 Good morning, everyone, and welcome back for folks who were with us for the first session and welcome to people who were not. I'm Yolanda Kearney. I'm the diplomat and residence for the D.C. Metro Region. I'm a Foreign Service Officer, and like my 15 fellow diplomats and residents around the country, I'm here to provide you with information about ways to either intern for, secure a fellowship for, or work for the State Department. So today, my co-presenter and my co-diplomat and residence, Nathan Bland and I, are here to give you information about USAJobs.gov, the OPM website, and how you can figure out how to make your federal resume pop, and how that you don't have to be afraid of that website. So I am from Florida. I am a Howardite, so happy to see all my fellow bison out there and other HBC folks with us today. I've been in the Foreign Service for just over 16 years. I'm a public diplomacy career track officer now on this domestic tour as a diplomat and residence. Nathan. Thank you. Good morning again. My name is Jay Nathan Bland. I'm the diplomat and residence down in New Orleans, Louisiana, based at Tulane University, responsible for Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. As Yolanda mentioned, as diplomats and residences, we are here. There are 16 of us throughout the whole country. We are here to speak to you. If you have any questions at all about our student programs or our careers, you can get in touch with us, and we are your resource. We are your connection to the U.S. Department of State to help you to make your way towards a path with us. We often have office hours where we can speak one-on-one with individuals. To find your diplomat and residence, you need to go to careers.state.gov and look in the top right part where it says connect, and then you'll find a list of diplomats and residences, and you'll be able to connect with us. I, myself, I've been in the Foreign Service for 16 years. I've served in China, in Italy, in Mexico, in Belize, and in our headquarters in Washington, D.C. And I'm an economic career track officer. As Yolanda mentioned, she was a public diplomacy career track officer. We have five different tracks, counselor, management, economics, political and public diplomacy, and we represent two of those different tracks right here. All right, and I will turn it back over to you, Yolanda. Well, let's jump right into it. Frequently what the diplomats and residents will hear is that, oh, no, I know I want to apply for X program, but I also have to fill out this massive federal resume. What should be on it? What does it look like? How do I prepare? So that's what this session is about. I'm going to share my screen. One of the things that you need to know about creating your federal resume is that there's a tool available to you on usajobs, jobs.gov, usajobs.gov. That's the Office of Personal Management. And this is essentially responsible for human resources and talent acquisition for all of the federal government. So when you go to that main site, usajobs.gov, you will notice that there are a couple of things. The first is this one, create a USA Jobs profile. So there's a template that already exists. You don't have to start completely from scratch. All federal job offerings reside on this website. Even if they reside on another agency or on the agency's website, they also reside on usajobs.gov. So one of the things that you need to remember when you are crafting your federal resume is that you have to speak to two audiences. You have to speak to the hiring manager, the person that will potentially be your boss eventually. And you have to speak to human resources or talent acquisitions. So just as if you walked in a room for your interview, you wouldn't just walk in and not say good morning to the office manager, right? You would definitely good morning to the office manager. And you would also say good morning. You would speak to and be cordial to the person that's going to interview you. Your resume has to do the same thing. Your resume has to speak to two people, hiring manager and talent acquisitions. Unlike most general private sector resumes, the federal resume is generally four to five pages long, which is longer than most typical resumes. Let's talk about what's in it. First of all, what are the hiring managers want? The person that could potentially be your boss, what do they want? They want a couple of things. They want proof of your prior excellent performance. And they want assurance that you can perform well in the new job in their agency, right? So can you be great in the State Department? Awesome. Can you be great at NASA? Awesome. We want to make sure that you can perform well in your new job in that agency. So what you want to say to your hiring manager, your potential hiring manager is I saved my last company a billion dollars. And then your hiring manager wants to hear more about it. This is a big overall global view of you, the applicant. But what does human resources and talent acquisition, what do they want? They want to hone in a little more. We're not global now. These happen to be the flags to the countries to which I've been accredited. But as an example, this is honing in a little bit more. Human resources and talent acquisition, they want to know how you achieve the results in your prior jobs. How are you going to be able to perform well in this new agency? So whereas you told the hiring manager, I saved my last company a billion dollars. Human resources wants to know I saved my last company a billion dollars by gathering and analyzing financial data from our company's clients and using my knowledge of federal contracting regulations to reduce our overhead for contract review and compliance. How did you do this thing that made you awesome? So if you remember nothing else today, remember you have to have your resume speak to both people. Don't just walk past the desk of the office manager and go straight to the hiring manager without saying hello and making sure that you have made it clear what it is that you're here to present about yourself. So when you craft your federal resume, there are a couple of things you should remember in general and you will see this on USA Jobs. The first is that you need to start in reverse chronological order for at least five years going back as far as 10. So reverse chronological most recent back at least five years or even 10. You need to highlight the transferable skills from all your jobs. So we frequently hear this, Nathan and I, Yolanda, I work in Starbucks and I don't have, that doesn't translate to the State Department. You're looking at the world's