior and senior in college, I guess I kind of let go of that passion, although I remained interested in the subject and even continued taking fascinating courses on related topics ("European Democracies", "Language and Nationalism") - but I was not focusing on creating a viable career path in that field, and instead kind of going with the flow rather than trying to steer my destiny at all, thinking I might happily end up in academia - going to grad school in philosophy, becoming a professor, that kind of thing. Inertia was definitely a factor.
I had indeed identified the Foreign Service early on as a dream career, but the main reason I did not particularly work toward making it my career was precisely that: it seemed such an amazing thing that I knew there was no way I would ever be qualified, let alone get a position. It looked like it was just out of reach; I wasn't about to break my heart by trying to become an FSO any more than I would by setting myself the goal of becoming editor-in-chief of the New York Times, for example.
If I had known more about the process at the time, it might have seemed viable, but I somehow had the idea that those jobs were so far above the range of ordinary mortals that I didn't bother to research it. That is one of my reasons for starting this Web site: in the hopes that someone else will read about me going through that process, and learn that it is possible after all - and more than that, a valuable experience in itself, regardless of whether it ends up becoming a career.
To be continued!
When I started college at UNC, I still had no idea what I wanted to do in life. Freshman year I chose my classes by picking whatever looked interesting, and figured I would have time later to settle on a major, let alone a career path. I had enjoyed working on my high school newspaper and was enjoying the DTH, but although I considered it, journalism was not high on my list of potential career interests, as I tended to view it as an extremely tough environment in which to succeed.
In taking whatever classes seemed interesting at the time, I ended up with a lot of great courses in the Philosophy department, so I did identify that fairly early on as a major I'd likely be able to earn without much trouble. I never wanted to go to law school, though, so I wasn't sure what I'd do with a philosophy degree. My parents strongly encouraged me, if that was the case, to double major. The summer after my freshman year, a study-abroad opportunity in Vienna pointed me on the path to that second major by giving me nine hours toward an International Studies major - I would only need four more classes to complete it, and there was even a good chance that I'd be able to get one or two courses to count towards both majors.
During those two months studying abroad, I became hugely interested in the study of intergovernmental organizations and multilateral diplomacy. In my "slacker" period as a junior and senior in college, I guess I kind of let go of that passion, although I remained interested in the subject and even continued taking fascinating courses on related topics ("European Democracies", "Language and Nationalism") - but I was not focusing on creating a viable career path in that field, and instead kind of going with the flow rather than trying to steer my destiny at all, thinking I might happily end up in academia - going to grad school in philosophy, becoming a professor, that kind of thing. Inertia was definitely a factor.
I had indeed identified the Foreign Service early on as a dream career, but the main reason I did not particularly work toward making it my career was precisely that: it seemed such an amazing thing that I knew there was no way I would ever be qualified, let alone get a position. It looked like it was just out of reach; I wasn't about to break my heart by trying to become an FSO any more than I would by setting myself the goal of becoming editor-in-chief of the New York Times, for example.
If I had known more about the process at the time, it might have seemed viable, but I somehow had the idea that those jobs were so far above the range of ordinary mortals that I didn't bother to research it. That is one of my reasons for starting this Web site: in the hopes that someone else will read about me going through that process, and learn that it is possible after all - and more than that, a valuable experience in itself, regardless of whether it ends up becoming a career.
To be continued!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Foreign Service Oral Assessment
Today was the big day for me! I took the metro into the District and tried hard to put my best foot forward.
The first part of the FSOA was a group role-playing exercise, in which the object was not to "win" the discussion but to show good teamwork and help to achieve consensus. I was inspired in that part and confident that I had aced it. Much of the credit for my performance here goes to a local group of candidates from an online forum who met several times to practice the Group Exercise and to critique one another's responses.
Next was the written exercise, which I'd only practiced once, and had done a good job on - in twice the allotted time. In the real one, I managed to finish (just! there were literally three seconds between my last keystroke and the ending buzzer), but I was pretty sure it could have been a lot better - one of the key traits you're supposed to show in that section is mathematical/analytical ability, and I had spent so much time on the interpersonal aspects of the question that I just kind of shoved that bit into a single sentence.
Finally there was a standard interview-type section; I tried to put the other two parts behind me and come into that fresh, but I really had no idea how I'd done. I always enjoy talking about myself, but I'm not good at judging how well I manage to present my qualifications in doing so.
