Shortly after I received my 2nd tour bid list last week, my wife and I discussed our priorities, and in short order returned the list back to the powers that be. I am not one to go back and forth over things, and I hate second guessing, so once the ball was in our court, I immediately passed it back.
Rather than go with posts that are all similar regionally or from a hardship perspective, we really varied it up and researched places where we thought our family would do well, and even ranked some unaccompanied tours high. Our top choices are high hardship, low hardship, big embassies, small embassies, and a smattering of countries across several regional bureaus. Schools and quality of life for my family ultimately is how we decided to craft the list, and we don’t really have a #1 place we hope we get above all others. Deciding to put an unaccompanied post high in the mix was also a tough decision, but in the long run I think it will pay dividends for my career as it means I would leave entry level assignments a year early, and from then on have far more say in where we move.
Now comes the waiting game. It will be another 2.5 weeks before assignments are made, so in the interim, I am doing everything I can to keep my brain occupied. This has meant taking over as the President of the Interagency Housing Board for the embassy, a role I probably should have considered more thoroughly just before peak transfer season, but here we are. I also have been serving as the Vice President of the employee recreation association. Thankfully, these side jobs in addition to my actual duties have been keeping me busy, and occupying the time before we learn our fate.
Once we learn where we are going, the deep dive will begin. Schools, housing, city life. I love learning more details about new places, and for the most part, the entire bid list is new places. Here’s to a quick few weeks! – Nick
How do you have time to manage additional jobs being a medical provider? I am sure you’re less busy than you were in the private sector, but that sounds like a lot! Did you have too much down time working as an MP?
Also, are you able to earn more income with these side jobs, or is it more of a government bonus points system?
Thanks for your wonderful posts! So interesting!
Hi Julie,
The additional jobs I have undertaken are totally voluntary and I only chose to do them because I didn’t think they would interrupt my day to day. So far that has proven true as in most cases, meetings for the side stuff are maybe once every month. While doing them I don’t generate extra income, HOWEVER, promotion panels like to see people engaging in the community and taking on roles sort of outside their wheelhouse. So if it means an earlier promotion, or helps me get tenure on a first look, it’ll have a financial trickle down that will last my career.
I wouldn’t say I have a ton of downtime, as there is always something I could be doing outside of direct patient care(checking embassy AEDs, restocking, reordering, training staff). That said, there is definitely more time available that isn’t spent directly dealing with patient care issues. This is going to vary from post to post, but having spent time in posts far larger than mine in terms of embassy population, even then it’s hard to see a situation where you couldn’t make time for other activities.
–Nick
Kind of like extracurriculars in high school, haha! Sounds fun being outside of the norm for someone working as an NP. I just love the idea of working in a place where it isn’t so volume driven, and you have time to engage with your community.
Thanks again!
Definitely!
When you are at an embassy or consulate as the sole U.S. Direct Hire in the Health Unit, there is a pretty good chance you are the only person at post with significant medical training.
What this practically means is no one around you really knows what you do, and even the people you report to (management and the front office), aren’t medical people, and they definitely aren’t driven or motivated by numbers or profit. Really, as long as you are nice and accessible to people, everyone is happy.