Career Development and Training
One of the primary benefits of working for the Department is that career development, leadership management, and training are part of the professional culture. Starting with the Civil Service Orientation in your first weeks of employment, mandatory for all new civil service employees, the Department is fully committed to providing career development and training opportunities to its employees. You are encouraged to discuss your career objectives, interests, and training needs with your supervisors and bureau Training Officer, and review the personal and Professional Development programs managed by the Career Development Division within the Office of Civil Service Personnel Management.
Individual Development Plan (IDP)
Once you settle into your new job one of your first assignments, along with your supervisor, is to develop an Individual Development Plan (IDP). The IDP maps out short and long-term developmental strategies that will help you perform in your current position and prepare you to take the next steps on your career path.
- Foreign Service Institute (FSI)
- Training Continua
- Career Development Resource Center (CDRC)
- Mentoring Program
- Master of Business Administration (MBA) Program
- Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence Degree Program (MSSI)
- Mustang Career Mobility Program
- Civil Service (CS) to Foreign Service (FS) Hard-to-Fill Program
Opportunities for Advancement
Promotions within Career Ladder
Some of you may be serving in a position that has promotion potential beyond the grade level at which you were hired. If this is the case, when your supervisor feels that you have demonstrated the ability to perform successfully at the next higher grade level, he/she may recommend that you be promoted when certain requirements are met (e.g., time-in-grade, general and/or specialized experience requirements). If you're not serving in a position that has promotion potential, you must compete for a promotion through either the Department's internal Merit Promotion and Internal Placement Program or the OPM competitive examining process described below.
Merit Promotion Program
The Department's Merit Promotion Program is designed to provide an open, systematic, and equitable procedure for the identification, consideration, and selection of employees for promotion on the basis of merit. The intent of the Merit Promotion Program is to give Civil Service employees every possible opportunity to develop and advance, to make the most effective use of skills, knowledge and abilities, and to achieve a satisfying career with the Department. Management has the right to determine the method by which vacant or newly established positions may be filled. The Merit Promotion Program is just one method available to management, and may be used in conjunction with other hiring methods.
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Competitive Examining
The OPM competitive examining process is used to hire individuals who are "outside" as well as "within" the Federal government, hence the term "all sources" announcements. This process affords individuals in the private and public sector as well as Federal employees who do not have civil service status to compete for positions in the competitive service. It also enables lower graded Federal employees to compete for promotion opportunities by bypassing the one-year time-in-grade requirement; however to qualify for the higher graded position, individuals must have the qualifying education and/or the appropriate level of qualifying experience. Veterans, with preference, who apply through the OPM examining process, have five to ten points added to their score, in recognition of their service to our country.
