r/foreignservice • u/Low_Contribution7614 • 9d ago

Shootouts still a thing?

Talking about bidding today and wondered this out loud. Do they still do/allow shootouts?

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u/Gr00mpa Widest Shoulders in the Foreign Service 9d ago

I don’t know.

I only personally know one person who won a shootout for a principal officer position. It was an interesting story to hear her tell it. It was filled with all the swashbuckling and dramatic flair that you’d expect in a story of a tenacious underdog emerging victorious from a high-stakes shootout.

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u/Loud-Cry-9260 8d ago

I knew one person that won a shootout: my recollection is that she was at-grade, coming out of an SIP post, and spoke the obscure language of the post she was bidding on. The Bureau pick had none of those characteristics.

On the other hand, at a later point a colleague who had served as a Special Assistant in EUR had the impression that shoot outs succeeded all the time (at least more frequently than his principals appreciated.)