Cataphract

A friend of mine just passed the orals this week. Exciting!

The FSOT is something I've looked into taking, but I'm waiting until after I've gotten out to Asia for another few years (have already spent 2+ years in another Asian country) and hopefully gotten close to fluency in Japanese. One thing I've been thinking about though is in terms of a post-JET career where I'm interested in foreign relations, do you think it makes more sense to leap right into the Foreign service, or to go to a top-flight grad school program for two years, get a degree in IR (maybe focusing on East Asia) and then take the FSOT? Thing about the FS is that those first two postings can be long ones and to get sent abroad for 6-7 years really sends you down a certain path with which you'd better be comfortable... just not sure, if I want to get into foreign policy in the US, if the FS is really the best route.

onyxori

Congrats to your friend!


In regards to your question- maybe you should ask that to the yahoo groups or to one of the JETs who joined the FS. I don't think taking the FSOT will damage you- if you pass you'll get the opportunity to really learn about IR first hand. If you fail- you get a good lesson on what to expect for the next test, and two years to improve youself while getting a degree. Why not try?

Former JET who became a FSO in Japan- http://kakiser.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_archive.html

UPGRAYEDD

I'm interested in the economic track but the whole system kind of reminds me of the JET program placement request. I speak Japanese, they'll probably send me to Ghana or Moscow if I am hired.

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cielya

For what it's worth, I took the FSOT as an undergrad and here I am now. I don't think they care about where you are in terms of your IR career. For instance, I was a soc and english major with a Japanese minor. I took two IR classes right in my last semester. I passed the OA along with a peace corps volunteer, a middle school teacher, and an intern at a global health org.

My view was that if the FSOT was something I wanted to do, then why wait? The absolute worst that can happen is you can fail and try again next time.

As for the last part, are you questioning FS vs private organizations? I think both can be great paths. I chose the FS to start now because it has a very clear process (ie. you past this, then this, then this, etc) whereas private orgs have a more traditional application process (which I also tried this summer and just kept being met with so many "Thank you for your interest but..." emails). But in terms of foreign policy, you really can't beat the service. I mean it IS the Dept. of State after all..

@UPGRAYEDD Ha, exactly. I swear, I think the process might be more random than JET, tbh. You're in a good position being interested in the econ track, though. It's one of the ones with less potential employees in the pool, so you might have better chances of being actually chosen after the clearances.

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shortlisted!

onyxori

Anyone get registration emails yet? I see they've gone out for some cones overseas...but I'm not sure if there's been anything in Japan.
...just wondering if I should get all panicky yet...

onyxori

Burning a vacation day on the 5th to sit in an office building all day in Osaka. Anyone else?