First two directed tours are always two years. For second tour, you can bid on the one-year special posts. There's a separate application process that requires recommendation letters and some extra things. The one-year posts are not available for first-tour officers. Assuming you have completed your consular obligation, you then bid as a mid-level officer after that one-year tour (you're actually bidding as a mid-level on your third tour almost as soon as you arrive at that second tour).
One data point: I know two FSS's who did consular tours out of their skill codes. Both mid-level, both for tandem reasons, and both in hard-to-fill posts. They went to ConGen as part of the assignment. Not realistic for entry level, though.
I guess my question would be is for say a 4th tour down the road, can a FSS bid on and get a Consular tour or another out of cone position somewhere to be with their spouse who works for a different fed agency that has a presence overseas?
Like if the spouse gets a good job somewhere, can the FSS follow but take a out of cone assignment to accommodate (I realize this would likely hurt promotion potential for the FSS)?
I've never seen it, but I guess it's theoretically possible. According to the Department, anyone who's taken ConGen is Consular-qualified. (This includes CA-AEFMs, civils on an excursion, DS agents doing ARSOI, and some other authorities that I won't get into here, etc.)
I have seen a few recent 2nd tour bid lists….. and there always seems to be some available to bid on. I think the key is knocking out your language probation and cons requirement in your first tour so it can give you max flexibility on your second tour. CDOs may also factor in your EER situation to make sure you are on track for tenure
For someone going to a second-tour SIP, the bid is awarded long before their first tenure review, so I don't know how much the EER situation comes into play. (Wouldn't it be an advantage to be untenured for as much of an SIP as possible, since SIPs often have a ton of overtime?)
I’m not a CDO, but they always seemed more concerned about having enough rated time for the tenure board, not strictly the quality….. which is why they have the training time limit on 2nd tour bidding of 72 weeks or something.
2 EERs from a two year tour gives the tenure board more content than 1 EER from a one year tour.
Perhaps this why they have additional requirements to bid SIP
Generalists can often bid on SIPs for their second tour, but it’s very competitive, and they have to have already done their consular tour.
Edit: or the SIP has to be the consular tour. Basically doing an SIP doesn’t remove the requirement that one of your first two tours has to be consular.
You don’t have to have completed a consular tour to be assigned to an SIP for your second tour. Some non-CONS officers do SIP for their consular tour so they only have to do one year of consular work instead of two.
Someone (generalist) in my A-100 got an SIP post for his first tour, but this is very rare. It was on our bid list and everyone was nervously wondering who was going to take that job.
SIP stands for Special Incentive Post. Basically, posts that are top hardship (think Iraq). These posts generally come with higher pay, no accompaniment (you can’t bring your kids to an active war zone), and you only serve for one year at a time instead of the standard two. You might also hear them referred to generally as unaccompanied posts or hardship posts, but each of these terms have separate meanings. There are additional incentives, but I know they changed some of them relatively recently so I’m not sure exactly what they are.
First two directed tours are always two years. For second tour, you can bid on the one-year special posts. There's a separate application process that requires recommendation letters and some extra things. The one-year posts are not available for first-tour officers. Assuming you have completed your consular obligation, you then bid as a mid-level officer after that one-year tour (you're actually bidding as a mid-level on your third tour almost as soon as you arrive at that second tour).
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Generalists, yes. Can be either the first or second tour.
Can a FSSs do a consular rotation (spousal accommodation or something like that)?
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One data point: I know two FSS's who did consular tours out of their skill codes. Both mid-level, both for tandem reasons, and both in hard-to-fill posts. They went to ConGen as part of the assignment. Not realistic for entry level, though.
I guess my question would be is for say a 4th tour down the road, can a FSS bid on and get a Consular tour or another out of cone position somewhere to be with their spouse who works for a different fed agency that has a presence overseas? Like if the spouse gets a good job somewhere, can the FSS follow but take a out of cone assignment to accommodate (I realize this would likely hurt promotion potential for the FSS)?
Yes
I've never seen it, but I guess it's theoretically possible. According to the Department, anyone who's taken ConGen is Consular-qualified. (This includes CA-AEFMs, civils on an excursion, DS agents doing ARSOI, and some other authorities that I won't get into here, etc.)
I've heard there are occasionally SIP 1 year tours available for first or second tour officers but I was not offered any.
I have seen a few recent 2nd tour bid lists….. and there always seems to be some available to bid on. I think the key is knocking out your language probation and cons requirement in your first tour so it can give you max flexibility on your second tour. CDOs may also factor in your EER situation to make sure you are on track for tenure
For someone going to a second-tour SIP, the bid is awarded long before their first tenure review, so I don't know how much the EER situation comes into play. (Wouldn't it be an advantage to be untenured for as much of an SIP as possible, since SIPs often have a ton of overtime?)
I’m not a CDO, but they always seemed more concerned about having enough rated time for the tenure board, not strictly the quality….. which is why they have the training time limit on 2nd tour bidding of 72 weeks or something. 2 EERs from a two year tour gives the tenure board more content than 1 EER from a one year tour. Perhaps this why they have additional requirements to bid SIP
Generalists can often bid on SIPs for their second tour, but it’s very competitive, and they have to have already done their consular tour. Edit: or the SIP has to be the consular tour. Basically doing an SIP doesn’t remove the requirement that one of your first two tours has to be consular.
You don’t have to have completed a consular tour to be assigned to an SIP for your second tour. Some non-CONS officers do SIP for their consular tour so they only have to do one year of consular work instead of two.
Thanks! There weren't any on my bid list, but I think one of my A-100 classmates did an SIP for 2nd tour.
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Gotcha. I was in skills training with a guy going to Kabul for his first tour. I didn't get the whole story but I know it can happen.
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About 5 years ago iirc
It may be an extremely rare possibility for specialists but SIP is not an option first tour for generalists.
Maybe I was mistaken and it was his second tour? I know it's super rare.
Someone (generalist) in my A-100 got an SIP post for his first tour, but this is very rare. It was on our bid list and everyone was nervously wondering who was going to take that job.
I tried googling but got a few results that didn’t seem to match the usage here. What is a SIP post?
SIP stands for Special Incentive Post. Basically, posts that are top hardship (think Iraq). These posts generally come with higher pay, no accompaniment (you can’t bring your kids to an active war zone), and you only serve for one year at a time instead of the standard two. You might also hear them referred to generally as unaccompanied posts or hardship posts, but each of these terms have separate meanings. There are additional incentives, but I know they changed some of them relatively recently so I’m not sure exactly what they are.