1. Submit Your Application
2. Initial Review
3. Qualifications Evaluation Panel
4. Oral Assessment
5. List of Eligible Hires
6. Medical Clearance
7. Background Investigation
8. Worldwide Availability
9. Candidates with Disabilities
10. Final Review
11. Placement on a Register
1. Submit Your Application
To apply, you must first complete the Application for Federal Employment (DS-1950).
In addition, depending upon which
of the nineteen different specialist job categories you are applying for,
you must refer to the specific vacancy announcement and complete all additional
required procedures. To be eligible, you must
be a U.S. citizen between the ages of 21 and 59 (hired before 60th birthday),
or between 21 and 37 for Diplomatic Security, and be available for worldwide
assignment.
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2. Initial Review
A completed application package contains all of the material
listed in the specific Vacancy Announcement. Materials submitted for inclusion
in the package are reviewed as they are received and become the property
of the Department of State. An application can be terminated whenever
any materials do not meet the basic eligibility requirements for employment
in the Foreign Service.
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3. Qualifications Evaluation Panel
Applicants who are successful in the initial review stage
by meeting the basic eligibility requirements for employment in the Foreign
Service and the minimum qualifications established for the specific position
will have their professional experience, job history, and motivation evaluated
by a panel of subject-matter experts — the Qualifications Evaluation
Panel. The panel will recommend the most competitive candidates for participation
in an oral assessment.
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4. Oral Assessment
Applicants recommended by the Qualifications Evaluation Panel are invited to participate in an oral assessment conducted by the Foreign Service Assessment Center in Washington, D.C. Travel to Washington, D.C. and lodging are at the candidate's expense. The letter or email message that advised candidates that they had passed the Qualifications Evaluation Panel also advised candidates what documents they need to bring to the Assessment Center. This list of documents can be downloaded at http://www.careers.state.gov/general/resources/forms.html. In addition to the listed documents, candidates are also asked to bring the Social Security numbers of family members who might be traveling with them overseas. This will help the medical clearance process. Provisions for candidates with disabilities will be made available at each Assessment Center but must be arranged with the U.S. Department of State's Board of Examiners in advance.
The Foreign Service specialist oral assessment consists of a written exercise and a structured job interview. (Office Management Specialist candidates will also have a proofreading exercise and a computer-skills exercise.) Candidates will be evaluated and scored on the twelve dimensions listed below. These are based on a job analysis of the work of the Foreign Service and the skills and personal qualities deemed essential to the performance of that work. The assessment measures the following dimensions:
- Written Communication: To write concise, well organized, grammatically correct, effective and persuasive English in a limited amount of time.
- Oral Communications: To speak fluently in a concise, grammatically correct, organized, precise and persuasive manner; to convey nuances of meaning accurately; and to use appropriate styles of communication to fit the audience and purpose.
- Information Integration and Analysis: To process and organize a broad variety of information and analyze relevant elements within limitations of time and resources.
- Planning and Organizing: To prioritize and order tasks effectively; to employ a systematic approach to achieving objectives; to make appropriate use of limited resources.
- Judgment: To discern what is appropriate, practical and realistic; to weigh relative merits of competing demands.
- Resourcefulness: To formulate creative alternatives or solutions to resolve problems; to show flexibility in response to unanticipated circumstances.
- Initiative and Leadership: To pursue courses of action on one's own; to be willing to act in the absence of direction; to influence, convince, direct or persuade others.
- Motivation: To indicate serious interest in the Foreign Service as a career.
- Working with Others: To interact in a constructive, cooperative and harmonious manner; to be tactful and courteous.
- Composure: To stay calm, poised and effective in stressful or difficult situations; to think on one's feet, adjusting quickly to changing situations; to maintain self-control.
- Cross-Cultural Experience: To demonstrate how knowledge, skills or other attributes gained from previous cross-cultural experience can be of relevance to the Foreign Service.
- Objectivity and Integrity: To be fair and honest; to avoid deceit, favoritism and discrimination; to present issues frankly and fully, without injecting subjective bias; to work without letting personal bias prejudice actions.
Candidates are evaluated solely against these criteria by examiners who have received training from professional consultants on how to conduct assessments in an objective manner in which the candidate's performance is observed and where the score correlates to an established performance standard. Before the assessment begins, all candidates are required to sign a non-disclosure statement that requires all candidates not to divulge the contents of the examination.
