I gave a full outline of my three candidacy attempts in the post, My First Inkling to Become a Diplomat, so I’ll use this page to document my successful candidacy timeline, and upcoming milestones as I move through my Foreign Service Career. (I abandoned my first candidacy at the QEP stage to focus on a new job, and I abandoned my third candidacy at the FSOA stage after getting an A-100 offer on my second candidacy.)
Second Candidacy for the win!
June 2011 – Registered for FSOT
October 2011 – Took FSOT
October 2011 – Notified I passed FSOT
November 2011 – QEP Personal Narratives submitted
January 2012 – Notified I passed QEP
January 2012 – Invited to schedule FSOA
May 2012 – Passed FSOA with 5.5/7.0 score
January 2013 – Added to Consular Register
May 2014 – Invited to join the 178th A-100 Generalist Class
June 2014 – 178th A-100 Orientation Start Date
August 2014 – Flag Day (Tashkent, Uzbekistan!!!)
August 2014 – Swearing-In Day
August 2014 – Started Pre-departure Training
March 2015 – Graduated from Russian Department
May 2015 – Graduated from Consular Affairs
May 2015 – Arrived for first tour at U.S. Embassy Tashkent
July 2015 – President Obama confirmed my diplomatic nomination by the U.S. Senate
August 2015 – Celebrated 10 Years of Federal Service
June 2016 – Received second tour assignment (Canberra, Australia!!!)
July 2017 – Arrived for second tour at U.S. Embassy Canberra
November 2018 – Received third tour assignment (Ciudad Juárez, México!!!)
December 2018 – Received tenure
September 2019 – Started Pre-departure training
February 2020 – Graduated from Spanish Department
August 2020 – Arrived for third tour at U.S. Consulate General Ciudad Juárez
November 2021 – Received fourth tour assignment (Washington, DC!!!)
March 2022 – Arrived for fourth tour at the Office of Children’s Issues
May 2022 – Marked 10 years since passing the Oral Assessment
September 2022 – Received promotion
July 2023 – Received fifth tour assignment (Rangoon, Burma/Yangon, Myanmar!!!)
June 2024 – The 178th A-100 class marks 10 years in the Foreign Service
July 2024 – Departed the Office of Children’s Issues
July 2024 – Started Pre-departure training
July 2025 – Graduated from the Burmese Department
August 2025 – Celebrated 20 Years of Federal Service
August 2025 – Arrived for fifth tour at U.S. Embassy Rangoon (Yangon)
Collecting Postcards 
So basically it can take two years from the time you get your conditional offer to actually getting the final offer? Wow!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolutely, and sometimes even longer. Part of the reason is because it took several months after my May 2012 FSOA to receive both security and medical clearances before I even got added to the register. Another issue was that no one had been hired off the consular register with a 5.5 score for over a year. I was only a couple months from expiring off the 18-month register when I finally got “the call.” I’d already started another candidacy on which I’d been invited back to the FSOA but of course, I didn’t have to do it.
By contrast, a couple of colleagues I studied for the FSOA with in 2012 had totally different stories. One was hired in 2012 because her clearances came quickly and the consular register wasn’t as full; the other person didn’t pass the FSOA, was super bummed, retested a year later, got on his register (I can’t remember which cone), and still got hired before me! Both of them are still in the FS too.
Bottom line: the hiring timeline is very individual and impacted by many factors.
LikeLike
thanks for the timeline
LikeLiked by 1 person