Medical clearance.
In order to qualify for the Foreign Service, I have to pass the medical clearance. I need to receive a rating of "Class 1 - Worldwide available". They want to make sure I'm healthy enough to send me anywhere in the world without chancing a medical emergency. Some embassies are remote and the nearest access to quality medical care may be hours or days away.
When I passed the oral assessment at the end of July, I was told that the medical exams needed to be completed within the next 30 days, which was Aug. 27th. I tried to schedule an appointment with doctor in Boston, and was told that the next appointment was in mid-September. I was a bit concerned about whether or not my local doctor could handle coordination of all the tests smoothly, so I wasn't too disappointed to have to call up the medical office in DC to have them do it.
I talked to a woman named Angela to schedule my appointment. I love her. Going from the unhelpful scheduler at my doctor's office to Angela was really a wonderful change of pace. She didn't imply that I was crazy to hope for an appointment in the next month. In fact, when I told her I'd be coming down from Boston, she immediately began to act as my travel agent. She offered to schedule the two needed appointments on a Friday and a Monday so I could have a nice long weekend to spend time in DC. I called on a Monday, and ended up scheduling for that Wednesday and Thursday.
G. and A. were willing hosts, even though I had just stayed with them two weeks earlier for my oral assessment. Thanks.
The Medical Office wanted me to fast beginning at 8pm the night before the first appointment. I couldn't remember if I was allowed to drink water, so I didn't. When I got to the office, I was very happy to hear that I could drink some water, and I downed little paper cup full after little paper cup full. Not having been hydrated made me a little worried when I was asked to give blood and urine samples. I thought my results may have been changed by dehydration.
The first appointment consisted of a questionnaire on my medical condition and taking my blood pressure, height, weight, blood samples, urine samples, giving a TB test shot, and a voluntary DNA sample. The DNA sample is supposed to go into a vault somewhere and only come out if they need help identifying body parts. Kind of a gruesome concept, but if it comes to that, speedy and definitive identification sounds like a good idea.
The nurses asked me if I would mind moving my second appointment up to that same day, which was fine with me. I went for something to eat, and then went back for my second appointment. Appointment number two was like a basic physical. I met with a very nice nurse practitioner. She went over my medical history and entered anything relevant on the computer. This was one of the great benefits of having gone to DC. She knew what was important information to the process and what wasn't, in a way that my doctor in Boston wouldn't have known. I think going over the lab work is supposed to be part of this appointment, but I had just given the samples a few hours earlier, so there was no lab work to review. We then did the standard physical exam.
With the exams over, I was given a list of three local walk-in clinics that offered chest x-rays. I went to one that was a few blocks away at George Washington University Hospital. This was the only point in the whole process where I had to wait, and I only waited for an hour or so. The procedure took a few minutes. I was done and off to walk around the DC Mall for the rest of the afternoon.
A few days later, I checked the TB test injection site and there was no reaction. If it had become swollen, I was supposed to measure the width of the affected area, but mine never reacted. I faxed a form back to the medical office and I was done with my medical exam.
Fifteen days later, on August 27th, I got an email from the Office of Medical Services saying I have been cleared for worldwide availability. My medical clearance is good for two years or until the end of my first tour, whichever is longer.
Nice to have another stage of the process checked off the list.
Next up, security clearance.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Plus I make great peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - OutKast
I passed the oral assessment (OA) last week, scoring a 5.3 . That is the minimum passing score, but if I can get past the medical and security clearances, I think my chances are pretty good of getting called off the register. Management is an in-demand track, and I can always spend some time upgrading my Spanish and get some bonus points to bring my score to 5.47.
What a huge relief. I know what it is to come up short at the assessment, and it's no fun leaving the OA knowing that you've got another year to get back to that point again. This year, I left the OA completely exhausted, but as the owner of a conditional offer.
The day started out as expected. Having been through it once before let me settle in and focus on what was important, rather than being distracted. Anyone who's been to Annex #44 to take the OA knows that it can be a shock to get the instructions from the office coordinator. Last year I was very distracted by her style, but this year I was able to just smile and be entertained by it.
