The Foreign Service Journal, May 2006

such as Office Management Specialists, was set extreme- ly low. Then, in December 2005 and January 2006, Director General W. Robert Pearson sent out a series of 17 cables detailing Career Development Program guidelines for FS specialists. (The State Department actually employs 20 types of specialists, but because several categories cover only a handful of personnel, they were subsumed within others. See p. 24 for a full listing.) These guidelines are broadly similar in format to those sent out last year promulgating CDP require- ments for consular, economic, public diplomacy, eco- nomic and political generalists. While the details for each FS specialty obviously vary, both in terms of the specific technical and language proficiency to be acquired and the number of mandatory and elective criteria to be fulfilled, the fundamental principles are similar across the board. In order to be eligible for consideration for promo- tion, the employee must demonstrate over the course of his or her career from entry through tenure, and up to consideration for promotion at each relevant threshold, the following characteristics: 1) Operational effectiveness, including a breadth of experience over several regions and functions; 2) Leadership and management effectiveness; 3) Sustained professional, technical and language proficiency; and 4) Responsiveness to Service needs. (See p. 26 for a more detailed description of the indi- vidual requirements for the Career Development Pro- gram.) There are two key differences between the Career Development Program guidelines for generalists and those for specialists. While all generalists covered by the new rules are required to identify regional or functional majors and minors, specialists have no such requirement. Second, while all generalists are eligi- ble to compete for promotion into the Senior Foreign Service, not all FS specialties are able to do so. In fact, a number of specialist CDPs stop short of the SFS mark (well short in several cases), and even some of those which include SFS slots offer only a handful of them. Specialties with Upward Mobility into the Senior Foreign Service: Construction Engineers Financial Management Officers Regional Medical Officers Regional Medical Officer/Psychiatrists Information Technical Managers Diplomatic Security Officers Diplomatic Couriers Health Practitioners Security Engineers English Language Officers Information Resource Officers Human Resource Officers Specialties with Limited Upward Mobility: General Services Officers: up to FS-1 Facility Management Specialists: up to FS-1 Regional Medical Technologists: up to FS-2 Office Management Specialists: up to FS-3 Security Technical Specialists: up to FS-3 Initial Reaction from the Field The Journal sent out an AFSANET message in Janu- ary soliciting FS specialists’ reactions to the guidelines and posing several general questions: Is the career path [for your specialty] viable? Are the requirements for promo- tion to more senior ranks realistic, both in terms of the lev- els of professional, technical and language proficiency specified, and the time allotted to attain them? If not, what specific advice would you give the department as it pre- pares to move into the implementation phase of the pro- gram for your specialty? Has the promulgation of these principles affected your willingness to compete for promo- tion to senior ranks? We heard back from several dozen members, mostly in the office management and information management specialties. (See p. 27 for a roundup of some of the responses.) While that small a sample is obviously not sta- tistically valid, it does offer some insights. Some respondents see the Career Development Program as a useful, if limited, step forward. Ken Myrick, an Office Management Specialist in Managua, writes “The new CDP is very robust. ... It gives everyone goals to strive toward and clear-cut guidance as to experience and skills that will make them competitive for promotion. ... The downside is that the career opportunities for OMSs F O C U S 22 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 6 Steven Alan Honley, a Foreign Service officer from 1985 to 1997, is the editor of the Journal.