worst waitress right here. I was a waitress for exactly three days. That was two shifts and that was the end of that. If you're working in hospitality, you have transferable skills. You can multitask, you can deal with people when they're hangry, which is hungry and angry, a combination that is common. You can remember several things without always having to write it down. These are transferable skills. If you're on campus and you are holding some sort of leadership position in a club or a group, you have transferable skills. When's the last time you had to deal with your group trying to make a decision about X thing? So do not discount transferable skills from your jobs and your experiences. You're going to need to account for all gaps in your employment longer than 30 days. So that can be as simple as was on vacation or summer break, but you need to account for those gaps if they're longer than 30 days. So you may be amazing and applicant may be amazing, but the burden of proof is on the applicant to prove how amazing they are. Remember that. We're going to use this job announcement for today as a quick snapshot of what the job announcement looks like, the things that the applicant needs to look at to figure out how to respond to this announcement. So this is a public affairs specialist, or this was the job posting for a public affairs specialist in the Department of State. On this landing page, you're going to find out all sorts of great information. The first is, when do the close? How much time do I have to apply? The pay scale and the grade. What type of appointment is this? This is permanent. Some of them are going to be temporary. Competitive service, what does that mean? The salary, of course, we all want to know. Is this going to be full-time or part-time? That's the baseline overview information about the job. Next is, who can apply for this job? This job is open to individuals with disabilities, to current federal employees, current or former competitive service federal employees, people who are in a career transition. So federal employees who've met the definition of surplus or displaced employees. So all of this information, this baseline information on the announcement, helps you to understand, what am I eligible, first of all, should I even spend any more time looking at this announcement? The next thing that you're going to look at is where is it? This is one vacancy announcement. Sometimes there will be many. It may say several or five or 10. In this case, it's one. One announcement and it's located in Washington, D.C. This one is interesting because in this instance, if you need to relocate to take this job, relocation expenses may be paid. And is it telework eligible? Yes, as determined by the agency policy. So on the right of the job announcements, going to be all sorts of other really important information. How much travel is required for this job? Am I supervising anyone for this job? The answer for that is no. What's the promotion potential for this job? Up to a GS-13. And then you'll have things here, the family job series. Which you'll notice, those of you who have military experience and whatnot, the job series will tell you what types of jobs are comparable to another job and another agency. So this one happens to be 1035, which is public affairs. So on that main landing page of USA Jobs, if you're just interested, not just in the State Department, but any job that's in public affairs, you can search for things in the 1035 family. I'm looking for public affairs jobs in any agency. So also in the job announcement, you're going to find the requirements. What are the conditions? So it says that the incumbent will be subject to random drug testing. There's a one year probationary period. You must be able to obtain and maintain a top secret security clearance. You must be a U.S. citizen. And verification of your employment eligibility in the United States is required. All of this information is going to be given to you right at the beginning in the overview and the information for the job announcement. Then you're going to be looking at the meat of the thing. The duties. What do I have to do? What are they looking for? Where is this job exactly? And what are they looking for? Two major things to remember. Hiring managers generally want to create these competencies. These are the people who are going to craft this job announcement. So when Nathan and I are looking to hire someone, this is not an HR now. This is us saying, I know what my team does and I need someone who can do this. So when you look at the duties, you really want to focus on the verbs in the job requirements over here. Plans develops and executes a broad range of outreach actions, engages with law enforcement, engages members of the diplomatic corps, establishes and maintains effective working relationships. You want to focus on those verbs because this is what your hiring manager, your potential new boss has teased out as core competencies, things that you need to be able to do to get this job. You want 80% or better match between your duties and responsibilities and your demonstrable skills. So not skills that you have the potential of doing, but skills that you actually have. So the next portion of this is going to be the qualifications. Important to remember that qualifications are not suggestions. Qualifications are core. So here under the qualifications, it says that first of all, applicants must meet all the required qualifications. So by regulation, every agency has to evaluate KSAs. That's knowledge, skills and abilities. You're going to see that many times when you look at jobs on USA jobs. Well, what are the KSAs? What are the knowledge, skills and abilities for this job? And in this instance, it's experience with convincing local law enforcement agencies to develop policies. Experience with maintaining effective working relationships with foreign embassies and consulates. Experience with law enforcement operations. Experience with law enforcement organizations. Sometimes there are substitutions for education instead of specialized experience. And if that's the case, you will also find that information in the job announcement. So the next portion is important. It tells you how you're going to be evaluated. You know you're awesome, but how is the agency going to decide that you are awesome? And here's how you're going to be evaluated. They're going to look at your, again, your KSAs, your knowledge, skills and abilities, your knowledge of diverse media technologies, your ability to write persuasively and effectively for varied audiences, your knowledge of