The group exercise (GE) was the first event of the day. My presentation went pretty well but I ran overtime, and even though I'd covered most of what I wanted to, my understanding is that running over is a big no-no. The discussion phase was a challenge, as expected. There were several people who wanted to lead the discussion, including me, and there wasn't enough time to have that happen. It was ugly. In a non-testing situation, I would have acted totally differently, but the test was a performance, and I forced things to try to score some positive points with the assessors. In the end, I didn't feel like we did a good job of respecting each other and I felt like our consensus was formed out of time desperation. I wasn't surprised to learn that I'd failed this part of the day.
I had my structured interview (SI) next. I had practiced a lot for this, by coming up with several examples of experiences that showed off the skills they are assessing. From last year, I had a sense of some of the questions they would ask, and made sure I had good answers in case they asked the same questions. I had one uncomfortable moment when I volunteered to them that I'd made an error on my application, but I was glad that they then knew and could judge me based on the truth. Overall, it went smoothly, and I passed this section.
Last up was the case management (CM). I was feeling pretty good about my chances of passing when I sat down to take the CM, but it was really hard, and I had a few thoughts of bombing the exercise and not passing for the day. There was a lot of information. The recommendation is to spend 45 minutes reading, 30 minutes writing, and 15 minutes reviewing. After 55 minutes, I was still reading and had no idea what I was going to recommend. It was a horrible feeling. At around an hour in, I started writing from the notes I'd taken. I figured I wanted to get everything I'd noted as important into the memo, even if I couldn't make sense of it all, or come up with a good recommendation. As I started writing, things seemed less chaotic. The pressure started to lift, and I was able to rattle off my memo and recommendations with a few minutes to spare. I added and edited up until I was told to stop. It was pretty stressful, but in the end, I passed this section.
I had two hours until it was time to hear the verdict. I stayed in the seating area chatting with the other candidates. It was encouraging to see that there were other candidates that I would enjoy working and spending time with. Foreign Service work is by its nature difficult and distant, so it was nice to see that I'd be in those difficult and distant situations with some good people.
When the assessors are ready to give the results, they assemble everyone in one room, and then call people out individually to tell them in a private setting. I have read recaps of other's experiences of hearing the positive news, so when I was called out and shown to a room that already had another candidate waiting there, I was pretty certain that I was about to get good news. Seconds later, a third candidate was shown into the room and we were told that we'd passed the OA. Not only was it nice to hear, but it was nice to see that the assessors were genuinely happy for me too.
From that point on, things were really a blur. I chatted with the assessors to go over some procedural stuff, and met with a security agent to submit my security clearance form (sf86) and to get fingerprinted. It seemed that as soon as I'd been told I'd passed, I lost the ability to complete complex tasks. I had spent the day proving that I'm a capable person with the skills to handle the job, but filling out the simple information on the finger prints card now seemed like a major challenge. I had used up all my energy and focus for the day already. I was ready to get out of there, get out of my suit, get something to eat, and reset my batteries.
It was almost 6pm when I got out of the building and made some "I passed" calls. What a long day!
I met up with G and A to get some dinner. After I got out of my suit, we went to Comet Pizza. It's a ping pong / pizza place. Good meal with good friends to celebrate good news.
What a huge relief. I know what it is to come up short at the assessment, and it's no fun leaving the OA knowing that you've got another year to get back to that point again. This year, I left the OA completely exhausted, but as the owner of a conditional offer.
The day started out as expected. Having been through it once before let me settle in and focus on what was important, rather than being distracted. Anyone who's been to Annex #44 to take the OA knows that it can be a shock to get the instructions from the office coordinator. Last year I was very distracted by her style, but this year I was able to just smile and be entertained by it.
The group exercise (GE) was the first event of the day. My presentation went pretty well but I ran overtime, and even though I'd covered most of what I wanted to, my understanding is that running over is a big no-no. The discussion phase was a challenge, as expected. There were several people who wanted to lead the discussion, including me, and there wasn't enough time to have that happen. It was ugly. In a non-testing situation, I would have acted totally differently, but the test was a performance, and I forced things to try to score some positive points with the assessors. In the end, I didn't feel like we did a good job of respecting each other and I felt like our consensus was formed out of time desperation. I wasn't surprised to learn that I'd failed this part of the day.
