Getting Settled In...

I've been at Post for almost a month now and am getting settled in with the routine. There's so much to learn and I don't think 2 years will be enough to learn all that I hope to accomplish.

We still don't have the Internet hooked nor our household effects (belongings being shipped from the U.S.) nor our car. The Internet should be hooked up by next week and everything else will be in April.

The weather is starting to improve and I cannot wait for that. The city is amazing and has a beautiful skyline, walking by the river at dusk is one of the best things about this place. It's even better when it's warmer.

We're hoping to make our first trip to Bavaria once our car gets here and then make some drives to Czech and Poland to be tourists and get some things for our apartment.

The apartment here is a good size and if it were rented on the economy it would probably go for around 1500+ euros a month. I'm lucky that it's covered, along with the utilities, by the State Dept.

I'm enjoying work and enjoying the people. We have our own Pearson-Vue testing center at the Consulate, so before my two years is up I fully plan on getting my MCITP Enterprise Administrator certification. Let's hope I can stick to that.

I'll try to post more about life in Europe once I get my connection hooked up...

Arrival At Post

I landed in Germany last Friday, fighting jet lag I was still able to meet up with an old friend stationed here in Germany. It was great being back in a city I love and also getting to hang out with a good friend.

My inprocessing went extremely smooth, a little too smooth. I'm used to DC and the ever looming threat of paperwork being misplaced etc; But, everything went perfect. From getting a place to stay to having all my forms and IDs ready at Post.

I'm looking forward to my 2 years here. I've been in Germany before but I plan on a lot more exploring this go around.

I will have some photos up soon but it's hard to get online right now as I don't have the internet hooked up just yet.

Last Day In DC

I leave tomorrow to Germany. Couldn't be happier although there is still a ton to do. I should probably be taking some action and getting stuff done versus being on here but I need a break.

I've got my things packed and it's a lot more bags than a normal trip. A one way flight to another country and I've got 5 bags packed. Sheesh. Lucky a friend of ours is driving me to the airport tomorrow and Thank God for them cause Taxis are expensive and getting these bags to the Shuttle pick up would be a pain.

Getting into country isn't going to be to stressful. I basically get picked up, taken to the Consulate and have some ppwk to complete and get the keys to my apartment there. That's it. Then we have a 3 day weekend. I'll need it to adjust to the time zone and recover from jet lag.

I'm a little nervous about starting work, training has been great but I feel it's just the basics of what we do and not the whole enchilada.

I'll post here more frequently about my experiences as a new hire. In the meantime I've got to get homework done since I won't have 'das Internet' (yep...that's German for the Intenret, I'm so smart) for a while.

Til next time.

IMS Position Open Again...

If you missed your opportunity to apply last time it's open again:

http://careers.state.gov/specialist/vacancy-announcements/ims

It's Been A While...

I figured I'd come back and update this blog. For those of you reading this trying to get into the FS I'll forewarn you, this will probably be more geared towards family and friends so they can check in whenever and see what's going.

I recently graduated from our Core training which is several months of entry to intermediate level IT training. We cover everything you've seen in the job description so needless to say it's quite a bit.

The training is really just enough for me to get myself into some trouble when I get to post, but I really needed it. I came in from a Sales/Marketing job and hadn't been hands-on in IT for quite some time so this was beneficial for me.

I've had some people e-mail me and ask about their background in IT and whether or not it's suitable for them to join the State Department so I'll just say this, we have a ton of different specialties in my training class even. For instance we have an MBA, a DBA, Sys Admin, IT Security, Programmer and even me, non-IT. Rumor is in the future they will look for more non-technical people to fulfill the IMS role...I can't really see that happening but who knows.

For anyone looking to join the State Department I'm pleased to tell you that the culture is absolutely amazing. Everybody seems to be mission-focused yet have a great sense of humor. This of course is here at FSI (Foreign Service Institute) and I'm sure that the personalities will vary from post to post.

For future IMS hopefuls I'm hearing that there will be a class starting in March, so hopefully some invitations will go out soon.

That's all I've got for now, will try to post more often.

Flag Day & Orientation Complete

Flag Day was Tuesday of this week. I was pretty surprised and excited to find out I am being assigned to Frankfurt, Germany. Can't wait to get there and start work.

Other than that we've completed our orientation training and are now moving into our job specific training. Length of training varies depending on your specialty. I'm ready to get started on it and then get to Germany.

Day 1 - Inprocessing

I heard a ton of horror stories about paperwork and Day 1 of joining the State Department. I have to be honest, it wasn't bad at all. In fact, there wasn't really that much paperwork to do in my opinion.

Day 1 consisted of several briefings and being issued your badge or ID card.

I have to admit it was a bit rough staying awake. I haven't worked in 6 weeks and haven't had the need to wake up on time for anything. I could've started last week to get myself acclimated...but why? That would ruin my last week of vacation.

So far so good. I definitely made the right career choice. I haven't started any job related training or received an assignment, but I can just tell by the way the people in this organization act and conduct themselves that this was a good choice. Very happy to officially be a member of the State Department.