U.S. society, foreign relations, world events, the ability to analyze and evaluate materials as they relate to public affairs issues. So again, how you're evaluated is going to be very key because that, again, is going to tell you whether or not your experience can be substituted for the education requirements listed in the job announcement. You also here can see about the background checks and security clearance. Remember on the top page, the announcement, it said drug testing may be required per the agency policy. Here you find out, yes, drug tests are required. Top secret security clearance is going to be required. So a lot of candidates will look at all of this information and then they'll skip this really important part. To preview questions, please click here. And I'm asking you, please make sure you click here because when you do, you're going to be able to see what those eligibility questions are. So note that these questions are normally for a computer algorithm. They sort candidates and their knowledge, skills and abilities, but sometimes these questions are reviewed by humans in talent acquisition. So I clicked on that page that said, preview the eligibility questions and here is one. It asks you at grade 13, which remember in this job, it was the highest level of this job, choose the answer that best describes your experience. So here you'll say, I have at least one year of specialized experience that's equipped me with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. So it will tell you exactly what what you've seen those position descriptions and those position KSAs. And they'll continue from the following. This is number three. List of communications activities. Please identify any with which you have experience. So I've led staff to achieve tactical and strategic goals. And you will answer each of these questions. This is important because again, you have to speak to the knowledge, skills and abilities in the job description. And it's going to ask you specifically, which one of these have you done? Most importantly, you have to know the agency that you're applying for. These are the 13 Foreign Service Dimensions for the State Department, those who are applying for the Foreign Service. This is going to be quite different, of course, than what NASA is looking for or what I don't know, what the Department of Energy is looking for. Know the agency, make sure that you've read the goals of the agency, the ethos of the agency. There will frequently be a mission statement. Make sure again that your resume is not being rude. You're not a rude person. You wouldn't walk in the door and not speak to everyone in the room. Make sure that your resume is doing the same. And also that your resume is speaking the language of the agency that you're applying for. So this happens to be in English, but let's say you were looking at, I don't know, NASA, that would be a completely different language for Yolanda. Make sure that you're speaking NASA if you're applying to NASA. If you're applying to the State Department, make sure that you're speaking State Department. And the information about what the agencies are looking for is there. It's on every agency's webpage. You can find out what the goals of the organization are down to the office level. Make sure you've done your homework and that you have crafted this application to speak to the agency. So again, if you take nothing else away from this, you're not rude. Make sure that your resume is not rude either. That it's speaking to everybody that it needs to speak to, that it is not coming across somebody's desk and ignoring them. You're speaking to the hiring manager and you're speaking to talent acquisition. They want the same thing. They want the best candidate for the job, but the way that they go about evaluating the best candidate for that job are slightly different. And with that, Nathan has, I'm going to stop sharing my screen, and Nathan has some information specifically about crafting your federal application. Thank you, Yolanda. So once again, welcome everyone. I also wanted to remind people that we have in the chat box, our colleagues are moderating as well. The diplomat in residence for the South, Alan DuBose, he is in the chat box. So if you have any questions along the way, please feel free to drop them in there and he can respond as well. If you have specific questions for us, our other colleague is there as well, Ms. Debbie Faulks, a national recruiter with our office. Please feel free to put those questions in the chat box and they will get the questions to us. When you do so, please include your name and where you're from as well. And we will respond to those questions. So as Yolanda mentioned, USA Jobs is not scary. It's not some big monstrous website that you should feel intimidated by. It's fairly easy to get started, to get your basic profile set up. And so what we wanted to ask you to do this morning is to join us. I'm going to show a few slides just to show you the steps for setting up your basic USA Jobs profile. And it's not anything that's rocket science accomplished. It's just almost like any other website you'll see. It's very simple. And I'll run through those slides. But we ask you to open up another window and do it yourself so you can go ahead and get your basic profile set up. And the reason why this is important is because if you saw the last session, we spoke about all of those student programs that we offer, a good number of them. To apply for them, you have to start on usajobs.gov. So it's great just to go ahead and get your profile set up so that you can apply for those jobs when they come open, be it vacancy announcements and whatnot. Also, in the chat box, if you don't mind, if you're interested in applying for some of those student programs that we spoke about or other jobs with the State Department, put that in the chat box too. Let us see what you're interested in applying for. And we can speak a little bit more about those as well. All right. So I will share my screen quickly and just go through the super easy process of applying for or getting set up within USAJobs. So first, this is the main site. If you go to www.usajobs.gov, this is what you'll see. The main thing to note here is this little part in the middle, that red button that says create your profile. That's where you get started. But you'll see on top, you can search for a job title by department or by agency or anything. And you can also search by location on the right side. And it'll bring up certain jobs based on your own search requirements. But say you click on the red create profile button, which