Discussed this with a guppy. Thought i should post it up in this Forum incase someone is interested, or you know a friend/family member who would be interested in applying.
If you are living in a large-sized city like Toronto, they hold annual Foreign Service seminars/prep exams. Check with your immigration center to find out location, dates, timings, etc. Most city and academic libraries should also have a booklet titled “Foreign service exam study kit” (edited by Barry Yeates - believe it or not he used to be one of my profs :o Nice human, but very boring professor). It’s a study guide for the foreign services exam.
The exam itself comes in three components:
i) graduate recruitment test
ii) written communication proficiency test
iii) Foreign Service Situational Judgement Test
The last one is sort of the most subjective, i guess. They will test you to gauge how you would react in different scenarios as well as your inter-personal and ‘diplomatic’ skills for getting out of tricky situations. One of the examples i remember seeing in the booklet mentioned above, is that you’re sitting at the Canadian embassy in Sweden, and a Canadian female citizen calls you. She’s been beaten up by a Swedish man; her money/passport/visa/credit cards, everything, have been stolen from her. They go on to add more complex details to her situation. So you have to discuss in detail how you would go about helping her, not only what type of actual help you would offer, but how you would calm her down over the phone… interpersonal skills, and a knowhow of what rights Canadian citizens have abroad, are essential.
Component # iii tests your mathemathical and technical problem-solving skills. The second component tests your proficiency in English (or French, as the case may be).
Link with all the delicious info: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/department/service/apply-en.asp