Mine were......
PAS/DMG
PSP
FSP
IRS
MLCG
PAAS
PCS
OMG
CTG
PG
IG
RCTG

why custom so down ? Let me tell you that is is not only a custom collection agency but has now responsibility of protecting borders.

__________________
Don't wait, feel happiness right at the moment as wait will never end.

1) FSP
2) PAS
3) PSP
4) PCS
But I am afraid that I have to revise it before the interview as I have just read http://www.cssforum.com.pk/general/d...signation.html

Seriously, senior members as well as respected CSP Officers are requested to please guide us.

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Expect the best, Prepare for the worst.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah

For me the question truly becomes, do we want to join the Public Service or a particular branch of it? I could really go into a long discourse on the subject, that includes the contents of this thread and the one you referred to, but lets leave it for another day. What i would say though is that things are not as straight forward as they look. But then again i am sure you already knew that, right?

The thing to remember in my opinion is that the world we live in is full of shades; both, the people who comprise it and the circumstances that surround them. The glaring reality of it all is that a good majority of us are just situationally limited or, for completeness sake, circumstantially inspired to making choices that can be argued, either way to be either sub-optimal or supreme. They may be quite straight forward for some and yet immense for others. The point being, and i say this with utmost sincerity, there is no right or wrong choice, just choices that we as individuals have to live with.

I would argue, without elaborating too much, that everything, and by that i mean everything 'human' has a myraid of dimensions to it. The 'kicker' my friends is to locate the dimension that resonates with you, and if you have a shred of inquiry about yourself, which i am sure all of you being intelligent individuals posses so, you will keep searching for and relocating that dimension as and when you come across various decisions over and over in your lives. The luckiest among us would be those who discover what we love or are passionate about early enough and then end up doing it for the rest of our lives. These are the people who by my definition never have to 'work'. The rest of us are frankly searching for a way of life, that can be as much as it is possible, close to and acceptable to the socio-personal identities we have internalized.

So i will go on and narrate a story about a very close friend of mine who is also a CSP and been so for nearly 3 years now. For the sake of the story lets call him Mr. R. Now, R. appeared in the CSS examinations a few years back and as is obviously the case, qualified them.

Now i asked R. a few questions back then and in course of time of our association, and since i believe that they are relevant to most of you, in a manner or so, i will recall them to my best:
Q. R. why do you think we are giving this exam? After all we are investing the scarcest of our resources, time in it. Is the end goal just to get in or are we looking beyond that? And what happens if we do get in, what's the plan then? And along the same lines, what if we end up in a service that is not our 'first' preference? What if we end up in a service that is not right for us? And what if we end up in a service we are not right for?
There was a continuous dull list that just went on and on, but i am sure you get the gist.

Now R. being much more nuanced, mature and honest individual than myself came up with a measured reply.
A. You know Omar i am not too sure but i will let you know somethings. I believe our reasons to give the exam are too complex and diverse to be put in the shape of mere words, but for what it is worth i think it must have something to do with 'our lot'. I think that the kind of life we have had determines our outlook on our choices. Perhaps we are searching for that elusive purpose which we may find in the service of our nation? Or maybe we are looking at means of moving ahead in our national social organization? Perhaps we are just following a path that we have seen many in our families or friends or just people around us or we have heard about follow and become 'apparently successful' to us? Or it could be that we are just looking for a stable job that gives us a sense of security about ourselves? Maybe we want to improve ourselves as individuals through the opportunities that this way of life will entail? And quite possible on some level we may just be looking at a way to make some money? This is an on going thought process again, but the important thing to remember, he told me, is to become certain of which ones of these apply to me and you and while others would judge our choices differently, as callow or callous, as innane or humane, ultimately it will be a combination of their judgements and our reactions to those judgements along with the utility that we are deriving from our choices ourselves that would determine how we will end up feeling about them.
He had to pause since he realized he was answering my unending list with a list of similar sorts, so he said lets talk about the other questions you had in mind.
A. To be straight, at this point, i am not too sure what happens when/if we do get in. It is as much an unkown to me as is my or your future, so i believe we will just have to make do with our best judgements and efforts as things come along. But before we do that i think we will have to realize for ourselves why we are doing those things and what we ultimately want out of them. And frankly what we want will change over time, undeniably so with our progression in life. So i think if we can be certain enough of the general direction that we take with these choices and that direction appears to conform with who we are, we will be okay.
A. As for what happens if we do not get the first option i think it would be horrible. And don't get me wrong it does not mean that one service is better than the other, it is just that how could it possibly work for me (and R. wanted to join the police service) if i end up in FSP or PCS when all i have ever dreamed of is PSP? I know i can do a 'good' job in those areas as well but my inspiration would need re-calibration and while it may be possible for some i am not entirely certain i would be able to do it, not untill it is too late perhaps even. So i dread the day i get 'allocated', a funny concept in itself, to something other than my first option. But i know Omar we have to be realistic in our approach so lets make a promise that we will do our best in which ever job we find ourselves in, and by doing our best i do not mean that we will be diligent and honest, that goes without saying, but that we will not lose sight of the bigger picture and consciously try to steer the course of our lives and make the best possible choices and keep improving ourselves and the ones around us, so that even if we are in a place that we thought we wouldn't belong in will wonder how could it have possibly survived this long without us. (I just noded because most of this went over my already spinning head at that time) He went on adding, and remember this is not an end in itself Omar, atleast that is not how i see it. While quite undeniably it is one of the most important decisions of my life, it is still I who has to decide how to handle what comes out of it and you know me, I will keep on striving in the only manner i know, putting every minute to good use to do what i want with myself.

