I’ve been surprised at how different experiences have proven themselves useful in consular work here in Riyadh. Arabic, Islamic Studies, and Political science all have obvious connections. Now that I’m working on the embassy website, even the computer science courses I hated make me an ’expert’ in meetings. But more than work, degrees, or anything I could put on a resume, the best preparation for consular work has just been playing Starcraft.
Micro Mechanics and Dexterity The State Department’s visa processing software is not user friendly. Every visa application requires some combination of 20 clicks, 20 hotkeys, and a few sentences of notes before it can be sent for processing. In Riyadh’s consular section, I have become the master of hotkeys, and I can only thank Starcraft. Competitive video games punish any player using anything but the most efficient means of computer interaction; any player who cannot control their units in the game with both keyboard and mouse will almost always lose.
Much like a preset build-order in Starcraft or group of hotkeys. Going through the 70th daily visa interview requires a precise, mapped, automatic of actions to be effective. The steps needed to process a student visa are engraved upon my brain as effectively as a zergling rush.
Alt-s; g; tab tab tab tab c; alt-s; [mouse to window]; tab tab; "student" tab "i20 start"; alt-f alt-s alt c alt m; "self" ; alt-f alt-s alt-c alt-m [click]
Balancing Micro and Macro Starcraft also forces a player to combine ‘micro’ (using the mouse and keyboard to perform a precise action in-game) and ‘macro’ (overall strategic considerations for a game), which also align perfectly with visa interviews. In an interview, my ‘micro’ is simply navigating the application. Most visa interviews start with the following sequence:
Hello, how are you? السلام عليكم، كيف حالك
(Eye contact); Scan Barcode
Ctrl-e; Ctrl-o; Ctrl-tab;
Okay we are going to start with fingerprints, can I get your right index finger on the red screen? طيب، سنبدأ بالبصمات. فظ السبابة اليمين على الشاشة الحمراء.
Spacebar; Ctrl-end; Tab down arrow; shift tab tab enter; ctrl f4;
Thank you. Hold on a moment while I take a look at your application شكراً. انتظر لحظة خلني أطلع على طلبك
(Eye contact) alt v; ctrl f4; alt m
As the interview continues, I need to start ‘macro’ considerations such as whether to ask about travel history or determine precisely what businessman means. But during the interview, micro keyboard combinations can be even more intense when it comes for real data entry:
Alt-s; g; tab tab tab tab c; alt-s; [mouse to window]; tab tab; "student" tab "i20 start"; alt-f alt-s alt c alt m; "self" ; alt-f alt-s alt-c alt-m [click]
Yet all the micro optimizations in the world collapse behind the larger imperative: don’t let a terrorist in. The shadow of 9/11 still hangs over every interview. 10,000 correctly approved visas mean nothing if number 10,001 is a false-negative.
Rewarding Improvement loops Finally, Starcraft lengthens the attention span and rewards meta-cognition. In high school, I was focused on perfecting my strategy by repeating the same actions in 7-minute games over and over for hours. I could spend days without interruption. Now I do spend days working on the same 4 minute task over and over.
If I wanted to be even better at my job, I probably should have skipped calculus in high school, and just played more Starcraft.