I hope some of you are doing now. It'll bring you to this screen where it basically just asks you for your email and password. If you already have an account, actually, but you see that button under sign in where it says create an account, that's where you need to click. You need to create an account. And then once you create the account, once you create the account, you put your email address in, select your language, English, of course, and then you hit submit. You click that little checkbox and you hit submit. And it brings you to create your password thing. And of course, it can't be anything simple. It has to be at least 12 characters. I think I put mom's spaghetti, just so the hackers won't be able to get into my USA jobs account. And use the numbers and the symbols and everything and you hit continue. Then they'll ask you for the authentication method setup. So, of course, this has to be something really secure. So we're beyond the stage where we're just asking for user names and passwords, just like most websites. Now we're going to ask you for a secondary way to get into your account. And there are several options, more than what shows up on this slide, but you can use your face or touch unlock or your security key. Or if you're already a government employee, you got an employee ID. And it lists them from the most secure methods of a secondary authentication method to the least secure. So there's also an option to put yourself on number as a text message or email account, a secondary email account to get set up with this. Once you have that set up, then you'll see this page. You've created an account with login.gov. Which is where you want to be. You have your account set up. And then you hit agree and continue. And you get to this page where it says, let's create your profile. So it says, it tells you to apply the jobs you need to create a profile. And they make this as easy as possible, especially for creating the basic profile. All you have to do is click the blue button that says complete the profile. And it'll ask you a series of questions that are not a lot, just a few. Like the basic information. Your contact information. Name, address, blah, blah, blah. And also your citizenship. Are you a U.S. citizen? Or are you a national? And then your selective service registration status. So you have to put if you have already registered for a selective service. If you're a male born after January 1st, 1960, and you've registered. Or if you're exempt from registering. Or if you're not registered, you have to indicate what your status is there. You have to indicate if you are currently a federal service employee or have been. Or if you're not, then you just put, I'm not or never have been a federal service employee. And then I think that the last part was about military status. If you've served in the military before. And then you'll put that. And then you are basically finished creating your basic profile for USA Jobs. Then of course you can go in and upload a resume or you fill out your resume there. And you can complete your full profile. But at least we wanted to get you to the point where you have the basic USA Jobs profile there so that you can start to search for jobs. And you can apply for some of the student programs that we were talking about in the last session. For example, we spoke to you about the pathways programs which are ways to get into the civil service. Each of those pathways programs, except for the presidential management one. But the recent graduate program and the pathways internships, you have to go through USAJobs.gov to apply. And so this is what you'll need set up already. So when the vacancy announcements come out, then you can quickly apply for those. And I'll tell you why you have our sub-screen sharing right quick. I think that. All right, I'll tell you why. It's important to have that set up quickly because for the pathways programs, they come out after midnight. The vacancy announcements get announced after midnight, Eastern Standard Time. And each position will have a cap on the number of applicants that can apply for those positions. So for most of the passport related positions, there's a hundred person cap. For any of the other positions, there's a 50 person limit. Now, that limit is usually hit within the first hour to two hours after that announcement is released. So it's important to have your USAJobs profile already set up to be able to respond quickly. When that announcement is released and you want to apply for that job, you want to have your things there already, your resume, your transcript, your profiles already set up and ready to just go to that job. So you can be within that first 50 or first 100 to be considered eligible to apply for that job. Once you've considered eligible within that cap, then your application is considered. Then you have a shot at getting one of those positions. And usually for each of those vacancy announcements, it's not just for one person that they're hiring. They may be hiring for 20 positions under that one vacancy announcement. And so if you're within the first 100, say passport specialists who apply, then you have like a one in five shot of getting that position. If you are 101, you have a 0% shot of getting that position. They only accept the first either 50 or 100 depending on what type of job it is. Usually for the passport specialist, it's 100. So that is my little presentation about how to set up your profile. If there are any questions, feel free to put it in the chat box. And also please let us know which programs that you are most interested in applying for. You know, anything else you'd like to add there? Yeah, I'm just curious to hear if folks are having any challenges when they open up and start to create their profiles. We really urge you to open up that screen now since we're here with you. We can sort of talk you through if you have any problems creating your profile. But for the time that we have left, we'd love for you to go ahead and open it up, create this profile. You're going to have to do it if you plan to apply for almost any of our student programs and our internships. So no time like the present, and we're here to help you. All right, thank you. We already have one question. And Yvonne, I'll kick it your way. This question is from Abena in Maryland. So that's your region, right? She's asking about security clearances. So she's asking, does the candidate have the responsibility to get the security clearance themselves before applying? Or is it something that the hiring department does before onboarding on their behalf? That's a great question. And