I have received this question multiple times from readers interested in joining the Foreign Service, and the simple answer is: I don’t know. For the last several months there has been a government wide freeze on hiring, and at this point it doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. What this means is job announcements
One of the benefits provided to employees of the Foreign Service serving in unaccompanied posts, is the department will pay for your kids to meet you in another country, called family reunification travel. After a lot of discussing with Angeli and our eldest daughter, we came to the conclusion that we wanted to meet up
Apologies for the delay in posting this. My site host went down last weekend and apparently never posted anything that was scheduled over the weekend. July marks 4 years since I started writing this blog, which is sort of surreal to think about. 4 years ago I was working as a hospitalist in Southern New
Another year, another period of the Employee Evaluation Report season has come to a close. For those of you that have been around a bit, or know the State Department system, each year, employees have to submit a review of their own performance, which their boss then also adds to, then you submit into your
One of the hardest things about being in the Foreign Service is not being with your family on a routine basis. This is especially difficult when a loved one passes and you aren’t there to say goodbye. During my first tour in Nouakchott, my grandmother passed away after a long bout with dementia, and although
One of the most common questions about the hiring process I get, especially for folks that have passed the Oral Assessment, pertains to the security clearance process. Unfortunately, it remains somewhat of an enigma. In order to be hired for the State Department, just about everyone, Medical Providers included, need to be able to obtain
On March 28, 2025, a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar’s Sagaing Region, near the city of Mandalay, causing widespread devastation. Although myself and the rest of U.S. Embassy Rangoon were unharmed during the events, the same could not be said for tens of thousands of people that were injured, lost their lives, or their
Myanmar is still recovering from the devastating earthquake that occurred last month, and I plan to talk more about the events in a future post, but for now, I thought it would be worthwhile to reflect on finally hitting three years of federal service. Why the Three-Year Mark Matters Reaching the three-year milestone in the
On March 28th, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit central Myanmar. I want to thank several readers that reached out to ask if I was safe. Thankfully the entire Embassy team was unharmed by the earthquake, but the same cannot be said for several of the family members of our local staff. The devastation that has
