Fifth Tour Bidding: Postscript, Paneling and Beyond

In my growing file of Foreign Service-related “All’s well that ends well” scenarios, I had no sooner hit the publish button on my previous post about waiting to be paneled into the job for which I received my SIP handshake in July before the Department notified me my paneling had been completed.

And thus my fifth tour bidding experience came to a close – all before the regular bid season even starts in September.

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I was surprised to learn my Career Development Officer (CDO) had already brought me to panel so quickly after registering my handshake, and that my assignment to Rangoon was locked in.

It wasn’t that I expected visibility on the paneling process. I suppose I just thought it would take longer, like at least a few weeks. I’m not sure why I had that impression. Once my MED clearance came through and the handshake was registered, I would have been on deck for the next panel, and I assume during bid season they meet more often. Maybe it’s because I never paid much attention to the timing of paneling for my second, third, and fourth tours, after my first tour paneling slipped through the cracks after A-100 and took months. So long, in fact, I was delayed in getting my orders to Tashkent. I never noticed my TMONE (assignments cable) hadn’t arrived, because I was a brand-new FSO and I didn’t know squat. Plus I was busy trying to learn Russian.

This time, receiving the TMONE cable informing me of my paneling and the accompanying flurry of congratulatory emails from Post and elsewhere was a huge relief. Maybe I somehow felt the energy on the way as I sat down to write my previous blog post.

Within one day of getting my TMONE, my Assignments Officer (AO) also enrolled me in Burmese language training. Language class will last 10 months, between September 2024 and our departure for Rangoon in July 2025.

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It feels incredibly good to know what’s happening two years out. Although, that doesn’t mean there is nothing for me to do.

Since my current position ends in May 2024, and I have a gap of June, July, and August before Burmese starts, I spent some time organizing my future training schedule for my AO to fill in those weeks. I will probably take one month off, since I will have plenty of annual leave, which leaves two solid months to fit in my security and consular training.

The dates for consular tradecraft courses at the Foreign Service Institute are not known that far into the future, let alone available to sign up for. But once they do start to open up, I will be fitting them into my schedule before I make any other plans, lest I miss a chance; Burmese will go right up to our PCS departure month. So training on the front end will be ideal to avoid last-minute stress and conflicts with packing out and my End of Training language exam (EOT) in 2025.

Onward.