So at the end I had no idea what kind of score I might have gotten. Fortunately, you get your results the day of the FSOA. There was a lot of waiting (which would have been hideous, had not the other candidates been talking and joking to hide the fact that they were just as tense as I was) while other people got called out one by one, and then finally the assessors identified the remaining five candidates as those who had passed. To my amazement, I was one of them! They should have taken pictures of our faces at that moment. From that point, I started allowing myself to think of this as an actual real possibility.
After being congratulated on passing, we submitted a form SF-86 which we had previously completed online. This document compiles the huge amount of background information needed in the investigation to grant Top Secret security clearance. We were also given a lot of instructions on the next steps, including the security and medical clearances that we'll need to get. Finally, after being fingerprinted, I was released. Before getting on the Metro to come home, I made an important phone call to Bongsu.
Overall, I thought the day was a lot of fun. The other candidates were an amazing group of people, and there were opportunities during the day to talk to some of them about their experiences in the Peace Corps, journalism, the military, academia, and the private sector. The best part, of course, was the end.
The first part of the FSOA was a group role-playing exercise, in which the object was not to "win" the discussion but to show good teamwork and help to achieve consensus. I was inspired in that part and confident that I had aced it. Much of the credit for my performance here goes to a local group of candidates from an online forum who met several times to practice the Group Exercise and to critique one another's responses.
Next was the written exercise, which I'd only practiced once, and had done a good job on - in twice the allotted time. In the real one, I managed to finish (just! there were literally three seconds between my last keystroke and the ending buzzer), but I was pretty sure it could have been a lot better - one of the key traits you're supposed to show in that section is mathematical/analytical ability, and I had spent so much time on the interpersonal aspects of the question that I just kind of shoved that bit into a single sentence.
Finally there was a standard interview-type section; I tried to put the other two parts behind me and come into that fresh, but I really had no idea how I'd done. I always enjoy talking about myself, but I'm not good at judging how well I manage to present my qualifications in doing so.
So at the end I had no idea what kind of score I might have gotten. Fortunately, you get your results the day of the FSOA. There was a lot of waiting (which would have been hideous, had not the other candidates been talking and joking to hide the fact that they were just as tense as I was) while other people got called out one by one, and then finally the assessors identified the remaining five candidates as those who had passed. To my amazement, I was one of them! They should have taken pictures of our faces at that moment. From that point, I started allowing myself to think of this as an actual real possibility.
After being congratulated on passing, we submitted a form SF-86 which we had previously completed online. This document compiles the huge amount of background information needed in the investigation to grant Top Secret security clearance. We were also given a lot of instructions on the next steps, including the security and medical clearances that we'll need to get. Finally, after being fingerprinted, I was released. Before getting on the Metro to come home, I made an important phone call to Bongsu.
Overall, I thought the day was a lot of fun. The other candidates were an amazing group of people, and there were opportunities during the day to talk to some of them about their experiences in the Peace Corps, journalism, the military, academia, and the private sector. The best part, of course, was the end.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Foreign Service Officer Test
Yesterday, Sen. Barack Obama gave a speech in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. He said, among other things, that:
"... loving your country shouldn't just mean watching fireworks on the 4th of July; loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it. And if you do stand up, I promise you that your life will be richer, and our country will be stronger. We need your service, right now, in this moment - our moment - in history. I'm not going to tell you what your role should be; that's for you to discover. But I am going to ask you to play your part; ask you to stand up; ask you to put your foot firmly into the current of history. I am asking you to change history's course. And if I have the fortune to be your President, decades from now - when the memory of this or that policy has faded, and when the words that we will speak in the next few years are long forgotten - I hope you remember this as a moment when your own story and the American story came together."
Today, I took the written exam to join the Foreign Service. I'll use this space to let you know how I did. I fervently hope that this will indeed be a moment when my own story and the American story come together.
"... loving your country shouldn't just mean watching fireworks on the 4th of July; loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it. And if you do stand up, I promise you that your life will be richer, and our country will be stronger. We need your service, right now, in this moment - our moment - in history. I'm not going to tell you what your role should be; that's for you to discover. But I am going to ask you to play your part; ask you to stand up; ask you to put your foot firmly into the current of history. I am asking you to change history's course. And if I have the fortune to be your President, decades from now - when the memory of this or that policy has faded, and when the words that we will speak in the next few years are long forgotten - I hope you remember this as a moment when your own story and the American story came together."
Today, I took the written exam to join the Foreign Service. I'll use this space to let you know how I did. I fervently hope that this will indeed be a moment when my own story and the American story come together.
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