This news is a coming a bit late but based on the number of variables and the confusing nature of bidding at this stage of Misha’s career, I wanted to make sure I didn’t report news that would require a retraction later on down the line. With that in mind, I am happy to announce that our third tour assignment will be in Hanoi, Vietnam with an expected arrival of summer 2025!
Mid-level bidding, or bidding as a third tour officer and beyond, is an entirely different animal from tours one and two. For our first assignment, we were given a list of a relatively small number of jobs, of which we indicated high, medium, and low priority. Second tour was a much longer list, from which you pick 20 jobs to bid on. These 20 must be what is known as “perfect bids”, where our departure and arrival dates line up, accommodate trainings and home leave in between tours, and, with a few exceptions, were in our cone or specialty (economic or political in Misha’s case). Both cases can be described as “guided” because there is a finite list of jobs the officer can bid on and another management office in DC ultimately assigns officers to their next post.
This time around was very different. Mid-level bidding is like applying for a new job, where we submitted cover letters and/or statements of interest, recommendations from colleagues, and then sit for interviews. The key difference is that Misha is already employed by said company (weird, right?). And Misha will need to do this interview process for every subsequent assignment. In addition, we must make sure the timing makes sense, considering trainings dates, departures and arrivals, and home leave.
As you would expect for an organization as large as the State Department, the process takes quite a bit of time. Firstly, an unofficial list was released late in the summer with the expected, but not confirmed, openings for the summer season. The start date for these jobs varied wildly, ranging from early 2024 to late 2025. While we were not required to bid “in cone”, it is expected at this point. One benefit of doing so at this stage is that you are guaranteed an interview for each “in cone” bid. The most exhausting part of this stage is, while the interviews are conducted, officers often must share how the rank a potential job while keeping in mind how many others are applying for the same job (so you may not even get an offer on that position). Posts within the same bureau (i.e., Europe or Western Hemisphere) will communicate with each other, so you can’t just go around telling everyone they’re your top pick.
I’m proud to say that Misha was a top choice for several of the jobs to which she applied. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as straightforward as “you’re my top choice, I’m your top choice, you’ve got the job.” Our top choice was in Pristina, Kosovo, and was a job focusing on Serbian integration. Misha ended up coming in second here and was offered a different position. The new offer required Albanian instead of Serbo-Croatian, so we decided to change up our priorities and focus on Vietnam.
Misha was top choice for a position focusing on human rights in Ho Chi Minh City, and she reciprocated the sentiment following the Kosovo fallout. However, she was also the top choice for the same position in Hanoi. Hanoi is a harder to staff post, so they are given the chance to offer positions to people a little earlier than other posts. This dance and rather roundabout way of finding ideal applicants really wore on us – how do you commit to one early offer when you don’t know if other posts will offer an equally great position? Rather than waiting a month, we decided Hanoi was the job we wanted, and accepted the offer.
It feels weird knowing our five-year plan, but we really do have much of our next five years planned out now. We will be departing Guatemala mid to late summer of this year and head to DC for Misha’s lengthy Vietnamese training. After that, we’ll have 3 years in Hanoi. The biggest variable is whether I decide to join the Foreign Service as an OMS (see my previous blog on this position here). My eligibility is slated to begin in late October, which likely would have me joining a class in January or April of 2025. While the timing would work out perfectly for both of us to arrive in Vietnam that summer, it’s not guaranteed that I would be able to find a job in Vietnam. At this point, we’re just not ready to commit to being apart for a full tour. One positive sign is that the department appears more willing to keep tandem couples together these days, so maybe this worry is all for naught. In any case, we have plenty of time to figure it all out…
Beer and Diplomacy 
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