The Written Exercise
For the first part of the assessment, each candidate will have 45 minutes to write an essay on a choice of topics from a provided list. Candidates will have a computer available to use, but the essay may be written also in long-hand. The exercise covers the dimension of written communication defined above. Candidates are assessed only on how well they express their views, not on the views themselves.
The Structured Oral Interview
Following the written exercise, two examiners will conduct an interview lasting no more than an hour covering the remaining eleven dimensions. One examiner is a Foreign Service Officer and the other is a Foreign Service Specialist in the field of the candidate's chosen specialty. There are two parts to the structured interview. In the first part, candidates will be asked about their motivation for joining the Foreign Service and about their previous experiences that might be relevant to work as a Foreign Service Specialist. In the second part of the interview, the Foreign Service Specialist will ask technical questions in the candidate's chosen field and provide hypothetical workplace problems for resolution.
Exit Interview
At the conclusion of the interview, the examiners will consolidate their scores and inform each candidate whether or not he or she has reached the cut-off score. Successful candidates will be briefed on the next steps in the pre-employment process.
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5. List of Eligible Hires
Applicants who are successful in the oral assessment will
be placed on a List of Eligible Hires for a 24-month period in rank order
according to the score they received after the oral assessment. As Foreign
Service hiring needs are established, conditional offers of employment
will be made to a specified number of eligible candidates beginning at
the top of the rank-ordered list. Those candidates who accept a conditional
offer of employment will receive security and medical clearance authorization
forms to complete. The candidacy of those applicants who have not received
a conditional offer of employment within the 24-month period will be terminated.
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6. Medical Clearance
Worldwide availability is determined, in addition to the
candidate’s affirmed willingness to serve anywhere, by the medical
clearance process. Before appointment to the Foreign Service, a candidate’s
medical history and comprehensive physical examination must be thoroughly
evaluated to determine fitness to serve at any Department of State post
worldwide. Many of these posts are located in areas which are remote
and/or offer extremely limited medical support. Therefore, each candidate
must meet medical fitness standards that are of necessity more rigorous
than those of most other professions and that may exclude from employment
candidates who have medical conditions which they manage successfully
in their current environment.
Prior to any final offer of employment, the candidate must
undergo a thorough medical examination and be cleared for unlimited assignment
worldwide by the Department's Office of Medical Services. Candidates
who fail to receive an unlimited medical clearance will be ineligible
for appointment to the Foreign Service. All medical clearance determinations
are based on an individual assessment of the needs of each candidate
in light of his/her particular medical history and condition.
All potential candidates, especially those with known medical
conditions, should be aware of the possibility that they may not be granted
an unlimited medical clearance if the Office of Medical Services determines
that their condition requires monitoring or follow-up care that would
not be available at Foreign Service posts, that service in a particular
area would pose a significant medical risk, and/or that adequate medical
care would not be available for them at all posts should life-threatening
symptoms manifest or should the known medical condition require specialist
or health care provider intervention. Some characteristics of the most
isolated and limited posts include:
- Medically under served in terms of inadequate medical resources – both
medical and/or nursing staff and/or physical resources
- Unsanitary due to no public health infrastructure resulting in no potable
water or sewage system
- Ridden with infectious and communicable diseases
- Isolated with no reliable electricity or lines of communication (e.g. transportation links, telecommunication services, postal and delivery systems, etc.)
- Dangerous and insecure
- Stressful
- Polluted environmentally via dust, dirt, and other air contaminants
After receiving a conditional offer of employment, each
candidate is provided with instructions for the examining physician(s),
which outline the Department of State’s precise requirements. We
also provide an authorization for the Department of State to pay for
the exam. However, candidates living within a fifty-mile radius of Washington,
D.C. must have the medical exam performed by the Office of Medical Services’ Exam
Clinic.
While the candidate must be medically cleared for worldwide
duty, the Department of State does not consider the medical condition
of eligible family members for pre-employment purposes. However, the
Department does require medical clearances for family members before
they can travel overseas at U.S. Government expense to accompany an employee
on assignment. The consequence of this policy is that employees with
family members with limited medical clearances may be assigned to posts
where those family members could not accompany them. We strongly advise
candidates to consider this situation as they pursue employment with
the U.S. Department of State, especially those with a family member whose medical
condition might ultimately limit his/her clearance.