of course, because of the fact it's from Maryland and I covered DC, Maryland, West Virginia, and Delaware. So I am your diplomat in residence. So clearances are actually conducted by the agency at no cost to the candidate. So if you are already in a federal agency and you have a clearance of some sort, there's not a pure transfer of reciprocity, but those who have clearances already that process goes much more quickly. But no clearance processes, be they medical or security, that whole process is done conducted by the hiring agency at no cost to the candidate. Great, thank you. And just a reminder for everyone, this is the time to get your questions answered. So feel free to put things in the chat box and my colleagues will get the questions to us. The second question that we have is from Jessica S. Jessica is asking if there is a specific name, program, or opportunities for recent graduate students. Thank you. I can take that one if you'd like. So the Pathways program that I was just speaking about has three different branches. One of them is the Presidential Management Fellowship, which is for graduate students to apply for during their first year of grad school, no, during their second year of grad school when they're planning on graduating. I was actually a Presidential Management Fellow myself and that was a really good one. And so all three of the branches bring you into the civil service. So remember we have the Foreign Service, which our employees who work overseas for most of their career. We live and work at our embassies overseas for most of their careers. The civil service are our colleagues who work domestically. So they spend most of their careers here within the United States. So the Pathways has the three programs. One, Presidential Management Fellows, which I just spoke to you about just now. That is a two-year developmental program. It brings you in at a fairly high level within the U.S. government. And it moves you up quickly after that. And it's two years and it includes a lot of leadership training and mentorship and also the opportunity to do two rotations. This is anywhere in the government. You can be hired as a Presidential Management Fellowship within anywhere in the executive branch. And then you can rotate to other agencies or within your agency to another part of that agency. So when I came in, I came into the Department of State in one office in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs. And I did a rotation out to our embassy in the Philippines. And then came back and then later took the Foreign Service Officer test and switched to the Foreign Service. The second program is the Recent Graduate Program. So that's the one, Jessica, that you may want to look into. So the Recent Graduate Program is modeled off of the Presidential Management Fellowship. But it's a little different. So instead of being two years, it's a one-year development program. And the requirement is you have to have graduated within the past two years from school. And it can be from an associate's program. It can be from a bachelor's program or a master's program, PhD. As long as you've graduated within the past two years, then you're eligible to apply for Recent Graduate Program positions. So the Recent Graduate Programs open up periodically via the same process that I was explaining just now about they open up a little after midnight, Eastern Standard Time. So for the people in my time zone, it's a little after 11 p.m. central. So we have a little bit of an easier job of staying awake to get these. And then it's open, it'll stay open for a week. But in reality, it'll be open until they reach the maximum number of applicants that are allowed under that vacancy announcement, either 50 or 100. And so you apply for that vacancy announcement through USAJobs.gov. Some of the types of positions include, like, we have a lot of the passport specialists throughout the whole nation, and they'll bring you into civil service. And you, most people will be able to convert to a full-time position after that one year developmental experience. You get to, it's a career track. You get to, it's a pathway into the civil service. So we have the passport positions. We have program analysts. We have international foreign affairs officers types of positions. A lot of those come out through the recent graduate program. And once again, that's for people who have recently graduated. The third one, the Pathways Internship. So the Pathways Internship, also you have to apply through USAJobs.gov. Also it comes out via vacancy announcements after midnight Eastern Standard Time. But the internship, the difference between the recent graduate program and internship is that you have to be in student status to apply for the internship. And it's a part-time job. It's all of these, this is going to be paid. All the pathways are paid. It's a part-time job working with one part of the federal government, one part of the Department of State, in our case, and you get paid. And you can stay in that internship program for as long as you're in school. So you can work like nearly full-time during the summer and then cut back your hours during your school time. And then you can even, if you need to go away to school and you can't do the job physically, that job stays with you though. And when you come back, you pick up your internship, you know, and you're able to do that until the moment that you graduate. And then when you graduate, you are eligible, and most people do, you are eligible to be converted to join the civil service in a full-time job. You know, so that's the pathway's internship. You have to be in student status for that one and you get paid while you work and go to school. Recent graduate, you have to have recent graduated. And then, and you'll have a job for that one-year experience. PMF, Presidential Management Fellow, two-year experience as you're graduating from a graduate program. Those are those three. Um, let's see. So we have another question from Raelyn Miller out of North Carolina. So Raelyn is saying that he's a, he's currently a 1L in law school, so he's virtually a law student in North Carolina. What internship or fellowship programs are best to gain relevant experience and when it's best to start applying for full-time employment? There are a few. There are a few, but I just want to make sure that he's aware of the 2L program that the State Department manages and I'm going to grab the link and put it in the chat. But it depends on what type of law you plan to practice and what your interests are. There's a lovely little interactive quiz on the student programs