Not Your Father's Foreign Service

From the State Department's website on the Foreign Service Officer selection:

"For over 50 years, we have relied on a single source to begin the process of measuring one's ability to meet the challenges and responsibilities as a Foreign Service Officer – the Foreign Service Written Exam. With the world changing at such a rapid pace, the Department needed to evaluate, and change, its hiring practices as well.

Although "testing" is a best practice for identifying candidates most likely to succeed, a well-respected private sector consulting firm was hired to review and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of our current selection process to help increase the speed with which we hire, without decreasing the caliber of persons we attract.

As a result of this study, the Department is considering several options to be part of a new Foreign Service Officer selection process..."

The FSWE is a competitive exam which would preclude pre-selection of any specific group, but would assure a level of competency from all prospective candidates.

Why would they want to bypass this gold standard for determining fitness in the initial cut? How has our foreign policy changed, as stated in the banner? I wonder with whom the private service consulting firm is in league. This is the face of America to the world, after all.

--by Lisa