Hoping for the best but expecting the worst - Alphaville

Just got rejected by the QEP for my 2011 candidacy.

Didn't bother to take the test in 2010, because I'd passed in 2009 and everyone was getting called off the list.

My 2009 candidacy is set to expire in August.  Currently #39 of 139.

(Alphaville video)

I brought my pencil, gimme something to write on - Van Halen

I took the FSOT over again in early February.  It was my third time taking the test.  I had a different approach to it this time.  I barely studied at all.  I looked over a few pages of notes I'd kept from my previous attempts while I was in the parking lot in the minutes before the exam.  The experience of having passed twice before, in combination with my current disillusioned state with regards to my likely expiration from the register, gave me a bit of a ho-hum attitude.  I am still committed to the job, but at a certain point, the need to preserve my self-respect forces me to adjust my thoughts.

The results came a few weeks later.  I passed.

I've since turned in the personal narrative essays.  The questions are basically the same as the other two times I passed, so I used the same essays.  There was a new essay, but I was able to take a paragraph from my Statement of Interest from the OA and plug it in with a few modifications.  This stage appears to be getting more selective.  I know two people on the register who wanted to take the OA again to improve their scores, but they didn't make it through the narrative stage this time around.  It's concerning, but thankfully, there's nothing I can do now.  The essays are gone.

As much as I want this job, a small part of me would welcome the rejection.  I'm pretty sick of living in State Department limbo.

The May A-100 class was cancelled.  Congress is still bickering over the budget they were supposed to pass last September, and as a result, State is afraid/unable to hire.  The latest continuing resolution expires on the 8th, but because of a three day waiting period on proposed legislation, the real deadline is tonight.  There's no indication that an agreement is coming.

Without a class to pull people ahead of me off the list, I've fallen down the register to somewhere in the low 40s.

Van Halen video.

What kind of dining set defines me as a person? - Narrator/Durden

About two months ago, I submitted my essays to the Qualifications Evaluation Panel (QEP). The QEP asks for five narrative essays, illustrating skills like communication, leadership, and management. Each essay is only 200 words or so, which at first sounds easy, but it turns out to be very hard to sum up an important experience, and what was learned from it, in so few words. I fussed over each answer.

They sent me an email two days ago to tell me I'd passed. I am invited to schedule an oral assessment in D.C.

Part of me expected to pass, but it was still a relief to see the words.

Time to prepare for the orals again. I've already met with a group of fellow candidates a few times, and it was excellent preparation for the group exercise. Those people were from the Nov. test cycle, so I'll need to find some new study partners. So far, there is one other Feb. test cycle person interested.

Next up is the sign up day for orals, June 22nd. I'll have to log on and choose a day between July 2oth - Oct 30th.