Foreign Service Hiring Gets A Re-Exam
TM asks: could I still get in?
Shorter Test, Resume Could Speed Process
By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post
For generations, the United States has selected its diplomats through a two-stage test seen as a model of merit-based rigor. Pass hundreds of questions in a dozen subject areas and a day-long oral grilling by Foreign Service officers, and join the ranks. Fail, and find a different line of work.
No more. In a proposed overhaul of its hiring process slated for next year and to be announced to employees in coming days, the State Department would weigh resumes, references and intangibles such as "team-building skills" in choosing who represents the United States abroad, according to three people involved in the process. The written test would survive, but in a shortened form that would not be treated as the key first hurdle it has been for more than 70 years.
State Department Director General George M. Staples said the goal of the new "Total Candidate" approach -- which has the support of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- is to "improve our ability to find the best . . . compete more effectively with the private sector to attract the best, and . . . make our process faster in hiring the best," according to a draft cable to employees.
But some career officers and foreign policy types worry that the new hiring process could dumb down or politicize the Foreign Service, whose reputation for selectivity helps make it one of government's most desirable career paths.
"As long as these changes are done fairly, we have no problem," said Steve Kashkett, State Department vice president for the American Foreign Service Association, the department's labor union and professional association. "We would vigorously oppose any aspect of changes to the Foreign Service entry process that would allow for any politicization of the selection."
The revamp is slated for next year, if the department secures the money needed to pursue it. The decision comes as official Washington grapples with its biggest hiring challenge in decades: finding fresh faces to replace a tsunami of retiring baby boomers. Over the next decade, 60 percent of federal workers will reach retirement age, according to the Washington-based Partnership for Public Service. Yet most people between the ages of 18 and 29 think the private sector offers more creativity and attracts the best minds, according to a new Gallup survey.
"The truth is, there is a war for talent," said one of those people planning the overhaul. Yet the State Department suffers less in that talent war than do many other government agencies. State consistently is rated by civil servants as one of the best places to work in the federal government, according to the Partnership for Public Service. In a survey this year by Business Week magazine, college undergraduates and career recruiters placed the State Department among the nation's top 10 employers for new graduates. The nine others on the list were private-sector companies, including Walt Disney, General Electric and Goldman Sachs.
(The rest is here.)
Shorter Test, Resume Could Speed Process
By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post
For generations, the United States has selected its diplomats through a two-stage test seen as a model of merit-based rigor. Pass hundreds of questions in a dozen subject areas and a day-long oral grilling by Foreign Service officers, and join the ranks. Fail, and find a different line of work.
No more. In a proposed overhaul of its hiring process slated for next year and to be announced to employees in coming days, the State Department would weigh resumes, references and intangibles such as "team-building skills" in choosing who represents the United States abroad, according to three people involved in the process. The written test would survive, but in a shortened form that would not be treated as the key first hurdle it has been for more than 70 years.
State Department Director General George M. Staples said the goal of the new "Total Candidate" approach -- which has the support of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- is to "improve our ability to find the best . . . compete more effectively with the private sector to attract the best, and . . . make our process faster in hiring the best," according to a draft cable to employees.
But some career officers and foreign policy types worry that the new hiring process could dumb down or politicize the Foreign Service, whose reputation for selectivity helps make it one of government's most desirable career paths.
"As long as these changes are done fairly, we have no problem," said Steve Kashkett, State Department vice president for the American Foreign Service Association, the department's labor union and professional association. "We would vigorously oppose any aspect of changes to the Foreign Service entry process that would allow for any politicization of the selection."
The revamp is slated for next year, if the department secures the money needed to pursue it. The decision comes as official Washington grapples with its biggest hiring challenge in decades: finding fresh faces to replace a tsunami of retiring baby boomers. Over the next decade, 60 percent of federal workers will reach retirement age, according to the Washington-based Partnership for Public Service. Yet most people between the ages of 18 and 29 think the private sector offers more creativity and attracts the best minds, according to a new Gallup survey.
"The truth is, there is a war for talent," said one of those people planning the overhaul. Yet the State Department suffers less in that talent war than do many other government agencies. State consistently is rated by civil servants as one of the best places to work in the federal government, according to the Partnership for Public Service. In a survey this year by Business Week magazine, college undergraduates and career recruiters placed the State Department among the nation's top 10 employers for new graduates. The nine others on the list were private-sector companies, including Walt Disney, General Electric and Goldman Sachs.
(The rest is here.)
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