Today, the U.S. Department of State is announcing an additional innovation to the Foreign Service selection process, further advancing the Secretary's goals to modernize American diplomacy and win the competition for talent.
Beginning with candidates who took the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) in February 2024, the Department is moving to a fully virtual Foreign Service Officer Assessment (FSOA). All three components of the FSOA - the Case Management Exercise, Group Exercise, and Structured Interview - will now be conducted over a virtual platform. This change ends the requirement that candidates travel to participate in an in-person FSOA. This significantly increases accessibility for candidates, eliminates travel costs and other logistical burdens, and improves candidates' experience in this highly selective process.
This change to the FSOA follows nearly four years of conducting virtual Foreign Service Specialist Assessments (FSSA), which have demonstrated the benefits of a more accessible process while maintaining the rigor and effectiveness of these assessments. The Department is confident, based on studies and a review of the virtual FSSA, in finding consistent results between virtual and in-person assessments.
We will continue to assess Foreign Service candidates, both Specialists and Generalists, using a set of common criteria or "dimensions" that describe a core set of skills and competencies shown by extensive job analyses to be required at entry.