Guys, R.'s story is a long one and perhaps if we bump into each other here or somewhere we may continue it at that time. And i am sorry despite me trying to keep this brief i seem to have ended up saying a bit too much. The lessons i took from R. are infront of you. FPSC's system is what it is, and as broken as it is, it did let me into the paths of some of the most inspirational, sharp, courageous and outstanding people i have come across in my life, so i look at it as an imperfect tool that someone from us will improve one day but lets make the best out of it. So what ever service groups you end up writing, try to be conscious of the reasons you are writing them. And i am sure there will be many reasons that will come to your mind including what a lot of current and ex-civil servants over here and else where have to say about them. While always consider these opinions, do keep in sight what your own qualities, capabilities, inspirations and aspirations are and then go for the one where you decide you would be at home.

Look further beyond the next four five months at other options, and try to remain productive and positive throughtout this duration and beyond because quite sadly and i do feel sad in bringing this up: 800 of you have done amazingly to qualify the written part but the final number of seats is quite likely to be considerably lower than that. and at this time there is no way to know who will end up where and how it would all roll out, and i know the feeling that at this moment every single one of you, and justifiably so, feels good about the upcoming days. I do not mean to discourage you, not the least bit and i sincerely wish the best for all of you but please look after yourselves and what you do with the time in between.

And to finally come to FSP and what the discussion has been alluding to here and there. FSP is a 'different' group and i delibrately avoid using the term 'unique' because i prefer the neutral connotation that 'different' denotes. It will put pressures on you in ways that you cannot possible comprehend unless you have to go through them. And believe me i used to say that i understand them, but little did i know. These pressures are quite different from the ones faced by people in DMG, PSP, PAAS, PCS, IRS etc and people in these groups get thrown into situations that some would argue are more tough and demanding than anything an FSP ever has to face, and i would say to these people quite rightly so. Because the facts of life in FSP are just different. They all have their similarities, i do not deny that, but the objective here is to outline the differences.

Would you have to face situations where you think your foreign policy is a farce? I do not deny that. Would you find the rat race to be more cut throat and contriving than anywhere else? I will not deny that either. Will you be emotionally torn to shreds sitting in a foreign country, forced to live an uncertain, stressful concoction of a life designed on someone else's whims that you barely feel you can relate to? I cannot deny that completely either. Would you feel like you have lost all connection to your roots and in comparison to your batch mates do not even have a foundation or network to fall back to? I cannot preclude this thought from arising for some as well.

This is where it stops usually, but let us not stop here for once. Would you be living a life that exposes you to center's of learning and opportunity? Will there be an option to explore the world like a free spirit? Will your nuclear family end up growing with a different socialization to the one carried out by our society? Would you be able to come to realization of how big power structures and organizations work? Will it improve your understanding of the world we live in and our place and identity as people within it? Again it would all depend on how you approach your career and choices within this life.

