The Foreign Service Journal, May 2006

2004 and 2005 as the process unfolded, and also took advantage of meetings like the annual OMS conference and regional meetings of specialists (which he addressed via videoconference). A CDP Primer Both for specialists and generalists, the Career Development Program draws on four overarching princi- ples: operational effectiveness; leadership and manage- ment effectiveness; language and technical proficiency; and responsiveness to Service needs. All members of the Foreign Service seeking eligibility for promotion must meet a set number of mandatory requirements that cor- respond to these four principles, as they apply to their functional skill groups. The only difference between the principles for specialists and generalists lies in the third principle. All generalists have a mandatory requirement to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language as tested by FSI at the 3/3 level. The contact groups and State Department management thought it was more important that specialists build throughout their careers upon the professional skills that brought them into the Foreign Service. Thus, their CDP emphasizes enhancing techni- cal qualifications through training and certification. Still, as we all know from working overseas, foreign- language proficiency usually helps anyone do a job better. Consequently, most of the specialist groups, 12 of the 17, have an elective requirement in foreign language profi- ciency, usually at the 2/2 level. Four other groups have a mandatory language requirement, usually at the 2/2 level: DS agents, OMSs, GSOs and ELOs. Couriers must com- plete a FAST course at FSI in a language appropriate to one of their assignments. There were certain things the drafting groups felt everyone in a given skill group must do, which became the mandatory requirements for that specialty. As for the “electives,” the concept was to encourage the widest range of experience possible among the highest-ranking mem- bers of each skill group. Toward that end, each CDP offers a menu of things that officers should be able to accomplish over the course of a career. Meeting the mandatory and elective CDP require- ments for a skill group opens the gateway to the top levels of our professional corps. For generalists and some spe- cialists, this gateway is the Senior ThresholdWindow. For other specialist skill codes, the gateway gives access to the pinnacle for a specific group, ranging from FS-1 to FS-4. Let’s look at what the four principles mean in practice. Operational Effectiveness. In the Contact Groups, all of the specialists believed that a series of tours in their spe- cialized fields, regardless of geographic location, repre- sented a better means of showing an individual’s increas- ing competence. Because we have 17 different specialist CDP career paths, the variety of assignments is huge when taken together, though straightforward when bro- ken down by specialty. For example, Financial Manage- ment Officers have a specific menu of domestic and over- seas assignments at specific grade levels that they must meet to prepare for the Senior FS. Leadership and Management Effectiveness. The mandatory requirement under this rubric says that all members of the Foreign Service will take the FSI leader- ship courses appropriate to their grades, beginning at the FS-3 level. However, Office Management Specialists and Security Technicians will not reach FS-3 until they have completed their CDP requirements. Until then, there- fore, they must choose other leadership courses to fulfill a mandatory requirement under this principle. Language and Technical Knowledge Proficiency. There are some differences between how generalists and specialists fulfill their requirements under this principle. For example, all generalists must have an FSI language score of at least 3/3 that is no older than seven years when they open their Senior Threshold Window. As noted above, some specialist groups also have a mandatory lan- guage requirement, but most may choose it as an elective. The technical knowledge proficiency aspect of this requirement pertains only to specialists. It is always pro- fessionally-related, building on the skill set that brought an individual into the Service in the first place. The 17 dif- ferent specialist groups or skill codes have a wide range of requirements under this principle. For example, Informa- tion Resource Management personnel must obtain advan- ced certification recognized by an outside IT specialists’ organization, such as the Chief Information Officers Asso- ciation. Foreign Service physicians and psychiatrists must maintain membership in a specialized professional society. Responsiveness to Service Needs. This CDP require- F O C U S 34 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 J. Christian Kennedy, a Senior Foreign Service officer, has served in Panama, Hermosillo, Poznan, Georgetown, Mexico City and Washington, D.C. He is currently the senior adviser for the State Department’s Career Development Program for Specialists.