In Brief: Medical Provider Hiring Process
Updated: April 2024 This is a quick post to go over the hiring process for the U.S. Foreign Service, with some time references for each step in the process. There is a page here that goes over my personal timeline in the hiring process and everything thereafter. For the most part, specialists and generalists have
How Foreign Service Specialist Promotions Actually Work
After writing about my recent promotion several people messaged me asking how people in the Foreign Service get promoted, so naturally, these questions become my content. The reality is it is pretty complicated, so buckle in. How do Foreign Service promotions actually work? Like many things in the State Department, the answer is considerably more
Bidding Season, Round Four
Every few years in the Foreign Service, the calendar starts revolving around one thing: bidding. For some, it always revolves around it, and conversations amongst colleagues often drifts to conjecture about where folks are heading next. For those outside the State Department, bidding is the process where employees compete for their next assignment. It isn’t
Promoted. YAY!
Strap in because this is a long one: The past month brought some career news I’ve been hopeful for: I was promoted. I’ll admit, this one means a lot to me. I wasn’t really expecting it until next year (if then considering the number of promotions have dropped in half as a percentage of those
New Hiring Process (Update)
I recently discussed the new hiring process for MED and several of you have reached out asking for next steps in the process once you take the initial application exam. Assuming you pass (and many of you have…YAY!!!), you will be contacted to upload your documentation that was traditionally the first part of the USAJOBS
One Month in Bangkok
One of the things I’ve come to appreciate about the Foreign Service is that no two assignments are ever quite the same. Even after settling into life at your permanent post, opportunities occasionally appear that let you step into an entirely different environment for a short period of time. Last month, I had the chance
Worldwide Available Means Worldwide Available
SOAP BOX TIME During the Foreign Service onboarding process, we attest, multiple times, that we are worldwide available. It isn’t fine print, and it isn’t a theoretical requirement. It means accepting the reality that the needs of the Service may send you somewhere difficult. In MED this is almost a guarantee. Yet every Flag Day,
New Hiring Process
About 4 days ago, the first MP job opening in well over a year concluded. If you have been interested in the position and reading this blog, you likely have dug through some of the much older posts articulating the hiring process, and what to expect. Well…throw all that out the window. With this most
We are HIRING!
For the first time in well over a year, a short hiring window for MPs has opened, and it closes on July 22nd, 2026. If you have been interested in joining the Foreign Service, now is your chance. The hiring process has been drastically altered and I will go over it in a bit more
Retirement in the U.S. Foreign Service
No, I’m not retiring. Having just a hair over 4 years of service, I am nearly 16 years away from when I would first be elidable. However, as I am now in my early 40s, been working fulltime for nearly 20 years, I have started to look with an eye toward retirement and realized that
AMA: What do you do for fun in Rangoon?
Myanmar can be a dangerous place. It has been fighting a civil war off and on since the country was founded in the 1940’s, and reports in the news don’t necessarily paint a positive picture of the current circumstances on the ground, which leads people to frequently ask me what I do with my free