Bidding - First time around

Well, bidding is finished.  I guess it's not too complicated if the place you elect to go is Afghanistan.  Yep, that's where I'll be going next year.

For a multitude of reasons, bidding on a Critical Priority Country made the most sense for me.  How do I feel about going to Kabul?  Cautiously optimistic.  It will definitely be a unique experience working there and the country is a priority area for the Agency and the government so it will be an honor to contribute to mission there and hope to make some meaningful difference.  The situation there is changing very quickly and it might be very different place a year from now.  The development challenges will certainly be interesting and I'm sure I'll leave with many stories to tell.  But definitely not looking forward to being separated from family.

It seems like a long way off still and there's oh, so much more to accomplish here.  But time flies.

General Hierarchy of Ministries of Foreign Affairs

In bureaucracies, rank and hierarchy matters.  Particularly so I've found in the Asian context in both business and the diplomatic/development arenas.  Working abroad with the US Government, position rank is used as an indicator for who one's appropriate counterpart should be.  It would be a faux pas for a low ranking US Officer to directly contact a senior level official with a local Ministry.

Internally, USAID seems to me to be a fairly flat organization where first tour officers can comfortably chat with the Mission Director, but externally, it may be prudent to be cognizant of one's counterparts and their approach with the host government and to other US government agencies.  I've not heard of any internal USAID classes or discussions to know what counterpart rankings in the host government are, so I after asking around, this is a illustrative listing that might represent a typical Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

*Note, attache in this sense is in a illustrative MFA hierarchy.  Attache means "attached" so other ministry personnel in the diplomatic mission, ie. Defense Attache or Trade Attache, don't fit into this hierarchy in this manner.

What hiring mechanism are you?

Welcome to the Mission!  Are you a new DLI?  No?  Are you a Contractor or a PSC?  Oh, you're a Fellow!

That's right, there is an acronym soup for the many people that make up the personnel of USAID.  It's not as simple as being just a hire of the Agency, rather, people come to the Missions and are classified through a wide variety of hiring mechanisms.  The heart of the difference between all the classifications is funding source and compensation system but also includes to some degree the type of work.

The existence of so many different hiring mechanisms is a result of the budget process (Operational Funding and Program Funding), historical changes in government, and the nature of how development work has changed.  It's quite a complicated system and I still wonder, at times, if there might be a more effective and easier to understand way of hiring.

Let's try to break-down the many classifications of employees that makeup USAID.

Civil Service
--These are the Civil Servants of the US Government.  They are based out of Washington, DC working at the headquarters of USAID.  They follow the General Schedule (GS) salary scale and support the government's development programming from the US, but many will often travel to other countries (the field) in their work.  Civil Service employees represent about half of the US direct-hire employees of the Agency.

Foreign Service
--These employees represent the majority of the US direct-hire employees of USAID working overseas.  Known as career Foreign Service Officers (FSOs), they have a variety of technical backstops, and represent the Agency and the US Government abroad.  Unlike Civil Service employees, they are compensated on a different Foreign Service pay-scale and follow rules from the Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM).  USAID has historically hired FSOs under various initiatives, and as a result, additional nicknames came about for newly hired FSOs based off of the initiative in which they were hired.  These initiatives include "International Development Intern (IDI)", "New Entry Professional (NEP)", and "Development Leadership Initiative (DLI).  The most recent initiative was DLI and hopefully, the Agency will be able to hire for attrition and per future staffing needs in the future.  Uneven hiring for FSOs historically is a result of budget shortfalls, hiring freezes, and reductions in force (RIFs) in the Agency's history.

Foreign Service Limited (FSL)
--These are direct-hire employees of USAID who makeup a small portion of USAID's Foreign Service.  They use the same pay-scale as typical FSOs but are generally limited to 5 years employment, but in some cases, they can be converted to career FSOs.  Recently, the Agency hired many employees as FSLs to help support the staffing needs of "Critical Priority Countries (CPCs)" like Afghanistan and Iraq.

Fellow
--Fellows will join USAID for a couple years at a time as determined by the structure of the Fellows program.  The US Government has a variety of different programs and I'm really not knowledgeable on the details of them all.  However, the most common Fellow's I've seen at USAID are "Presidential Management Fellows (PMFs)" and "American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)" Fellows.  Fellows have opportunities to work in Washington, DC as well as work abroad in the Mission.

Participating Agency Service Agreement (PASA)
--This is an arrangement where another US Government details employees to work at USAID.  While the employee is working at USAID, they are still technically an employee of their home Agency.  The majority of PASAs at USAID tend to come from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), in my experience, and work alongside Civil Service employees in Washington, DC.

