Former, transitioning military personnel
targeted as State Department adds jobs
By Lisa Burgess,
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department is wooing former and transitioning military
personnel as potential candidates as it undergoes the largest expansion the department has
seen in decades, State Department officials said.
The hiring drive, initiated by Secretary of State Colin Powell, will recruit 1,433 new
career personnel for both Foreign and Civil Service positions in fiscal 2002 — 43
percent above the fiscal 2001 level, according to Niels Marquardt, the State
Department’s Diplomatic Readiness Task Force Director.
The hiring blitz is not a one-year project, Marquardt said; rather, the State
Department intends to keep its hiring levels high for the next three years.
"We were really in the doldrums for most of the 1990s" in hiring terms,
Marquardt said. "The cumulative effect is that now we have too few Foreign Service
officers to meet the mission. So we need to ramp up hiring over the next three
years."
To achieve the State Department’s hiring goals, Powell has established the
Diplomatic Readiness Task Force with special authorization for wide-ranging recruitment
efforts including a stronger focus on recruiting military personnel who are leaving the
service, Marquardt said.
The State Department "has a wide range of opportunities of potential interest to
the military," and a long history of hiring people from the services, Marquardt said.
The department is especially seeking people to staff its consular and administration
career tracks — areas tailor-made for many military personnel seeking a change of
career, he said.
"In the military, many people are very adept at managing larger organizations and
budgets," Marquardt said. "These are the kinds of people we are targeting."
In the last two years, 536 former military personnel were hired by the State
Department, out of a total of 2,000 new hires, Marquardt said. Of the 1,300 Foreign
Service officers who were hired by State, 240 had prior military experience. Overall, more
than 8,000 of the State Department’s 15,500 employees worldwide have had military
experience.
Most people who think about the State Department think first about the overseas
employees, who are called Foreign Service Officers. In 2001, the State Department was
authorized to hire 225 Foreign Service officers. Next year that number will increase to
466 officers, Marquardt said.
Foreign Service jobs are highly competitive; military veterans are given preference. In
order to qualify for the Foreign Service, candidates must take a written test, which is
offered twice a year at locations throughout the United States and overseas. Candidates
who pass the test are given an oral examination; those who pass that test are then placed
into a pool from which the State Department chooses its new Foreign Service officers.
The deadline for registering for the next written U.S.-based Foreign Service
Examination, which will be held on Saturday, Sept. 29, is Aug. 29. (The deadline for the
overseas test was Aug. 10.)
The next test will be given in April. The date has not yet been decided.
Servicemembers who have achieved the rank of 0-3 or GS-12 or higher and have worked for
the government for at least six years are eligible to apply for the State
Department’s special Mid-level Entry Program.
The program does not require candidates to take the Foreign Service Exam, Marquardt
said. The top salary for a new hire in the program is $78,000. The deadline to apply for
the program is Sept. 4.
Not all of the State Department’s employees go overseas, however. Servicemembers
with technical and administrative skills may be interested in looking at work as a foreign
service specialist, Marquardt said. The State Department plans to hire 497 new civil
servants in 2002, as clerks, managers, and clerical, medical support technicians, among
others. Civil servants are not required to take an exam and do not need to be available to
live overseas, Marquardt said.
"For the military officer who is sick of moving all over the globe and is ready to
settle down in the Washington, D.C. area, this could be a great opportunity."
For more information on Foreign Service careers and the
test, go to www.foreignservicecareers.gov,
or call (202) 261-8888. For more information on the Mid-Level Entry Program, go to www.state.gov/m/dghr/hr/mlp
or call (478) 757-3090. For more information on civil service jobs, go to www.state.gov/m/dghr/hr/specialist/
or call (202) 261-8851.
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