Foreign Service Exam Revamp: But Are the Glory Days Irretrievably Lost?

Speaking of revised government tests, the foreign service exam and the general criteria for selection are getting an overhaul as a result of a look from McKinsey. The new process will allow for consideration of factors beyond test scores (to take references and international experience into consideration, for instance). The exam itself doesn’t sound like it’ll get changed much, but at least will be offered more often than in the past.

I took the test twice, passing the written (multiple choice) component both times, failing the oral exam once and passing it a second time. It was a fun test to take. The written part is like a giant trivia test, with some slanting to foreign policy but also a heavy component of American history and culture, even some legal stuff. The so-called oral assessment included a group decision-making exercise in which four or five of us had to decide how to divvy up an aid package among various proposals in some fictional foreign-country setting. There was also an in-box exercise in which you had an hour or so to work your way through a stack of accumulated paper. (I think I failed the first time for failure to say “thank you” enough in my hypothetical tasking.)

The changes to allow for a “Total Candidate” approach are probably to be welcomed. Test and nice website aside, though, I wonder if it’s like it used to be and whether it can ever be restored to the grand old days. The Foreign Service used to get top graduates out of the top schools. My sense is that that’s no longer the case. Those with families are much less likely these days to be interested in moving every two or three years. State is pretty bureaucratic these days, too, so that you may have to toil for too long in the trenches before you get to the good stuff, if ever. If one’s interested in an adventurous career in far away places, there are other ways to do it now, either for NGOs (more adventurous, sometimes more influential, and you don’t have to toe the line of Administrations whose agendas you don’t believe in) or for business (sometimes more influential, you don’t have to toe the line of Administrations whose agendas you don’t believe in, more money). I know of a couple of people who did a tour or two and then got out (including one of our co-bloggers here on OJ!). I wonder who’s left sticking it out.