The benefits, a funny term for a country like ours i feel personally, are there and the hard parts are tangible as well. The important thing is to remember that viewed from a certain view (lets call it political but a better term would be bio-power as suggested by Foucault), ALL and i am vehemently and unabashedly of the view that all service groups and i mean all, including and especially the supposed BIG four or five groups suffer from apathy and disregard of the ideals and would disgust any puritan of 'public service'. I believe that our discussions and discourse on this subject have suffered at the hands of the very protagonists and practioners, who i feel in their efforts to come up with justifications for their personal dilemmas and in process of dealing with their own demons drag the debate down the road of this is better than the other, which is just plain wrong and unfair. Our job as people who have had some experience, whether it be good or bad, and i realize the difficulty in it, is to convey as objectively as our sensibilities permit us - the facts as we relaize them. My effort in all of this is not to belittle an group or service, but to share my view that while each group has its various aspects, the major decision facing all of you is to realize what works for you as an individual and then to ask yourself whether you would be willing to 'settle' for anything else and if so then what does it say about the original answer you came up with? It is not a straight forward process neither is it easy in the 'real world'. It's importance i feel is in helping us understand our choices, ourselves, our approach and our aspirations and then dealing with how these realizations make us feel about ourselves, and think about who we would want to be as people, who at the start i mentioned have only one truly limited resource - the time we have been given to spend.

Foreign service is either for someone or not at all i feel, try and think about it like that and you may end up being one of those who make it into what 'it ought to be' rather than ending up as R.'s friend who had to make this discovery much further down the road where choices seem to limit themselves. This analogy could perhaps in more favourable circumstances be extended to PSP and other groups as well, but the underlying formulations would remain the same. So either you could think about these things or just ignore these as rants of a random guy, again the choice is completely yours.

As an end note i would like to mention that Mr. R. is a fictious imaginary friend of mine, and yes i do have a lot of those, and i was just taking the mikey out of you lot and did not mean a single word of all i have said above, after all why else would i waste a good hour or two in doing so?

__________________
There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. ~ William Shakespeare

Well, mine were:

1. PAS
2. FSP
3. FSP
4. PSP
5. MLCG
6. PCS
7. Postal
8. PAAS
9. Railways
10. CTG

OMG and IG not opted.

But now, I am thinking to revise as follows:

1. PAS
2. PSP
3. IRS
4. MLCG
5. Railways
6. Postal
7. PCS
8. CTG
9. PAAS
10. FSP
11. OMG

IG still not considered. I know its different but still.... don't find any room of improvement keeping in mind my temperament.

__________________
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure....

1. FSP
2. PAS
3. MLCG
4. IRS
5. PCS
6. PAAS
7. CTG
8. Postal
9. OMG
10. IG
11. Railways
12. PSP

__________________
Valar Morghulis ~ All Men Must Die!

@ aminshah101

With this group preference let me point it out that you have already excluded the following groups:
7. PCS
8. CTG
9. PAAS
10. FSP
11. OMG

So it doesnt really matter if you put IG there or either of these for that matter. The reason being that if you are high enough in the merit then you will get one of your first 3 choices and if you are somewhere at the bottom end of allocations or even the middle part you will fall into choices 3 to 5. Therefore for completions' sake just write down IG at the end as well or don't, because i cannot really think of any realistic scenario is which you get allocated and not fall in choices 1-5. Just my thought.

__________________
There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. ~ William Shakespeare

True, basically Foreign Service would not be a much suited career track I have realized that in time. Ditto for Accounts and OMG. As for Customs and CTG, I believe now the promotions are equally slow as the from serial number 4 to 6, that's why thought to opt for a challange

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In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure....

That is a timely realization indeed! But i hope the other challenge you are referring to is equally well thought out, because promotions aside the kind of job you do will essentially end up defining a big part of your life. So do give it a thought as to where you would be more comfortable in the long run and not just the initial 3-4 years!

Anyways this might already be a late reply so good luck!

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There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. ~ William Shakespeare

Fortunately, its not so late as I am waiting for my viva thing in Phase II at Lahore.

Well since you are currently into the business, you can better explain the situation. But what I have inferred from my family members, that shows that except DMG (now PAS), FSP, and PSP, none of them are a complete package.

While PAAS, IRS and OMG foster good chances of promotion, but are monotonous and do not offer diverse exposure.

Customs and Postal give high authority but slow in promotions and perks are low.

Commerce & Trade gives foreign postings but low in perks and overshadowed by other groups,

Information gives connections but that's all it can offer

Cantonments and Railways have better perks and facilities than any other service but slow promotions...

Moreover, other than the initial 6 I have mentioned, the rest have equal chances of promotion. So except for the top 3, rest remains the same. That's what I have inferred. That's why going with mixed chances.

Moreover, I am also going through 2013 written attempt right now so it can Insha Allah offer a corrective action if I Insha Allah get allocated in 2012 and am not satisfied with my group.

Baaqi, your suggestions are more than welcome in this regard.

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In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure....