Personal Narratives

I know this is probably arrogant, but I wanted to write a few tidbits that I learned over the last two cycles of trying to do this. While I am 2/2 on getting to the OA I am still pretty certain that no one really has the inside scoop, even the great ones on the Yahoo board. There are too many people who speak with absolute authority on the process, and when you see people who are on the register either fail the written test or not make it past the PNQ you realize that no one really knows, and it can be a real crap shoot.

So with that as a backdrop this is my advice. Make sure that you understand the question being asked and answer the question. Really understand the dimensions being asked and make sure you address them in an engaging way that answers the question.

I have no way to back this up, but I also think the style of writing that leads to a passing score on the essay portion of the written test isn't necessarily the style of writing that leads to a good personal narrative. I know when I first sat down to write my narratives last year I tried to write a classic four or five paragraph essays and what I got was a lot of fluff, and couldn't adequately answer the question and show my personality in 1300 characters. Again I have to thank someone else for that bit of advice, but basically I shredded what I had written and essentially, for lack of a better word, just threw up on the page. You just don't have enough space to write the set-up or thesis paragraph that you find in a typical essay. Just get right down to the nitty gritty. That's what I have done both times. Remember it is a personal narrative and not an essay writing contest.

I think the other trap, especially if you are an older candidate like me, is to fall into the trap that the gravity of the experience or the personal resume will carry the day. I think that is wrong. I know that I looked for the "ah ha" sort of stories initially, but I don't think you need to have cured cancer or saved a comrade in combat to get the attention of the examiners. Remember that you are applying for a job as a generalist, and that technically you don't even need a college degree to become an FSO. So focus on the most engaging story that answers the question and shows the person who is wading through thousands of stories what makes you interesting.

I am a management cone candidate and where it made sense I tried to tailor the narratives to play upon my strengths as a management cone person, but I didn't try to force a square peg into a round hole. I think in both cycles two of my stories were more cone specific.

The other piece of great advice that I got was as you are writing think about how you would relate the story to a friend. I think this gets back to what works on the written test versus what gets you noticed during this part of the process. Again I have nothing to back this up, but some of the better, successful stories that I have read were more trivial in the grand scheme of life, but were written in a more familiar tone without being overly colloquial. The one common theme was the writer's personality came through loud and clear. I know as a former military guy we tended to write in an overlay formal and stiff way. Don't do that for sure.

Not that a ton of people read this stuff, but I hope that someone finds this useful. I know that I have gotten some great advice during this crazy process, and wanted to share what some really gracious people have share with me along the way.

Good luck!

Job Offer

Just had a conference call with the NGO that I did some pro bono work with in the Middle East, and they want me to join them full-time. The position would be to lead their entrepreneurial economic programs in the West Bank and Gaza as well as a little work in Egypt. I would be living in East Jerusalem and I could work out of my home in the US about a third of the time.

We are going to have a family pow wow later to discuss.

Bad Omen?????????????

I must be quick on the refresh button because for the second year in a row I have an early OA date. I am not certain, but I think I have the first available day this cycle. We have some good friends who live in the DC area so the whole family flew out last year and we made a mini vacation out of it. It was the first time for my kids so we hit a lot of the major sites, and the icing on the the cake was a Goo Goo Dolls concert the night after the OA. They are one of my favorite if not my favorite groups to see in concert.

If you have read any of my dribble you know that I came up just short with a 5.2. With the budget crisis and hiring uncertainty I didn't like my chances to make it back to the OA. So I made it, have my OA date, and the Goo Goo Dolls are back in DC the night after my OA date for the second year in a row. As much as I would LOVE to see them again I am thinking I will just hop on the last plane back to Denver on the 25th. So, sorry Johnny Rzenik, but this year rather than drowning my sorrows with Name, Iris, and Slide I'll just sit in my middle seat in the back of the bus with those little bottles of scotch celebrating(hopefully) with the person who keeps stealing both arm rests.

OA 7/25

From the chatter on the Yahoo site it looks like I managed to grab the very first test date this time around. I actually wanted to test later in the cycle this time, but since it looks like I will be getting an offer from an NGO I just wanted to get the earliest option available.

I waited until mid-March to send off my FOIA request to get the breakdown of last years OA so I am guessing that I will not see anything before my test date. I am going to probably review CM the most since that was the only section that I did not pass last time. Despite coming up short by just .05 last time I definitely did not crush the SI, or at least I don't think I did.

