Day 793: National Update Your Resume Month

ARG!  September would HAVE to be ‘National Update Your Resume Month’, huh?  Right, smack-dab in the middle of bidding for State Department jobs!  Updating my resume is all I’ve done for like… What?  A month!


Now, I’ve complained about bidding before… but now?  Now I have some serious things to complain about.  And I hate to come across as a complainer.  But… this bidding madness is crazy-town.


Okay, since we last talked about bidding my list has completely changed.  I dropped Montevideo down from my #1 position and started bidding hard on Paramaribo, Suriname.  I know what you’re thinking, “Where.”… or “Why?”  What can I say?  I’ve served in Belgrade, London, and Islamabad.  I prefer hardship posts… and the kids are young and we don’t have to worry about schools right now, so it’s time to cash in on a Service Needs post.  Service Needs designated posts are ones that are hard to fill… usually because they aren’t glamorous… and there in the middle of nowhere.  Well, at least Paramaribo has a first run movie theater (which is more than I can say about Georgetown, Guyana).


So, believe it or not… there were six people biding on the position in Paramaribo… and would you believe I was their #1 candidate?  Well, believe it!  I was bidding hard and working it.  Now, since I am coming out of Pakistan, I am eligible for an early ‘handshake’ (job offer)… jobs can’t actually be offered until bidding seasons ends in mid-October, BUT for folks like me, posts can offer their jobs early.  Early handshakes are rare… but I was greasing the wheels… getting myself into position… and then. YANK!  Washington’s pulled it off my mid-level/mid-career bid list one month into my lobbing.  


GONE!?!  Paramaribo?  Gone?  What the?!?!


So, I did a little digging.  I had to know why it was taken off the list.  Did post remove it?  Had they found someone they liked more than me?  No.  Did the Bureau remove it?  No.  So, what happened?  


Well, as it turned out there was a larger number of new hires this summer than previously anticipated… and Washington hadn’t earmarked enough positions for them.  So, in the middle of bidding they took a handful off my list and gave them to the new hires as directed assignments.  “Oh no you didn’t!”  Oh yes they did!


Before I continue, you should know a little something about volunteering to serve in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.    They try to sell you on this idea that you’ll have priority bidding for your next post.  That you’ll pretty much get first dibs or at least an upfront shot at what you want.  Some folks are able to get what they call a ‘linked’ assignment, which means when you volunteer to go to one of the bid three, at the same time you bid on where you want to go afterwards.  Essentially, you get to bid on posts a year early… so the only bidding competition you have are the other folks going to one of the big three posts.


For whatever reason, I was not eligible for a linked assignment.  AND, I received no support or assistance with the bidding processes.  So, be able to cash in my Pakistan chip became quite difficult.  I was pretty much told by the same people who promised me the world, ‘you have to bid just like everyone else and when you get a handshake let us know.’


Seriously.  No help.  And when I found out they removed my #1 choice from my list.  Needless to say.  I was less than pleased.