page that will ask you about what you're studying and then it will, you know, send you all sorts of information or generate for you information about the bureaus and the offices within the State Department that may be of interest to you. But there is specifically an internship for 2Ls in an L, our Office of Legal Affairs. And I'm going to real quickly, Nathan, grab that and put that in the chat. Sure, thank you. Thank you. So yeah, so we do have that specific internship opportunity, well, externship with the 2L experience for law students. Thank you, Yolanda. The next question is a question about are civil servants able to join the Foreign Service? So the answer to that is like anyone. Yes, but you have to pass the Foreign Service Officer test to join the Foreign Service. And we briefly spoke about that in our last session about the Foreign Service Officer test, about how many times it's offered and the format of the exam and all. But anyone looking to join the Foreign Service eventually has to pass that exam. Now, we do have certain programs within the Department to allow for civil servants to fill hard to fill positions overseas to get that Foreign Service experience and see, you know, this is what they want to do. They like that lifestyle. And then we do have a program to help people convert over, but still ultimately you have to take the exam to go into the Foreign Service. Anything you want to add on that, Yolanda? No, good. All righty. The next question, should students focus on internships at the State Department or other federal agencies? Well, look who you're asking. Of course, we're going to say the State Department because this is our agency and this is who we recruit for. And honestly, in my opinion, I think the student programs, that this is what I preach down here in my region. So as I mentioned, I'm the diplomat in residence for Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. I constantly preach that the student programs are the best way to get your foot in the door at the Department of State. And I'm saying that from personal experience. The student programs do several things for you. One, they give you the experience. Like they get you in the door, right? You get a security clearance and all. You get into the organization. You get your little badge showing that you're a part of the State Department. But also you get the confidence of knowing that, yes, I can do this type of work. You know, yes, I am here. I'm no different than this person I'm working to right next to me. I can do this work. It's not like it's way beyond my comprehension. I understand this. I know what I'm doing, you know, and I can contribute to the U.S. government in this way. So it gives you and it gives you that confidence of knowing that you're there, been there, done that. I can do it again, right? And also it allows you to meet people and to learn from people and to network from the inside. So when you come in as an intern, it's very easy to use your internship status and go to a senior official or write to them and say, hi, I'm an intern. Can I come to you for a 30-minute informational meeting? You know, and most people, I think all of us will say absolutely because they know what it's like to have been an intern once somewhere if not at the Department of State. You know, and they want to help those of you who are out there volunteering your time or just trying out the waters in the Foreign Service, in the State Department, you know, and they want to hear from you who you are, what your interests are, and then they'll tell you their story. And then oftentimes they'll connect you to other parts of the Department that you may be interested in, to other people that they know. And that's how that networking starts. I, when I started, I was an unpaid intern in my first year of grad school. I was in our Foreign Service Institute. They were just the Institute that we learned all of our languages and our jobs, our area studies, all of that, our leadership development, that's where we go. And I remember one lunch. I was just having a lunch with a fellow intern and there was a lady sitting at the end of the table who I didn't know her from me, but she was sitting by herself and so I decided to include her in the conversation that me and this other intern were having. I don't even remember what it was about. But anyway, at the end of that lunch, she gave me her card and she said, I want you to come and speak to me at some point and tell me about your ambitions involved. So I did. Little did I know, this lady was a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the HR Bureau. Fine. So I, being from the South, I went and I spoke to her. You know, I don't know if that was just small talk or whatever, but if somebody invites me to come over, I'm going to come over. So I went to her office and we spoke and she learned I was from Louisiana, she learned my interests and then she said, you know what? I want to introduce you to somebody else. A good friend of mine is also from Louisiana. Now this was like a good, what, 17 years ago? More than that. That other friend is currently our U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Her name is Ambassador Linda Thomas-Queenville. So I, of course, I didn't know her at the time either, but I went and I met with her and she kind of took me under her wing at that point and then introduced me to several other people and that was that networking thing that I never thought of as networking, but it, you know, was, it was just, you know, meeting people. And then when I went back to school, I finished grad school and I applied for the Presidential Management Fellowship and because of the connections I made during my internship, they brought me back as a PMF, Presidential Management Fellow in the State Department. So important, you should, if you're interested in international relations foreign policy, you should focus on internships at the State Department in general. Another question, Jessica S says, can you give us tips or recommendations for people that want to take the FSOT, the Foreign Service Office of Test? Yolanda does a whole presentation on this, so I'll pass that to you. Sure, and I thank you for the question and for asking us, for asking the State Department because we know that there are some cottage industries out there, people who want to sell you stuff to help you supposedly prep for the FSOT. The first thing you need to know is that everything that is official about the FSOT is available to you for free at careers.state.gov. The second thing is that the State Department feels so strongly about providing you accurate