Company Overview
Created in 1947, the most clandestine arm of the U.S. government is not actually all that secretive. Though the agency doesn’t release budget or employment figures, many of its positions are out in the open. In addition to operations officers (commonly referred to as spies), the CIA employs cartographers, statisticians, regional experts, engineers, scientists, linguists, graphic designers, doctors, and a host of others. The CIA offers students internships, co-ops, and graduate study programs.
The CIA goes out of its way to get to know those it hires. The hiring process includes a clearance investigation, which, according to the agency, “addresses comprehensively one’s loyalty to the United States, strength of character, trustworthiness, honesty, reliability, discretion, and soundness of judgment. In addition, it examines one’s freedom from conflicting allegiances, potential for coercion, and willingness and ability to abide by regulations governing the use, handling and protection of sensitive information.”
Real People
Engineer
When Ana’s friends ask where she works, she tries to give a vague answer. As an engineer at the CIA, Ana needs to keep her job a secret, so foreign intelligence will not pinpoint her as a target for a security breach. On a day-to-day basis, Ana’s work revolves around designing tools and services that ultimately make her CIA counterparts safer when they’re out on missions.
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Human resources administrator
Before her job in human resources at the CIA, Jackie was a stay-at-home mom, caring for and supporting her son. Now as an HR administrator, she is providing a different kind of support to the agency’s expansive staff of intelligence collectors and analyzers. Jackie says she was first drawn to the CIA because of its top-secret depictions in movies—and so far, the cool factor hasn’t worn off.
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