So, where to next?

[LordShiva]

Peruvian women are hot, too.

[Eli]

Jerusalem is 1 hour away from Tel Aviv for your dose of cosmopolitanism and it has gotten quite safe recently.

[Barnabas]

I wouldnt like to live in La Paz :P

[Nugog]

Moscow!

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by onodera
Moscow winter are not THAT cold. :P

They always look bloody cold to me

[Lancer]

Yeah really. Tell that to the German army.

[Kidlicious]

Cold weather isn't a problem as long as you don't join any armies that plan to invade Russia.

[Lancer]

That is EXACTLY what I intend.

Next life.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Spec
How about some place fun? Like, Japan, Brazil and such.

Why do you we have to choose between **** holes?

Spec.

Good question, and several people have asked, so here's the deal: first, because State has two bidding cycles a year, and because tours themselves last 2- or 3-years, only a small percentage of State jobs are open for bidding at any given time. Then, those that are open are subdivided by areas of specialization ("cones," in department lingo -- political, economic, consular, management, and public diplomacy) and by grade. On top of that, many of the "fun" posts are reserved for people coming off Iraq tours.

As a result, my potential bid list begins by being whittled down to about 50 jobs. It then gets further reduced by eliminating all the jobs I can't get trained for in time (jobs requiring me to already speak French, for example, or require me to fluently read and write Mandarin by mid-2009). Once you knock those off, I'm left with a list of 25 or so jobs. Now eliminate all the jobs in Asia (since I'm not supposed to serve here again so soon) and all the jobs in African hellholes and the Stans, and voila -- my list (which really represents 9 jobs, since there are 4 jobs open at my cone/grade in Moscow)

[DinoDoc]

So where does the CIA want you to go?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
So where does the CIA want you to go?

[DinoDoc]

Is this a situation where you'd have to kill me if you told?

[-Jrabbit]

What's most important to you? Career advancement? Personal safety? Doing Important Work?

[Kuciwalker]

My understanding is that the first and last items on the list are pretty much the same, and very negatively correlated with the middle item.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
What's most important to you? Career advancement? Personal safety? Doing Important Work?

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
My understanding is that the first and last items on the list are pretty much the same, and very negatively correlated with the middle item.

Not exactly, but sort of.

Career advancement = what the Administration values
Important work = what I value

Needless to say, these are different things; if they weren't, either I'd be going to Iraq or the Administration would be spending our money on Darfur. They do overlap -- in China and India, for example -- but China = more Asia (a no-no) and, bizarrely, there are no India jobs for me on the list.

Also, while important and/or career-enhancing work is oftten dangerous, dangerous work need not necessarily be either important or career-enhancing (see West Africa).

I'd say it's important work first, career advancement second, and personal safety third, with the proviso that I won't go anyplace so dangerous that they won't let my wife come with me (that rules out Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi, and Pakistan, among other places).