When requested by the candidate, the Director General of
the Foreign Service, or designee, will review the case of any candidate
who has been determined not to be worldwide available. This review will
determine whether or not it is in the best interests of the Service to
appoint the candidate despite not being worldwide available. Waivers
of the worldwide availability requirement are rare, however.
For more information on medical clearances please visit
the Frequently Asked Questions page.
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7. Background Investigation
Eligible candidates will be asked to submit forms required
for a security clearance and suitability determination for appointment
to the Foreign Service. The clearance process considers such factors as:
registration for the Selective Service; failure to repay a U.S. Government-guaranteed
student loan; past problems with credit or bankruptcy; failure to meet
tax obligations; unsatisfactory employment records; violations of the
law; drug or alcohol abuse; a criminal record; extensive travel; education;
residence and/or employment overseas; dual citizenship;
foreign contacts; immediate family or relatives who are not U.S. citizens
and/or a foreign born spouse; or less than honorable discharge from the
armed forces. Investigations, which usually take several months, include
current and previous contacts, supervisors, and coworkers. These investigations
are conducted by the Department of State in cooperation with other federal,
state and local agencies.
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8. Worldwide Availability
Worldwide availability is both an affirmed willingness to serve anywhere in the world and a matter of being medically qualified to do so. Both the willingness and being medically qualified are essential requirements for appointment to the Foreign Service. Worldwide availability also means that, while members of the Foreign Service are expected to serve anywhere in the world, due to political instability and/or security concerns, in some cases family members cannot go to post (unaccompanied tours) or must leave post as security deteriorates (evacuations).
Regardless of who administers the medical clearance exam, the Department's Office of Medical Services determines whether or not a candidate is medically eligible for assignment to all Department of State posts worldwide. While a candidate may effectively manage a chronic health condition or limitation within the United States or in specific areas outside of the U.S., the Office of Medical Services might well determine that the same individual is not eligible for a worldwide ("Class One") medical clearance. Such clearances may only be issued to candidates whom the Office of Medical Services deems able to serve at the most isolated and restricted overseas posts.
Such a post could feature extreme isolation in terms of
limitations on reliable air service in and out of the country, unreliable
Internet and telecommunication connections, and/or unreliable postal
and delivery systems. Any of these limited services can have a severe
adverse impact in terms of both bringing in required medical services
and/or supplies, and/or permitting timely medical evacuations. Other
infrastructure at such a post might also be inadequate. There might be
a poor or negligible public health system, poor sanitation, unreliable
electricity and a lack of potable water. There might also be infectious
and communicable diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever, typhoid, tuberculosis,
rabies, encephalitis and gastrointestinal diseases. There might be no
health unit at post and next to no local medical facilities. The emergency
room, for example, might be completely inadequate, without ventilators,
defibrillators, x-ray capabilities, etc. There often would be no blood
bank or medical supplies or medications available locally.
Candidates should be aware that these posts are not few
in number nor confined to a specific geographic region. Also, there are
numerous other posts — in Asia and Europe for example — where
conditions appear similar to that of the U.S. but which also feature
some of these prohibitive characteristics.
As a result of these characteristics of a post, the stress
level among employees might be very high. Given these concerns, the Department
of State would only assign employees with unrestricted medical clearances
to such posts (of which there are many), and is unable to hire new employees
without such clearances.
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9. Candidates with Disabilities
The Department of State provides reasonable accommodation
to Foreign Service candidates with disabilities throughout the pre-employment
process. For qualified candidates who will require accommodation upon
appointment, the Office of Employee Relations is responsible for determining
reasonable accommodations. In order to be considered qualified, a candidate
must meet all requirements for appointment to the Foreign Service. This
includes having received an unlimited medical clearance from the Office
of Medical Services or a waiver of the worldwide availability requirement
from the Employment Review Committee.
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10. Final Review
Upon completion of the background investigation, a Final
Review Panel will review the completed file to determine the candidate's
suitability for employment with the Foreign Service. Issues that can affect
a candidate's suitability may include a history of alcohol or drug abuse,
financial improprieties, or a police record.
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11. Placement on a Register
Candidates who have received a conditional offer of employment
and who have successfully completed the security, medical and suitability
stages but who, for reasons beyond their control, are unable to accept
a final offer of employment will be placed in rank-order by their relative
competitiveness on a register for an eighteen-month period. Final offers
of employment are made to the most competitive candidates from the top
of the register as openings become available. Candidates not appointed
within the eighteen-month period are removed from the register as their
eligibility expires.
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Equal Opportunity Employer.
