This Time of Year
Global: An Extraordinary Guide for Ordinary Heroes
Farewell Friends
The end of summer is always an interesting time in the Foreign Service, which is the what the US government calls its diplomatic corps. Summer is the peak transition time, so it’s when people move to their new countries. This transition can be sad when you have a great group of friends in the country where you’re living. Like here in Armenia, we arrived three years ago at the same time as some other really great families and we became close friends. Our children would have sleepovers, we would have weekly wine nights, we’d go on trips together – it was a nice community to have. But their tours were three years and ours is four years, so we’re still here in Armenia when they’ve moved on to new countries. (Different government agencies have different lengths of tour.) New people arrive, but it can be hard to jump in fully to a new friendship with just a year left. One perk of the Foreign Service is that you end up with friends all over the world!
Where in the World?
And though it’s sad to say goodbye to good friends, it’s exciting to see where people go! That’s one reason why I love this time of year – every day in my Facebook newsfeed I get to see my friends and acquaintances arriving to new countries – starting new jobs, moving into new homes, exploring new countries. Jordan, Luxembourg, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Micronesia, Nepal, Colombia, Egypt, South Africa, and on and on.
A Firm Grasp
Even though I’ve been in the field of international relations for 20 years, I still don’t have a deep understanding of every country in the world. And that’s one thing that I love about living a global life: living in different countries gives you such a more intimate understanding of that country and region. Honestly, before moving to Armenia, I never really had a super firm grasp of the Caucasus. Sometimes I would get the Caucasus and the Balkans switched in my mind. Before living in Guatemala, I would get the countries in Central America and South America switched up. And before living in Tajikistan, to be completely honest, I don’t know if I’d ever even heard of Tajikistan! And I definitely didn’t understand the vast complexities of Central Asia.
Global Bidding
This time of year is even more pronounced for me this year because I’m bidding, which means that next year around this time, me and my family will be arriving at our new home and exploring our new country! The USAID Foreign Service and State Department Foreign Service do their bidding differently, but both Foreign Services are bidding right now. (the departments of Agriculture and Commerce both have small Foreign Services too and I assume they’re bidding now as well.) But I only know how my Foreign Service – the USAID Foreign Service – does bidding.
We get a long list of every position that will be available come next year and we scan through it to see what jobs are relevant to our area of expertise – for example I came into the service as a Crisis, Stabilization, and Governance Officer, but I’ve been managing multi-sectoral teams my last few tours, so I could do either of these type of jobs. After you narrow down the list to your area of expertise, then you look at which countries you would want to live and work in and which positions are around your seniority level (like someone who is entering their second tour wouldn’t bid on a super senior position).
After you have your list of positions that check all of those boxes, then you have about two weeks to reach out to the USAID Missions in these countries with your resume and ask to set up an interview. Hopefully they decide to interview you and check your references. It’s interesting that, with the Foreign Service, you have a job for life, but in actuality because we move countries, you basically have to apply for a new job every few years!
Foreign Service Officers sign up to be worldwide available, which means we can be sent anywhere, but we also get to prioritize where we’d like to be sent. So, once you’ve talked with the Missions where you’re interested in serving, then you submit a bid list with your top picks – you always have to include a few hard to fill positions (like war zones or very unstable and dangerous countries), but if you don’t want to go to those countries, then you put them at the bottom of your list and hope that you don’t get assigned to them.
Right now it’s currently the priority bidding time, which means that only officers coming out of countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Pakistan get to bid. So these officers get to bid first because they were serving in dangerous countries. Once these officers get assigned to their countries, then a new list with all of the remaining countries comes out in October and all of the other eligible bidders (like me!) get to bid. Of course, usually the “sexy” countries like Thailand or Barbados get taken in the priority round. My agency, USAID, only works in developing countries, but the State Department works in all countries that have a diplomatic relationship with the US, which are most countries in the world. So when State Department Foreign Service Officers are bidding, they have a much bigger pool of countries to choose from.
Even though I don’t get to officially bid until October, I’ve still started reaching out to countries on the bid list, just to express my interest in case the position is still on the list after the priority round. The idea of leaving Armenia makes me sad – we’ve so enjoyed living here! But it’s also exciting to think that we could be anywhere in the world come this time next year! We’ll find out hopefully in December which country I’m assigned to.
Freedom to Explore the World
When I was younger I would sometimes worry about the idea of being an adult – the idea of feeling trapped by adulthood – having to go to a job every day, pay bills, etc. Adulthood seemed monotonous and confining. And that’s one thing that I love about the lifestyle my husband and I have chosen to raise our children in – it is anything but monotonous and confining! It has it’s own challenges – being so far away from loved ones, constant change, learning new cultures and languages, etc. – but, ultimately, the pros outweigh the cons and it sure is exciting!
Interested in a global career? Check out my blog post about how to get started in an international career. Or if you want to be a global citizen without dedicating your career to it, then head to my post about how to become a global citizen now.
Let me know if you have any questions about the Foreign Service or if you have your own global story to share!
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