Just some post first-tour thoughts
We are headed into our second post, and there are many lessons learned and thoughts that have come up along the way….
Death by bureaucracy
This is a government job so it should not be a surprise that the bureaucracy can be soul crushing. There is so much paperwork, and seemingly a different online platform to complete each step along the way. Just when you learn one system, it gets swapped for another. I’m learning to embrace the inevitable change, and forge on, but it can be frustrating.
Nothing happens until you have your funding cable
There’s cables for medevac and air ambulances, but there are also cables for anything that involves spending government funds- including moving, shipping belongings etc.
EER- I have to do this yearly?!
This is our yearly employee evaluation report, and it is a PROCESS. Essentially write an essay on why you are awesome, and then it bounces around into the ethers of cyberspace. My mentor very wisely advised me to keep an ongoing word document on my desktop where I continuously keep track of things i have accomplished. This is one of my least favorite parts of the job.
Home leave- love it or hate it?
People in DOS seem to have strong feelings about this. So far halfway into our first HL- I’m pro home leave. It’s 20 or so paid working days to go back to the U.S. in between assignments. I get the financial aspect is tricky especially to find housing for a month for larger families. We will be bouncing between, friends, family and airbnb’s. But being back in the bay area, surrounded by my people was such a boost to my soul.
Nobody will advocate for you and your family.
Be blunt and upfront with what you need. Choose posts on what makes sense for you and your family- not necessarily to climb the career ladder. (Unless you have ambassador ambition then climb that ladder and take no prisoners!). Nobody is looking out for you except for yourself- I’ve learned to advocate for what we need.
As a medical provider you CAN get posted in DC.
This was something I didn’t realize before coming in. They are mostly administrative jobs, working for the DC medevac center, for clearances or for big MED where all the large scale decisions and advocating goes on. It’s hard to to convince people to come back to DC because you have to find and pay for your own housing, AND you loose your overseas differential so you end up getting a bit of a pay cut. BUT the bonus is that a DC tour is viewed favorably career wise (at least for MED), and the understanding is that coming out of DC you tend to get your pick of locations.
Work life balance has been amazing.
For me, in a small post (30 US direct hires ) it has been super easy to take time off for kids or general life related stuff. I’ve ben able to take off for long weekends and head to neighboring countries. I’m curious to see what life at a larger post will look like. I’m sure more patients, will inevitably mean more after hours calls, but this is nowhere near the crush of a full time job as a medical provider in the U.S.- grinding through 20-25 patient’s a day, with little to no flexibility. I can’t imagine going back now.
Bidding
Bidding on our second post was still directed so we went through our CDO. Third tour bidding will be a completely different experience. We will no longer be “Entry-Level” and there will be a larger diversity of locations, we won’t be getting the “leftovers” so to speak. We also have the possibility to get a 3 year posting and extend to 4 years if we are really are feeling the location.
Lots of opportunity to make of this job what you want.
Teach CPR at a local school, put on a health fair focused on education and prevention, local outreach, link up with USAID or other agency’s on a health project. If you have the time and bandwidth you can do lots of stuff.
MED really does foster continuing education.
Yearly in person CME’s, continuous health education called “HUGR’s” as well as regional in services.
Medevac way more than I anticipated.
Lots of urgent but stable stuff that we send via commercial air. It is not so complicated- just get approval from the RMO and local medevac center, and send off a cable funding.
Saved so much money
In this 30% differential and 15% COLA location, we managed to save a significant amount of money- even considering how much we traveled. Granted- we are a dual income household (V still works remotely). This is one of the unequivocal bonuses of this job.
DPO & Pouch
Even in hardship posts, there are ways to ease the burden of life. Access to mail in places like Burundi has been a huge plus. We can order online from all our favorite stores, and it gets delivered directly to the embassy.
Worth it?
1,000 times yes. Don’t know how long we will stay in, but we are definitely going to keep on going for a few more tours before reevaluating if this continues to fit for our family.
Afro beats below- curious what the music scene in Moldova will bring!
