Students attending last week's panel learned that no matter what government agency they join, a polygraph test is included.
Recruiters from the CIA, FBI, Secret Service and U.S. Army Military Intelligence came to Quinlan Life Sciences' auditorium last week to discuss job opportunities at their agencies. The recruiters gave brief lectures about each agency, the types of intelligence involved and analytical jobs available. Most were hiring recent college grads from the fields of international relations, political science, computer technology, finance and what they called "critical" language areas. Critical languages are those in high demand such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi/Urdu and Russian.
Currently, these agencies are placing a priority on hiring applicants with professional knowledge of these or other languages. The CIA is specifically looking for exceptional candidates to become field-based information collectors.
The CIA's pool of successful applicants has an average GPA of 3.7, which makes the application process very competitive. In addition to stellar grades, candidates must undergo a unique screening process. Some agencies may look back at a person's record from the past 10 years. Others go back further and all require special polygraph tests to back up claims made by applicants. This forms the basis of the top-secret security clearance that an applicant needs to work for any of these agencies. In addition, applicants must not have used illicit drugs in the past 10 years.
"I've seen many applicants rejected because they used illicit drugs as long as nine years ago," Jane Higgins, FBI, said. "This comes along usually late in the hiring process and it removes them from the pool."
So what does a competitive applicant look like? All applicants must be U.S. citizens. Most likely he or she has great foreign language skills in a desired language. The CIA is partial to applicants who speak critical languages and the Drug Enforcement Agency looks for proficiency in Spanish. For the FBI, one needs a lot of experience in law enforcement in order to become an agent. The Secret Service does prefer a law enforcement background, but it is not necessary to be accepted. The DEA is highly competitive and values law enforcement like the FBI. Applications for the FBI, DEA and CIA are available on their respective websites. For other agencies, job seekes must apply at USAjobs.gov.
"I didn't get in the first time I applied to the DEA," John O'Dea, DEA, said. "You have to be persistent and keep applying."
All of these agencies have branches that deal with foreign intelligence gathering, so political science and international affairs backgrounds with regional emphases are highly valued. However, candidates with these majors are not the only ones that are needed. These agencies also hire sociologists, lawyers, psychologists, accountants and sign language specialists.
"Right now we're hiring because our mission has changed since 9/11," Henry Medina, CIA, said. "Americans are showing their patriotism by serving their country, and we're switching from being an agency that in the past dealt primarily with the Soviets to counterterrorism around the world. This is a good time to apply and we are always looking for unique applicants."
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