information that the 16 of us, Nathan and I and our 14 diplomat and residents colleagues, are deployed around the country to make sure that we provide not just accurate information, but the most recent. So you may have friends or relatives who are in the Foreign Service who will tell you about their process. That's great, but that was their process when they entered the Foreign Service. We change our processes all the time purposely, so you want to make sure that you're getting the latest and greatest. So I do offer a Foreign Service officer test overview as do other diplomats and residents. We can put the link to the next one, which is in March, but you should just keep an eye out for when those overviews are offered. And then most importantly, you should take the free, I have to say it again, free, FSOT practice test. You can take it on our app or you can take it at careers.state.gov. It's an excellent diagnostic tool because at the end of that exam, not only can you see the questions that you got right or got wrong, so that helps you to hone your studying, but it also is going to generate for you a mock result. It will tell you whether, based on your performance on the practice test, you have the expectation that you should perform well or not on the actual FSOT. And the reason you want to take it on either our app or on the careers page is because those test questions are real test questions that have been retired from prior iterations of the exam. So they're not hypotheticals. Those are real test questions. You have an opportunity to see exactly how you can expect to do on the exam. So the first thing is to look at the resources available to you for free. Please don't buy anything because we've provided this information for you for free and it's ours and it's accurate. That's the first thing. So look at the resources on careers.state.gov. Reach out to your diplomat and residents. There are 16 of us around the country available to you to provide you with accurate information. And most importantly, take the practice test. That's going to tell you exactly what you can expect. There are three portions of the FSOT. There is a multiple choice job knowledge portion. There is an English expression portion which is also multiple choice. And then there's a situational judgment portion during which you are presented with a scenario and you're asked to choose the best and the worst response based on that scenario. So take the practice test. Talk to your diplomat and residents and stop in for an FSOT overview and do not pay anyone for these things that your government has provided to you for free and with accuracy. Thank you Yolanda. And yes, I second all of that. Don't pay for anything that we already have put out there for you. We have a study guide on our site careers.state.gov that you can download that explains the format of the test and tries to demystify everything for you so that you're not surprised when you get into that test. As I mentioned, it's a challenging test, quite frankly. I mean, it may take time to pass it all the way through. Sometimes people pass the first part and then don't pass the second part or they may not pass the first part at all the first time but then they come back and they take it again. It seems like based on stats that the vast majority of our new officers have taken the test more than once. The ones who make it in have taken the test more than once so just keep that in mind that don't get discouraged if you don't necessarily pass it the first time. And I tend to tell people to jump in. Take it the first time. Do the practice exam as Yolanda mentioned to get a good feel for it but don't just put off taking the test until you feel you're ready. Take it and then see if you came up short see where you came up short and then push through the next year. Or if you didn't come up short you may be well on your way to a new career at the U.S. Department of State. And so we were speaking about the foreign service and that's the primary way to get into the foreign service and also the civil service which the primary way would be USAJobs.gov and civil survey and the student programs which the primary way to get into those is also USAJobs.gov. So I hope most of you have already set up your USAJobs.gov profile as we went over earlier. All right, the next question is from Daniela from CAU which may be Central Arkansas University. I don't know. Is that Catholic CAU? Okay, maybe on your side. See you ASU. Maybe on your side. So the question is can K-12 teachers apply to the foreign service and have there been former teachers who served as diplomats? Oh, and you? Yes, and yes. I actually served with a former special education elementary school teacher. She was a public diplomacy career track officer as I am. That career track focuses on one side of the house, press and media relations. So everything that is public facing about a mission, our embassy website, our social media platforms. We serve as the ambassador's primary speech writer, for example, the person who goes through the podium for press conferences. That's the mission spokesperson, public affairs officers. The other part of our portfolio is educational and cultural affairs. So in that instance, Fulbrighters, for example, if you ever studied on a Fulbright went abroad and studied or researched on a Fulbright, you know that your public affairs section and country hosted you essentially for your Fulbright, the duration of your Fulbright exchange. Likewise, we look for, we identify and vet Fulbrighters who are international citizens who are going to come to the United States to either research or serve as guest lecturers in universities. So all of that educational policy work is something that really comes into play. And I want to give you a real example from one of my last posts or one of my prior posts. I was in a country that was looking to mainstream children with disabilities. These were deaf children, as it turns out, and they were trying, deaf and blind, and they were trying to figure out what the next step was going to be. They were looking at the Americans with Disabilities Act as a model. They were looking at some European sort of models. They decided to go with ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act, as their model. And so in that instance, what we decided from a policy standpoint was we were going to devote our entire Fulbright slate to those Fulbrighters who were going to study at Gallaudet. This became the core of instructors in country who were essentially trained the trainers. So they studied at Gallaudet for two years, got their master's degrees, came back in country, and essentially were, again, the core of train the trainers for deaf students in that country. So it's in that way that we really focus on policy. It's part of what I love about public diplomacy, as a matter of fact, because there's the policy side, and then there's the, okay, what am I going to do about the policy side of our work? So that's a long answer to yes. There are teachers among us, and they do incredible work in the Foreign Service. Thank you. And just to clarify, it was not Catholic, American University. It was Clark Atlanta, right? Clark Atlanta University. So I am trying to grab everybody, but go ahead, Clark Atlanta. All right, thank you. For that, another quick question. And first, before I get to that question, let me just remind people that my colleagues are in the chat box taking the questions. We only have about five minutes left, but we'll take the few questions remaining. They've also put a link in the chat box to our benefits for the Department of State. And our benefits include a wide-ranging amount of benefits. So I'll speak on behalf of the Foreign Service right quick. Of course, we have a competitive salary, which you can see publicly. If you Google Foreign Service pay tables or pay schedules, you'll be able to find our brackets. When we're overseas, of course, the government moves all of our things. So they pack us out. They ship our things overseas. Your whole family gets to go with you. Everyone is paid for the move overseas. Your housing and all of your housing bills, utilities, and all are covered while you're overseas. We get paid language training, of course. As I mentioned earlier, your children will get their educations paid for wherever you're located at one of the top schools in whatever country that you're in. They'll have that paid for. We have a retirement plan. We have a pension that we won one of the last few pens that's remaining, right? That we're eligible for at age 50 with 20 years of work. We have our own 401k type of program is called the TSP, the Thrift Savings Plan. There's plenty and plenty of benefits for working in the foreign service. We say it's a unique career that will take care of you and your needs as well. Anything I'm missing there? You learned about benefits or good? Well, the one for those of you who have student loans, you should know that we have a very generous student loan repayment program, the details of which you can also find under our benefits package. Yep. I don't know how I forgot about that as I am a beneficiary of that program as well. And then, so the last question, we have about four minutes left. Let me take this last question and we can both respond to this when you can go first, Yolanda. The question is, are there any unique experiences for African Americans in the foreign service? Over to you if you have any immediate thoughts. Yeah, I mean, there are many. I think, well, just I'm going back over my career and there have been many. The one, I think perhaps, is just because the skin I'm in and I get to be my authentic self, my whole authentic self, everywhere I go, to be able to have very pointed discussions with, and I've started a lot of my career in sub-Saharan Africa, to have very pointed discussions with Africans about foreign policy about, we were in a moment of sort of racial reckoning with George Floyd and others, to be able to have a very really clear and pointed discussion about the ideals of my country, which are beautiful and the ways that, this country that I love, the ways that we sometimes fall short of those ideals. So I think there's something special really about that relationship to be able to have that very, very honest and lived experience as part of what I bring to the table for foreign policy that makes it particularly poignant for those of us who serve in places, if you're of an ethnic minority in the United States to serve in those places around the world, I think gives us an advantage, frankly, and it speaks to why we're looking for a foreign service that looks like the United States, because I want to be real honest with you. How do you have a discussion with Africans about what it's like to be African American in the United States if you're not African American? I mean, it's always going to be from a different sort of gaze. So that, I think, just to be able to have those kinds of conversations authentically wherever I go and the expectation that I'm bringing that authenticity with me when I go out to do my job. Yeah, thank you. And then for me, just two quick reflections. One is more personal. The other is tied to being official. But the personal one is kind of like what Yolanda mentioned about us growing up in a country where we are the minority gives us a certain lens on life, a certain outlook. But it's an outlook that you really don't know is different in other places until you go to other places. So for example, when you go to a country where the majority of people look like you, it's a totally different feeling. It's a totally different experience and it's one that's kind of kind of mind blowing initially. I grew up seeing, you know, like most of the officials, government officials on walls and government buildings and statues being of people who looked nothing like me. But then if you go down to the Caribbean and you start looking at their government buildings and their their statues and their and their prior ministers of agriculture and ministers of foreign affairs and you see that they all look like you, that's a very, very different experience and it's a very moving experience. Secondly, the other part real quick before we wrap up is that when you're in some of those countries, like I was in the U.S. Embassy to Belize, I was able to integrate into that country very deeply, made loads of friends within the government and in my private life as well. And even to this day, like if you look at my Facebook list of friends, I would say about a quarter of them are probably Belizean, you know. So it's just different types of integrations that you can do as an African American that may be different for our colleagues of other races. And with that, it is 1030, my time, 1130 y'all Eastern time. So we will wrap up. I want to thank my colleagues, Alan and Debbie in the chat box for being so great and dropping the information and bringing us the questions that you have. Thank you all for your attendance and for your questions and for your engagement. And thank you, Yolanda, any last words on your part? Thank you to our wonderful and sign language interpreters for today and thank you, GPA for hosting. All right, have a good afternoon.