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

[snowqueenofhoth.livejournal.com]

Heh, kind of the same for me. I actually DID go to recruiting, just because it was convenient, and hey, why not?

I majored in Jewish Studies. Studied Hebrew. So of course, the recruiter was thrilled. "Oh, that's great! A good basis for Arabic!"

Um... I mostly studied Biblical Hebrew. And focused on the Ancient Near East. Like... the Bible. Sumeria, Babylon, Akkadia, Judea... yeah.

Duh

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Because they have just discovered new Sanskrit terrorist cells!

Re: Duh

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*slaps forehead* Silly me. All those Sanskrit terrorist cells in funny orange robes.

Icarus

*snerk*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I am considering going, just out of curiosity. How would they present themselves, what are they looking for (how skillfully will they cover up the fact that they're looking for Arab, Arabic, and more Arabs)?

Re: *snerk*

[cheshyre]

I'll confess, were they here I'd be curious to have some fun with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell..."

I don't have language skills, but I've got a library degree and a love of (and talent for) ferretting out information from computers...

[plsteward.livejournal.com]

*Laughs* Please let us all know how it goes. First off, prefect time for research for fandom & AU fic. Secondly, I really, really want to know just what their reaction is when you tell them you major & language (who knows, maybe they think it's a good sign that you can pick up on other languages from the area too? And yeah, I don't really believe that either.)

[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.)

Re: *snerk*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I'm curious about what they'd have to say about Rumsfeld's attempt set up a military version of the CIA under his control within the Pentagon. I'm sure they CIA's not helping him with that and there's going to be some serious bungling on the part of the military.

The person the CIA should be after is wildernessguru. He's a PoliSci major and he lives this stuff, devoting his spare time to tracking military sales around the world. Of course, WG's opinion? "Join the CIA and spend the rest of your life lying about what you do!"

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Sanskrit is closely related to Hindi, after all. Still, I think at my school they're most interested in the China studies students. That's our strongest department by far.

The person they'd be most interested in is WG, with his military knowledge and interest. He'd never go for it -- not even to get access to all that top secret info: "Not under this administration, Jesus. The administration of misinformation."

Icarus

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

Hey, just dropping by to let you know that I did finally finish the ficathon story for you. SO SORRY. The Best Policy (http://katie-m.livejournal.com/230225.html#cutid1).

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

"My specialty is Middle Eastern political science and I'm fluent in two major dialects of Arabic, as well as Persian."

"You're hired."

"And I've been working as a GLBT community advocate and I sing in a all-gay choir."

"Bugger off."

"Okey-dokey!"

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

("an all-gay choir"...talk about sandhi)

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

hehe. Here in Aus we have similar organisations. One is for local stuff and one for international stuff. I went to job interviews for the international one and it amused me greatly. They made you do all these personality tests and things (which whoa, detailed and I just know they are on file somewhere), then when you got to the interview stage you got mail from the agricultural department suddenly. Hee. Because it was all a big sekret.

The interview was hilarious to me. They wouldn't even tell you their names. I mean, come on, they could have told me incorrect names, but no, and then they made you promise not to tell anyone about anything you'd seen (um, one room and a couple of people without names *blinky*) I found it all very weird.

That was for a science position though and even by that stage they couldn't tell me what the job was.

They didn't hire me though and I shall never know. :P

Fic-a-thon? Huh? Oh -- oh yeah!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You did? Hey, that's great! So cool, I'd forgotten all about this.

*bounces over to read*

Icarus

[enname.livejournal.com]

The Australian equivalent to the CIA was recruiting not to long ago, all over the place. I suppose I could apply as my other major was in Pol Sci (especially Middle Eastern studies), but being that my main language is currently Latin.. and well, whilst I might think thirteenth century France is important to now, no one else seems to agree. Also actual facts about the Middle East might get in the way of their goals.

Then I was talking to a friend who wanted to get into pysch profiling for them and she was explaining her interview process from a perspective of a Dr. of psychology. *snerk* Too funny.

Re: *snerk*

[snowqueenofhoth.livejournal.com]

Well, hey, it could be interesting. You're not obligated or anything so... *shrugs* And hey, it was sort of fun. Although afterwards, I was very very certain that the CIA is not for me.

If you go, please share!

[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

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You know, they might not mind the gay stuff if you're an analyst. I met a pretty "out there" analyst for the NSA. Strange, strange man.

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, now that's interesting. Could you triangulate what you think they were asking for, based on your qualifications?

Icarus

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

blackletter points out that they may consider Latin as a wonderful base to teach you other languages.

I just want to ask them about Rumsfeld's new Secret Support Branch (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29414-2005Jan22.html) WG read about in the Washington Post.

she was explaining her interview process from a perspective of a Dr. of psychology. *snerk* Too funny.

Now I'm curious. How was it different from any other interview process?

Icarus

[enname.livejournal.com]

Yes, might be, but I highly doubt that medieval Latin is a wonderful basis to teach anyone anything. It is in a lot of ways only similar at a surface level to classical Latin. Unless of course they have a lot of Catholic documents that need reading....

Who doesn't?

Well she was a trained (as in pysch trained and police trained) at profiling and interviewing. So she said it was a bit like playing cat and mouse. They knew she wanted to do well and could manipulate/read their questions. She knew that they knew that she would do that and so .. you see what I mean? It was almost like a performance test rather than an interview. Plus she was talking about what they were testing for and their criteria, which is more than some are able to get.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Well I had a Bachelor of Science (honours) with a heavy slant toward molecular biology, though there was some biochem and random other subjects in there.

They did let slip that the job would not be laboratory based, but mostly desk work and involve a fair bit of interntional travel.

Still no idea what the job was. Could have been sifting though inteligence on possible biological threats or somesuch, though it was probably much more mundane than that.

[bruinsfan.livejournal.com]

Hey, maybe the C.I. A. doesn't have that much use for people who know Sanskrit, but you never know if they might make a recruitment recommendation to the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Do I get to work with Mulder? I'm putting that in my contract.

Icarus

[harveywallbang.livejournal.com]

hahahaha

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*g*

I ended up busy and didn't go, but I'm still curious what their response would have been.

Icarus