Where my past gets personal (narrative style)

The personal narratives were added a few years back to add yet another filter in the process to become an FSO. This section is hard in a different way because it requires those loquacious souls to be succinct, to the point, but express the knowledge, skills and abilities that would make you a qualified addition to the Foreign Service family in 1300 characters or less for each of the six mini-essays. It’s time to start getting creative with the thesaurus.

Before you start you should become familiar with the famous 13 Dimensions which explain the 13 essential components that build up a Foreign Service officer. They only test six of these in the PN but you’re going to be depending on these when you get to the orals so now is a good enough time as ever to drill them in your head.

Leadership Skills: innovation, decision making, teamwork, openness to dissent, community service and institution building

Interpersonal Skills: professional standards, persuasion and negotiation, workplace perceptiveness, adaptability, representational skills

Communication Skills: written communication, oral communication, active listening, public outreach, foreign language skill

Management Skills: operational effectiveness, performance management and evaluation, management resources, customer service

Intellectual Skills: information gathering and analysis, critical thinking, active learning, leadership and management training

Substantive Knowledge: Understanding of U.S. history/ government/culture and application in dealing with other cultures. Knowledge and application of career track relevant information.

 Now, you’ll want to type these out on word to make sure that you don’t miss anything and then copy & paste it into the box. Expect about a month to get these done. You will have to list references to verify the legitimacy of your past experiences so don’t get too creative about how you invented the cure for the common cold. Remember, it doesn’t have to be an employer so you can put a co-worker if you use a work example and you don’t want your job getting mad about you applying for other employment. My personal suggestion? Think broad and think back- anything can be applicable as an example if you consider it in the right light and circumstances. They want to know how you tick and if you have the perspective and take the kind of actions in these areas that will make you someone they can rely on as a colleague. Additionally, make sure you show through what happened, what you did, what you learned. Don’t just give a situation, explain the results of YOUR personal actions.

If you get lucky, two months later you may be receiving another shiny letter in your inbox congratulating you on your invitations to the oral assessment. Now it’s time to panic. (Just a little.)