Yep, I got promoted. The annual promotion board decided it was time for me to move up this year after I barely missed it last year. See posts for Barely Missed Promotion and Promotion Bridesmaid for more info on how that looked. My promotion will be effective along with everyone else's on November 10. All of the various grades and jobs in the Foreign Service move up together on the same day.
What does it mean? First, it means about 6% more pay. I wrote a little about that set formula in Foreign Service Administrative Promotion. That was an automatic promotion we all received. This is the first competitive promotion decided by a 5-person promotion board reviewing our written evaluations and awards.
They include two people on the board who are outside of our career field and one person outside of the State Department to try to make it as impartial as possible. We're not simply promoted from within our own geeky Information Management Specialist (IMS) career field by people like us in a higher grade. They're on the board but they're less than half of it.
Our employee evaluations need to be written for the less technically minded to understand and care about what we did. My biggest tip for appearing promotable is to do what you can to sound human with human relatable achievements. Technology can be a great enabler but what did it do for the people? What were they able to achieve because of the technology we provide? I think that's all I did that was special in writing about what I did and in what I gave as input to my rater and reviewer for their sections.
They include two people on the board who are outside of our career field and one person outside of the State Department to try to make it as impartial as possible. We're not simply promoted from within our own geeky Information Management Specialist (IMS) career field by people like us in a higher grade. They're on the board but they're less than half of it.
Our employee evaluations need to be written for the less technically minded to understand and care about what we did. My biggest tip for appearing promotable is to do what you can to sound human with human relatable achievements. Technology can be a great enabler but what did it do for the people? What were they able to achieve because of the technology we provide? I think that's all I did that was special in writing about what I did and in what I gave as input to my rater and reviewer for their sections.
The other thing this promotion means is that my assignment options for 2021 will be a different list of jobs with more responsibilities since they're a grade higher. I have 2 years left at my current post and nothing changes about my current job with this promotion.
This is where the Foreign Service is like military service by having rank-in-person. You can work above or below your pay grade depending on your assignments. Government employees in the Civil Service have rank-in-position, so they only get promoted if they move to another job. They can stay in their positions until they retire no matter what their grade is.
The Foreign Service is an up-or-out system like the military and we do have Time-in-Class restrictions that force us to get promoted by a deadline or we're out. This promotion puts me at the most common grade level for an IMS and is high enough for me to retire at this pay grade because of my age. Younger people starting earlier may need another promotion or two before reaching retirement age. I can stay put now or keep moving on up...
Congrats!!
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