Foreign Service Examination and Career Counselling Inc. (FSECC) was established in 1984 in Ottawa, Canada. Since then we have expanded—literally worldwide—to help individual clients with specialized career advancement materials and personal coaching, and provide institutional and corporate clients with workshops and organizational development consulting services.

Our company’s expertise, based on the diverse international work and corporate training experience of president Barry Yeates [click here], has made FSECC the preferred resource for people seeking entry positions or career progression at officer and executive levels in Foreign Service work, government in general, and international organizations.

In particular, we provide individual clients with a significant advantage in highly competitive staffing exercises. We do this by separating fact from rumour about how institutions apply hiring and promotion criteria, and by showing candidates how they are screened, tested, interviewed and evaluated using arcane behaviour-based methods which we understand thoroughly.

A list of client organizations we have served is shown below, and comments from individual clients are displayed elsewhere on this website. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) by prospective clients are also provided for information.

To discuss your personal or organizational needs and how we can help, please contact us after looking over our array of services.

Individual Clients

FSECC has provided test prep materials, simulation, interview and other career advancement coaching to thousands of individual clients in Canada, the United States and abroad.

Services initially focused on helping university undergraduates, graduate students and doctoral candidates seeking entry-level employment. Over the last 15 years we have expanded to become an “entry to exit” career development resource, dealing with professionals seeking career change, experienced individuals pursuing internal promotions or outside opportunities, and retiring executives honing their job search skills and materials to find consulting work.

Our clients come from different academic backgrounds and universities around the world, and from a wide range of sectors, jobs and levels. For example:

• Disciplines include: law, politics/international relations/development studies, business/commerce/administration/MBA, public administration, economics, history, journalism, languages/linguistics, psychology, applied sciences, and engineering.
• Places of study include: virtually all Canadian universities; U.S. institutions including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, MIT, Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, Duke, North Carolina, GWU, Georgetown; European universities including Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, London, Sussex, La Sorbonne and l’ENA.
• Types of positions most commonly sought or worked in include: Canadian diplomatic officer and related jobs (political/economic, commercial/economic, immigration, management/consular or international development streams; administrative staff, commercial officer and policy officer); U. S. diplomatic officer (political, economic, public diplomacy, consular and management tracks, or specialist, commercial or development jobs); government executive, multilateral organization staff, and NGO program officer.

To honour confidentiality, we do not publish the names of individual clients. However, testimonials provided voluntarily by clients are displayed on this website along with comments and names of supporters.

Institutional and Corporate Client Organizations

FSECC has led consulting teams, participated with other firms in projects, and carried out individual assignments with client organizations listed below.

Canadian Government Departments and Agencies
(Listed by name used during our work with them)

Central Agencies

• Privy Council Office
• Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
• Department of Finance

International Departments and Agencies

• Global Affairs Canada
• Canadian International Development Agency (now part of Global Affairs Canada)
• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
• Canada Border Services Agency
• Immigration and Refugee Board
• National Defence
• Passport Canada

Other Departments and Agencies

• Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development
• Canada Revenue Agency
• Canada School of Public Service
• Canadian Coast Guard
• Canadian Food Inspection Agency
• Canadian Heritage
• Canadian Human Rights Commission
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• Canadian Security Intelligence Service
• Communications Security Establishment
• Correctional Service of Canada
• Elections Canada
• Employment and Social Development Canada
• Environment and Climate Change
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada
• Hazardous Materials Information Review Commission
• Health Canada
• House of Commons, Information Services
• Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
• Justice Canada
• National Gallery of Canada
• Office of the Secretary to the Governor General, Chancellery of Honours
• Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada
• Parks Canada
• Patented Medicine Prices Review Board
• Public Health Agency of Canada
• Public Safety Canada
• Public Services and Procurement Canada
• Royal Canadian Mint
• Shared Service Canada
• Transport Canada
• Veterans Affairs

International Organizations and Business Associations

• International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna
• International Centre for Migration Policy Development, Vienna
• International Civil Aviation Organization, Montreal
• International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva
• United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Vienna
• United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs, New York
• International Trade Centre, Geneva
• Association of Manufacturers and Exporters Canada, Toronto
• Canadian Association: Latin America and Caribbean, Toronto, and partner Chambers of Commerce in Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti
• Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce, Bridgetown, and affiliated Chambers of Commerce in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, Antigua, Grenada, Dominica
• Belize City Chamber of Commerce, Belize
• Metal Trades Industry of Australia, Melbourne

Corporations: Canada and the United States

Communications Sector	Bell Canada, Rogers Cantel Paging
Electronics Sector	Panasonic, Casio
Food Service Sector	Beatrice, Capital Foods, Rich’s Products
Manufacturing Service Sector	P. G. Bell, PMI Equipment, Armtec, Mactac, Van-Rob Stampings
Financial Sector	Citibank

Educational Institutions/Associations

International Schools	Lycée canadien and Université canadienne (France), Red Cross Nordic United World College (Norway), Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific (Canada)
Universities	Alberta, Calgary, Manitoba, Windsor, Waterloo, Brock, McMaster, York, Toronto, Queen’s, Ottawa, McGill, Concordia, Moncton, Dalhousie
Secondary School Boards	North York Board of Education, York Board of Education, Niagara South Board of Education
Conference Workshops	See list of venues and sponsors under Workshops [click here]

Why Trust Our Services?

We are the only career coaching firm that specializes in helping candidates understand and advance in government, multilateral organization and international NGO hiring and promotion competitions—from entry level to executive level.

No other service offered by government, universities or the private sector—past or present, in North America or abroad—matches the expertise we have developed or the placement record we have achieved over the past 25 years. The success rate of our clients in institutional hiring and promotion processes attests to the quality of our training. Please take the time to read testimonials sent to us which are shown on this website under Client & Supporter Comments [click here].

Links to our List of Standard Programs and Services [click here] and to the Profile of our Director [click here] are provided for additional background on our capabilities to help you.