Personal Service Contract (PSC)
--USAID has a unique authority to hire employees on a contract basis but, who are for all practical purposes, essentially a US direct-hire.  They are compensated in accordance to their contract which is generally based off the Civil Service pay-scale.  They are employed to work at both Washington, DC and abroad but largely are hired abroad in the Missions.  Historically, PSCs filled staffing shortages of FSOs and now more increasingly used to provide unique technical support that isn't found within the ranks of FSOs or Civil Service.  PSCs can be US citizens (USPSCs) or third country nationals/citizens of a country other than the US or the country in which they are working (TCNPSCs).

Foreign Service National (FSN)
--FSNs makeup the significant majority of USAID employees overseas.  These are the local employees of the countries in which USAID works.  They are the backbone of the Missions providing Technical Support, Program Management, and Administration for all of USAID's activities.  The typical Mission will have Rule of Law Specialists, Infectious Disease Specialists, Water and Sanitation Specialists, etc. providing vital technical and programmatic support.  FSNs have the local knowledge, language skills, and expertise to bring effective development solutions to their home countries and are an essential component to sustainable development programs.  FSNs are hired technically as a form of PSC and are compensated based off of local pay-scales and benefit plans.

Contractors
--While not under the direct employment of the US Government, they are indirectly employed by USAID and consist of the largest number of people working overseas supporting USAID's activities.  Since the 1990's, the US Government increasingly relied on the private sector to perform many previously held functions of government employees.  At USAID, almost all of the implementation of activities is now outsourced to contractors and non-government organizations while strategy and project design is general held within USAID.  Depending on how one would like to support USAID, working with as a Contractor might actually be a better option as the work would be closer to the field and the daily implementation of development work.

That's all the types of employees that comes to mind but would be curious to know if there are even more!

Planning, anticipating, bidding

Life is rarely dull in the Foreign Service.  Each year brings about new challenges in plotting one's career, family, and life.  You may be eagerly arriving to a new country, ready to learn a new language, culture, and people, or you may be formulating your strategy to make your plan for the following year to your next assignment.  This is especially true for two year assignments, which first-tour USAID FSOs are assigned to.

The Bidding Cycle
USAID's bidding season has just kicked off.  The way this works is that a list will come out around August which contains all the open positions for the following year.  The only people allowed to place bids on assignments during this first release of positions ("Priority Consideration Bidders List") is reserved for "Priority Consideration Bidders" whom are people finishing a tour in a "Critical Priority Country" (aka. CPC).  These are countries such as Iraq or Afghanistan where there is substantial danger or hardship.

After people leaving CPCs get to bid on the first release of positions, they will receive their assignments and then the "Major Listing" will be released.  This is the updated list with positions that went to CPC bidders removed.  Now everyone else gets to place their bids on positions and be assigned.

There is the exception that for people that want to only go to a CPC, then they can bid on the "Priority Consideration Bidders List" on just the CPC countries and get their assignment earlier.

After the Major Listing, there are sometimes people who place their bids and for one reason or another, do not receive an assignment.  There will then be an updated list which will come out with remaining positions and potentially any newly available positions in which they can then place bids again.

Bidding Process
When bidding for assignments, the list of positions will contain the position name, the position backstop (functional area), the FS grade level, a paragraph description of the position's responsibilities, and a contact person for the position.  Bidders must review the list for positions they are interested in and should then begin doing their research on that position and the Mission.

Research should include things such as how the management is and who other colleagues will be at the Mission, who the Mission Director is, how morale is at the Mission, the type of work, etc.  People with children must also consider things such as quality of schooling and things like that.  Often the best insight can be through contacts one knows at the Mission or people who have worked there before.

After researching, the next step is express interest to the contact person listed for that position.  This includes sending information about yourself such as your resume and references (typically must be USAID references).  This will let the Mission know that you are considering the post and get your name out there.  Additionally, if you contacted others currently working at that Mission, they may be able to do some additional vouching for your capabilities and character.  Following all this, the Mission will often contact your references and may schedule phone interviews with short-listed candidates.

Whew, definitely like applying for a job again!

Toward the time when you must input your bid selections into the USAID internal bidding system, candidates generally will have discussed with the Missions individuals they are most interested in and have an understanding of what rank the bidder will put the Mission and what rank the Mission will put the candidate.  The selections will then all go to Washington where HR, the person's function backstop representative, and the Mission will review the selections and make all the assignments.

It's a nerve-wracking process this first time around and a lot of considerations in trying to plan for the future.  We'll see how it all comes out in the end...

In the meantime, happy Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr from USAID Indonesia!

At our Iftar (breaking fast) Celebration