I thought that I did best on the GE, and learned a few things that I will keep in my back pocket depending on how the group dynamics play out. I found that video taping myself was by far the best way to prepare for the GE, and will probably do that a few times again. The other thing I did was set an alarm for five minutes so that I had a good sense of what five minutes feels like. The day I took the GE only two of us finished our presentations with time for questions. That really hurt the discussion phase since we had to spend the first five minutes going over things that should have happened during the presentation phase.

I definitely want to go through the OA again, but if I do get an offer from this NGO it will be just about impossible to say no,and not sure if I could hold them off for another six weeks.

Checking In From Jerusalem

I finished up my last full day of work in Jerusalem today. I get to play tourist tomorrow, and then it is off to Cairo. While I don't have a choice to make just yet, this has been a great week to see how a major NGO operates. It has been great to see a real multi-cultural workforce work together. There are Americans, Canadians, Serbs, Nepalese, and Palestinians in the office. One of the things you see right away is the race to secure fundings which is the lifeblood for the NGO world, and USAID is the major donor in the space. Gaza is getting the most attention now, and these guys are doing a lot of thinking of how to maintain their position as the development landscape changes.

Unfortunately there will always be tragedies in the world, but they are the bread and butter of the humanitarian focused NGO's. The challenge now is how to participate in the economic development initiatives in the Arab world, especially as the line between NGO's and the private sector begins to blur. That's the main issue that I am out here working on, and am also developing a framework to help build the entrepreneurial ecosystem that for the most part doesn't exist in most Arab states. One of the interesting things in Palestine is that Gaza is ahead of the West Bank in terms of being technology innovators. The Israeli blockade has forced Gazans to go to great lengths to cobble together PC's, routers, and other internet infrastructure. A major tech company will be announcing a partnership to seed start-ups in Gaza, and I have also been evaluating the strategic plan as well as partnership opportunities with other tech companies.

The NGO world definitely rises and falls with its ability to secure mandates. The post 9/11 world has been a goldmine for NGO's with the tremendous upheavals in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now that the purse strings are tightening up, a lot of NGO's will have to move closer to embracing the for-profit model in order to fully participate in enterprise development projects.

Other than the funding rat race, the major difference between the State or USAID option is that in the NGO world you don't get that USA in a box experience that you might find in an embassy or mission setting. You have to figure out your own transportation and housing options, and there just isn't the support network that exists when you work for the government.

Into the Fire

I had been pursuing several different options while I waited for the the results from the QEP, and am heading off to the West Bank and to Cairo tomorrow to work on a project for a large NGO. This is a pro bono consulting job of sorts,and also an extended interview process for both of us.

This is a much different opportunity then working inside an embassy, and this NGO certainly works in a very rough and tumble atmosphere. They have been very active in Libya, and have humanitarian operations in Misrata. I don't think I will be doing anything nearly that exciting during this trip, but I suspect this trip to the West Bank will feel very different than when I was last there in February.

One of many questions is what happens next in the Middle East? One of the major priorities going forward with this NGO is to attack the massive youth unemployment issue in the region, and in particular make investments in the technology sector to stimulate entrepreneurism and job creation. It is the sort of challenge quite frankly that blows away what I might do as a junior management officer in the Foreign Service. I see it more as being a technocrat executing policy which you don't have any say in (just like when I was in the military) versus being truly entrepreneurial to achieve a strategic objective. Not that one is necessarily better or worse, but definitely different.

My plane leaves Monday morning right when the window opens up to schedule the Oral Assessment, so I will be frantically trying to schedule it from the airplane before we take off. Since this is just a trial run I definitely want and need to keep all of my options open. Based upon my interactions so far with many of the senior people in the organization, if given the choice I would probably not take the OA if they offer me a permanent position following this assignment.

QEP Results

Despite the high drama of the budget crisis and how that would impact the QEP process just downloaded my letter and saw the Congratulations! so I have made it to the OA for the second time. I guess I should be pretty pumped, but during the wait the train has started to leave the station on a really interesting opportunity.

It looks like I am heading over to the Middle East on sort of a trial run assignment for an NGO. One of their major focuses now is what to do next following the Arab Spring and how do you tackle the huge problem of under employment in the region. I had a great series of meetings with them last week and the plan is to fly over and look at several potential projects in the West Bank and Egypt. There are several very prominent US tech companies who are looking to make investments in the region, and I could be the point person running all of the youth employment programs in the Middle East and North Africa.

Good luck to everyone.