Rick, MPIA-SIS, 2014- “Alphabet Soup”

Rick, MPIA-SIS, 2014

Blog Post #3

Just about everywhere you go there is some sort of insider lingo.  Friends, school, and work all have inside jokes, references, and specific vocabulary relevant to the situation.  The government, it seems, takes this to a whole new level - just about everything has some sort of acronym or shortening.  The Department of State (DoS) is just as acronym heavy as anywhere in the United States Government (USG).

Just take a look at the official organization chart of the Department: each bureau and office gets its own letter designation.  Working for the Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance, Office of Euro-Atlantic Security Affairs becomes T/AVC/ESA. 

Not only do offices have acronyms, but also documents, programs, and even people!  It’s definitely a learning curve when starting out.  I have never heard anyone actually say the phrase “Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary,” but I have heard countless references to the “PDAS.”  For laws, one must look no farther than the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA).  It takes awhile to get up to speed with the new vocabulary (not to mention the new information behind that vocabulary). 

On my first day in my office at State I was handed a binder with an intern orientation guide, which included a 60-page single-spaced acronym list.  Ironically, I soon discovered that few of the things I needed to reference on a daily basis were in this list!  Based on that, I decided to update and expand the list to be more relevant and helpful to those interns that will come after my tenure.  It’s also a good project to fill in time when I finish up official assignments early.  As it stands now, the list weighs in at about 105 pages and counting!

That’s not to say that we spend all day coming up with sentences made up entirely of acronyms, or that you’ll need to spend your nights after work memorizing lists of acronyms.  It does help, however, to become familiar with a few common acronyms and the organizational structure of the Department of State.  If you’re really serious about pursuing opportunities at the Department of State, I strongly suggest taking Prof. Skinner’s Foreign Policy and Diplomacy course.  Not only will the familiarity help you better target your application to your interests and experience, but also once you get in, you will be able to bend that learning curve farther in your favor.