CIA: Oh, I'm tempted to go just for the entertainment value.

[icarus]

Just got this reminder email, to be sure I don't miss my chance to interview with the CIA:

It's No Secret. The CIA has a variety of challenging and rewarding career opportunities!

We will be hosting an Information Session on Monday, 10/23 at 5 PM
in HUB Room 309.

The session will be conducted by representatives from the Directorate of
Intelligence (Analysis), Open Source Center (Foreign Media) and the
National Clandestine Service (Operations). Online applications for
interviews through Husky Jobs have closed, but feel free to bring your
resume to the information session to be considered for available interview
slots on Tuesday.


[Name Deleted]
Regional Recruiter
Central Intelligence Agency
West Coast Recruitment Office
Website: www.cia.gov

Think they'll still be interested when they find my foreign language is Sanskrit? I can just see how that interview would go.

CIA recruiter clasps his hands together: So, what's your major?

Icarus: South Asian studies.

CIA recruiter nods: Definitely an area we're intereted in.

Icarus: I study Ancient India, specializing in the fourth century and the reign of the Buddhist King Asoka. Got any job openings?

CIA recruiter: Um.

Comments

[blackletter]

Although, the fact that you're learning *Sanskrit* might imply to them that they could teach you any other language they wanted you to learn. At least, that's how it seemed to work with the armed forces. One of my old fellow grad students joined the Navy and was put in counter-intelligence because they were impressed by his linguistic skills...in Latin and Greek. (Of course, the *real* joke among the department was that the student was a classical archaeologist, not a philologist, and one of the worst in the department when it came to languages. He joked that he'd find intelligence in the Navy and he'd counter it.)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You know, I hadn't considered that possibility. I've no doubt that they're recruiting at our school because it just won a lot of government grants for China and South Asian studies. It's cool -- we're number two behind University of Wisconsin, and they're the magnet program for the entire country. I suspect the CIA's hoping for more than Sanskrit from this school.

I've a friend who was in Army Intelligence in Vietnam (their group won some medal that they're not allowed to have, they just got shown it). He tells me they spent much of their time stoned.

I'm considering going, just for the entertainment value. Because I want to ask them what they think about Rumsfeld's Strategic Support Branch:

The previously undisclosed organization, called the Strategic Support Branch, arose from Rumsfeld's written order to end his "near total dependence on CIA" for what is known as human intelligence (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29414-2005Jan22.html).

There's a group that's going to make a lot of mistakes.

Icarus