I had my structured interview (SI) next. I had practiced a lot for this, by coming up with several examples of experiences that showed off the skills they are assessing. From last year, I had a sense of some of the questions they would ask, and made sure I had good answers in case they asked the same questions. I had one uncomfortable moment when I volunteered to them that I'd made an error on my application, but I was glad that they then knew and could judge me based on the truth. Overall, it went smoothly, and I passed this section.
Last up was the case management (CM). I was feeling pretty good about my chances of passing when I sat down to take the CM, but it was really hard, and I had a few thoughts of bombing the exercise and not passing for the day. There was a lot of information. The recommendation is to spend 45 minutes reading, 30 minutes writing, and 15 minutes reviewing. After 55 minutes, I was still reading and had no idea what I was going to recommend. It was a horrible feeling. At around an hour in, I started writing from the notes I'd taken. I figured I wanted to get everything I'd noted as important into the memo, even if I couldn't make sense of it all, or come up with a good recommendation. As I started writing, things seemed less chaotic. The pressure started to lift, and I was able to rattle off my memo and recommendations with a few minutes to spare. I added and edited up until I was told to stop. It was pretty stressful, but in the end, I passed this section.
I had two hours until it was time to hear the verdict. I stayed in the seating area chatting with the other candidates. It was encouraging to see that there were other candidates that I would enjoy working and spending time with. Foreign Service work is by its nature difficult and distant, so it was nice to see that I'd be in those difficult and distant situations with some good people.
When the assessors are ready to give the results, they assemble everyone in one room, and then call people out individually to tell them in a private setting. I have read recaps of other's experiences of hearing the positive news, so when I was called out and shown to a room that already had another candidate waiting there, I was pretty certain that I was about to get good news. Seconds later, a third candidate was shown into the room and we were told that we'd passed the OA. Not only was it nice to hear, but it was nice to see that the assessors were genuinely happy for me too.
From that point on, things were really a blur. I chatted with the assessors to go over some procedural stuff, and met with a security agent to submit my security clearance form (sf86) and to get fingerprinted. It seemed that as soon as I'd been told I'd passed, I lost the ability to complete complex tasks. I had spent the day proving that I'm a capable person with the skills to handle the job, but filling out the simple information on the finger prints card now seemed like a major challenge. I had used up all my energy and focus for the day already. I was ready to get out of there, get out of my suit, get something to eat, and reset my batteries.
It was almost 6pm when I got out of the building and made some "I passed" calls. What a long day!
I met up with G and A to get some dinner. After I got out of my suit, we went to Comet Pizza. It's a ping pong / pizza place. Good meal with good friends to celebrate good news.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Calling all bed wetters and ambulance chasers - Decemberists
Yesterday was the first day that people from the February test group could sign up for OA appointments. The appointments could be in DC or San Fran. I wanted DC in August, with August 17th as my first choice.
Sign ups began at 10am EST. At 9:55am, I was playing the refresh screen game, hoping to get in as soon as they allowed. I didn't get in until about 10:15. When I got into the system, all of the August dates were gone. According to some chatter on the Yahoo groups, it seems that there just weren't many dates in August to choose from to start. So I had to choose from July (wow, that seems soon), or September (wow, that seems distant). I went with July.
July 28th in Annex 44.
Annex 44 is the center I tested in last year. I know the center, how to get there, its rules, places to get lunch, etc. I wanted to keep things comfortable as much as I could, especially since DC in July is not the best time to walk around in a suit.
Sign ups began at 10am EST. At 9:55am, I was playing the refresh screen game, hoping to get in as soon as they allowed. I didn't get in until about 10:15. When I got into the system, all of the August dates were gone. According to some chatter on the Yahoo groups, it seems that there just weren't many dates in August to choose from to start. So I had to choose from July (wow, that seems soon), or September (wow, that seems distant). I went with July.
July 28th in Annex 44.
Annex 44 is the center I tested in last year. I know the center, how to get there, its rules, places to get lunch, etc. I wanted to keep things comfortable as much as I could, especially since DC in July is not the best time to walk around in a suit.
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