Sunday, January 19, 2014

What, No Welcome Kit?

Just like any assignment overseas, a Washington assignment requires time to acclimate to the new surroundings. After four months on the job, I'm still discovering niche departments and offices tucked away in the folds of their parent bureaus. I'm still learning where to go to find current information and where not to go (e.g. any intranet Sharepoint site).

A new job overseas also requires a learning curve when working in a new language. Likewise, I work closely with military colleagues and am slowly improving my militarese (I'd say I'm a 1+ / 2 on the FSI language scale). We all know the stereotypes of our brethren in uniform, but I'm still amazed when I hear one of them utter a complete sentence using nothing but acronyms and abbreviations.

My advice to FSOs who start their first DC assignment after working overseas is to recognize that just because you are in the States, that doesn't mean you won't need time to adjust. Don't expect to have everything figured out right away. However things look your first week on the job, forget it. Things always look different once you start sliding down the backside of the learning curve.