Welcome to Brazen Careerist!

About Me

Hey everyone!

My name's Noramone Potter, though everyone calls me Nora. I'm a half-Thai, half-American dual citizen. I was born in Bangkok, Thailand and I lived there for the first six years of my life. Thanks to my father's job, that's the longest I have ever lived any where in the world including the U.S.

What does my dad do? Well, he's a Foreign Service Officer, a path that I have been trying to actively follow since I was a kid.

Due to my father's occupation, I've lived in Egypt, Indonesia, the Philippines and Italy. However, I've been to numerous other countries as well to visit including Singapore, China, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Germany, Malta, Turkey, and the list goes on. Last time I took the time to actually count up all the places I've been it was over twenty different countries! Not including stop overs in the airport, because honestly that shouldn't count.

I'm really thankful that I've had such a bizarre childhood as I've become a rather well rounded person, used to adapting to new environments and people. I also gained a rather diverse group of friends from different ethnicities and cultures that has allowed me to look at the world in a different perspective than many of my college friends in Virginia.

I enjoy learning new languages, though I managed to stick to French and Japanese which I started in Middle School and High School respectively. Right now I'm trying my hand at Mandarin. It turns out it's really not that hard once you get used to the different tones.

I also enjoy exploring new places and new cultures. It's my personal goal to travel to as many different countries as I possibly can (and try out all the new food that I can while I'm at it!)

Now that I've graduated, I'm trying to devote my energy into passing the Foreign Service exam. Having an alternate job right now would be great in the meanwhile since the process could take over a year even if I do pass. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, if you guys ever have any questions about traveling around the world, be it just advise for domestic travel or international travel, give me a holler. I'll be happy to help out in any way I can.

Work History

• U.S. Embassy Cairo - Consular Section
• Biometrics Engingeer
• June 2008 to August 2008

• Processed visa applicants in accordance with U.S. visa application policies
  Utilized my customer service abilities to handle hundreds of applicants everyday
  Learned Arabic on the job to effectively communicate with the Egyptian applicants
  Drafted recommendation for revocation memorandums for visa cases.
  Cross referenced pending fraud cases against Fraud Prevention Unit records.
  Updated Immigrant Visa section's excel performance charts.

• U.S. Embassy Cairo - Ambassador's Office
• Administrative Assistant (redux)
• December 2007 to January 2008

• Assisted in managing three separate Congressional delegations and a Congressional Staff delegation to Egypt
  Made travel arrangements for the U.S. Ambassador's trips
  Handled telecommunications, executive correspondence and official invitations
  Escorted executive guests around the U.S. Embassy

• U.S. Embassy Cairo - Office of Military Cooperation
• Budget Assistant
• July 2007 to August 2007

• Assisted in managing the budget for all military operations in Egypt
  Filed and organized budget records from previous fiscal years

• U.S. Embassy Cairo - Ambassador's Office
• Administrative Assistant
• July 2007 to July 2007

• Made travel arrangements for the U.S. Ambassador's trips
  Handled telecommunications, executive correspondence and official invitations
  Escorted executive guests around the U.S. Embassy

• U.S. Embassy Cairo - Community Liaison Office
• Summer Hire Coordinator
• May 2007 to July 2007

• Learned all hiring procedures on the job and wrote a guide for future coordinators
  Managed the hiring process of all the U.S. Embassy and USAID summer hires
  Corresponded between different offices to expedite the hires' security clearances
  Allocated the summer hires to different offices according to their skills

• USAID Cairo - Executive Office
• Project Team Leader
• June 2006 to August 2006

• Supervised a number of peers in two team projects, the Paperless Office Project and the Geographical Inforamtion Systems (GIS) Project
  Developed my project management skills so well that I was transferred to the higher priority GIS project as the team leader
  Learned the new software quickly in order to effectively supervise the projects and my peers
  Presented the results of the GIS Project in a power point presentation to the heads of the USAID departments, which was later presented to the U.S. Ambassador by a representative of USAID

• U.S. Embassy Cairo - Public Affairs Office
• Data Entry Assistant
• May 2006 to June 2006

• Created and edited data entries for thousands of correspondents of the U.S. Embassy
  Assisted in the organization of the U.S. Embassy's official Fourth of July Party
  Reorganized and inventoried the Regional Language Office's library
  Designed a Word html webpage for the Regional Language Office

Education

• College of William and Mary
• Bachelor of the Arts, International Relations, East Asian Studies
• 2005 - 2009