Last week, I received a surprise, heads-up email from my CDO (Career Development Officer): In June, we will begin bidding for our second-tour post!  We weren't expecting to bid until August at the earliest.  We are only 10.5 months into our first tour, yet we are already looking at our career plans for 2013-2015 and beyond.

Second-tour bidding is a very different, and a lot more complicated than in A-100, where we simply picked from a list of 100 available jobs and ranked them high, medium or low. There are all sorts of variables that go into second tour bids, from Home Leave and language training schedules to terms such as Transfer Eligibility Dates (TEDs) and "Fair Share Rules." 

We haven't seen the Summer bid list yet, but that hasn't stopped us from coming up with hypothetical dream lists and transfer & training schedules.  But don't expect us to share a list of "dream posts" or our bidding strategy, lest I jinx it or someone steals our ideas!  Stay tuned!