A New Road

C thought it would be the perfect law school graduation present, and it was.  A little too good.  A few years back, C took me on a trip to Honduras.  The same country where I worked as a missionary almost 10 years prior.  What could be better than a return to the land that had influenced my education and career choices up to that point?

Service in Honduras led me to focus my law school studies on immigration and led to a job with a major immigration firm.  Our life was going well. We had the house in the burbs and a few kids; the only thing missing was the minivan!  My wife was a happy girl.  But C didn't realize the ultimate effect returning Honduras would have on me.  Visiting friends, eating amazing food, and enjoying breathtaking views unearthed a dream I had quickly dismissed in 2005, a year after returning from my mission. 

Returning from Honduras the first time left me with a desire to see even more people and places, so I looked into different career opportunities.  That search led me to look at the Foreign Service.  The International Studies Department at my university was extremely active and hosted a lot of guest speakers, so I attended a few of the lectures where lecturers described amazing lives and events.  The jobs they described certainly fit my goal to see new people and places, but man did the process to become one of those officers sound long and hard!  I would surely be weeded out at some point along the way!  It didn't take long for me to talk myself out of it.

Fast forward to 2012, I had recently passed the bar and felt like I could do anything!  So when I reviewed the hiring process for Foreign Service Officers, it didn't look as hard as it had before.  I mean, a free test that only takes a few hours after you've just finished the bar exam almost sounds like fun.  The next available Foreign Service Officer Test date was July 2013, so I signed up. 

I didn't prepare too much since I was pretty busy getting used to the new career, but I did take a look at what the test covered.  On the assigned date, I took the 3-4 hour test and quickly put it out of my head.  About six weeks later in September, I received an email confirming I had passed with an invitation to write six short essays answering questions about myself.  I submitted my responses in early October 2013 and in November got the news that I had not been invited to D.C. for an oral interview.  I was a bit disappointed, but was starting to get in a groove at work, so it didn't sting too much.

Applicants can only take the Foreign Service Officer Test once a year, so the soonest I could take it again was July 2014.  But that next July, things were really picking up at work.  My supervising partner had put me in an excellent place to succeed with increased responsibility and visibility, so I was content. 

However, in August I talked myself into signing up for the October test date just because, hey, free test!  This time I was even less focused.  I quickly found out the week I had scheduled to take the test conflicted with my brother's marriage, but I took it anyway.  A few weeks later, I found out that I passed a second time and again received a request to submit my six short essay responses by November 20, 2014.  The date sticks out because my second little girl was born the same day.  I almost chose not to submit the essays, but I quickly adapted my responses from the previous year and submitted them right before midnight, November 19th, minutes before we headed to the hospital.  I fully expected the same result as the previous year, but those thoughts were fleeting as we quickly became engrossed in the coming birth of my second, beautiful girl, Little C.  The next few months would be all about that little one and her older sister.  Thoughts of the Foreign Service quickly faded into the background.

Then came January along with an email that I did not expect with an invitation to D.C. for the ominous Oral Assessment.  I was beside myself.  Going through the process, I had learned how few applicants even get the invite much less pass it. I quickly scheduled my assessment for March 6th.

The Oral Assessment is a day long, three part test.  One part has the candidates work in groups while evaluators observe, another part is a 2 on 1 interview where Foreign Service Officers pose various questions and hypothetical scenarios to the candidate.  Finally, a third part is the written portion where candidates are asked to digest a large binder of information to formulate recommendations based on those materials.  Each part receives its own score that is then averaged for the cumulative score.  The score I received in the oral assessment was good enough to give me a passing cumulative score and, more important, a chance at getting hired.

The strange thing about the process is that a candidate can pass all those cuts, get on the hiring register after receiving necessary medical and security clearances, but never get picked up!  Candidates have to get a score that will get them selected before they time off the register in 18 months.  I would have likely timed off with just the score I received at my oral assessment, but a little skill I picked up in Honduras stepped in and saved the day. 

I was able to complete an over-the-phone language proficiency test that awarded me additional points for Spanish!  But for that extra language point bump, I wouldn't be writing this extremely long post today.  I received those points pretty quickly in April. At around the same time I was also medically cleared for service.  The only thing remaining to get on the hiring register was my security clearance, which took forever.  That step wasn't completed until November. 

With everything completed, I was placed on the hiring register to wait on the next round of invites for the January class.  I honestly didn't expect to even field an invite for January.  So when the first round of invites went out right before Thanksgiving, I wasn't that surprised when I didn't get an email or phone call.  But it did eat me up with curiosity.  I kept visiting the Yahoo group and reviewing the numbers, and while I didn't get an invite in the first round, it looked like there might be a chance I could get a second round offer if not everyone accepted.

About two weeks later, I got the email.  I was sitting in church and happened to check my email.  There it was "A-100 offer: consular."  I was invited to the January training class!  My heart was beating so fast and I could barely contain myself, but I had to.  I was in the middle of church after all!  The language points are what made all the difference in getting that call.  If I hadn't had those, I would have been buried in the middle of the list somewhere.  Thank you mission in Honduras!

So here I am contemplating what this new life will be like for my family and what the future holds for us.  It's a mix of emotion, but it's mostly excitement.  I look forward to the change of pace and the new challenges that await us.  Since this feels like such an adventure, I'm going to work to preserve it in some kind of written form.  Journals have always been hard, but I think this blogging thing could work out.  I may even get C to participate!