Eyes-Deep in the Bullshit

Our bids for the next assignment are due on Monday. Tahra submitted an incomplete draft of her intended bids to her CDO (Career Development Officer, the person who is supposed to guide her and help her get her first few assignments, until she gets tenured and can lobby independently for assignments), and the following is the response she got back (edited by me for simplicity on the actual bid list). Note: references to "equity" mean the combined level of "hardship" and "danger" that the State Department assigns to various posts. For comparison, Seoul is a 0% danger, 5% hardship post (it really should be 10-15% hardship, but that's another story).

Dear Tahra,
In my opinion your only viable bids are Mumbai and Chennai - maybe Manama as a very outside option (I really think it will go to Mgmt Officer in higher equity.) See my annotations below -- if I noted GONE it's not that I think it will be gone when we get to the 5%ers, it means there is no doubt in my mind that it will be gone. I think your top 8 bids will go to 20 and 25 percent bidders - not 10 or 15 percenters.

India is not a sure bet, but I think it is doable and I'll do my best for you.

CAPETOWN - GONE
LONDON - GONE
JOHANNESBURG - GONE
LJUBLJANA - GONE
BELFAST - GONE
JERUSALEM - GONE
CANBERRA - GONE
HARARE - Very Likely Gone
MANAMA - Maybe
MANILA - Likely Gone
HARARE - GONE
MASERU - GONE
MUMBAI - Maybe
ACCRA - GONE
CHENNAI - Maybe

What's wrong with this picture? Well, not only are the obvious nice places gone, but even the craptacular places are gone as well. (Look 'em up if you're not sure where they are -- I had to for some.) "India is not a sure bet"?!? Are you shitting me?

And somehow, they expect us to put together a "viable" list of 20 bids -- even after more than half of the 36 or so original possibilities have been essentially vetoed (you can't bid on multiple positions at the same post).

On top of that, Tahra tried pleading with her CDO for language training to get an assignment in Russia that has been "Historically Difficult to Staff" (according to the State Dept.), and here's what came back:

This issue - the one regarding second rounds of language training - has been brought up on a number of occasions. HR has been firm on this and would not agree to give you Russian training. I assume from your comments below that you are not inclined towards the India posts either.
As I indicated in my previous email, I really do think you have a tough decision to make. You will need to make the best decision for you and your family. I'm sure you are a wonderful officer and we are fortunate to have people like you, but it's possible that the Foreign Service is not the best choice for you right now.
Let me know if I can provide additional info.

Wait a second -- did the CDO just suggest that Tahra quit?!? That's bullshit! They're not supposed to do that -- they're supposed to -help- you get an assignment that works for you. This person deserves to have some total crap happen to her career, so she can get a taste of what she's dishing out.

Net result? Extending here in Seoul to bid on the winter cycle only made things worse, and Tahra's CDO is the opposite of helpful.

It's looking more and more like our next "assignment" will be back in Minnesota where we can get away from this crap. It's just too bad that Tahra is being forced out of her dream career by the very system designed to sustain it.