Interest in FBI / CIA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would not appear that the current crop is particularly covert as evidenced by the number that "know somebody".

There are thousands of overt employees at all of these agencies. Not everyone is "undercover."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The idea that all FBI employees have to endure FBI academy training is laughable. Special agents, absolutely, but no one else at the FBI is going through the academy in the same way agents do. I work in a related agency (and have spent time at the FBI academy), know many FBI employees, including attorneys, and not a one of them has been through the academy.

A lot of suspect info in this whole thread.

+100
People watch TV and movies and think that's real life. So absurd.

[Anonymous]

International Affairs, National Security, Foreign Affairs, languages, STEM - all are good majors.

Virgina Tech has the Hume Center for National Security and Technology and it offers many opportunities to hear speakers from the IC, mentorship, info about internships, and student organizations for students interested in this career path. It's an invaluable resource.

https://hume.vt.edu/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NSA might also be worth a thought.

Yes, that, too. Best way to get there?

"https://www.nsa.gov/careers/"

With a math, physics, or EE/ ComputerE degree from any military academy, one can be commissioned as an officer. If one has such a degree and then selects signals intelligence or cybersecurity as one's military career field that would be ideal preparation. For USAF, as an example, one would request assignment to an Electronic Security Sqdn, and those are part of the Central Security Service (CSS). Transitioning to a civilian job at NSA after one's service commitment would be easy.

[Anonymous]

It’s odd you would group these together. The FBI is about policing. The CIA is intelligence gathering. CIA is not what I think about when I think of law and order.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s odd you would group these together. The FBI is about policing. The CIA is intelligence gathering. CIA is not what I think about when I think of law and order.

They're both about public service and protecting the country. Both in different ways, but still with a purpose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s odd you would group these together. The FBI is about policing. The CIA is intelligence gathering. CIA is not what I think about when I think of law and order.

Effective policing is often based on intelligence gathering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s odd you would group these together. The FBI is about policing. The CIA is intelligence gathering. CIA is not what I think about when I think of law and order.

They're both about public service and protecting the country. Both in different ways, but still with a purpose.

Yes, in the broad sense, they share that mission. But the means by which they pursue the mission are quite different.

Am I right to say that FBI is more about investigating domestic federal crimes and helping prosecute those criminals while CIA is about gathering and analyzing complex data (communications, financial, satellite imagery, HumInt) to understand and predict other countries’ behavior, including but not limited to threats against the United States?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s odd you would group these together. The FBI is about policing. The CIA is intelligence gathering. CIA is not what I think about when I think of law and order.

They're both about public service and protecting the country. Both in different ways, but still with a purpose.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s odd you would group these together. The FBI is about policing. The CIA is intelligence gathering. CIA is not what I think about when I think of law and order.

They're both about public service and protecting the country. Both in different ways, but still with a purpose.

Yes, in the broad sense, they share that mission. But the means by which they pursue the mission are quite different.

Am I right to say that FBI is more about investigating domestic federal crimes and helping prosecute those criminals while CIA is about gathering and analyzing complex data (communications, financial, satellite imagery, HumInt) to understand and predict other countries’ behavior, including but not limited to threats against the United States?

Yes.

[Anonymous]

I worked for one of the groups involved in this discussion, & guided my kid to a parallel career.

There are federal law enforcement agencies other than the FBI, & other intelligence agencies besides NSA & CIA. So do some research about the options. Some of these overlap with the military, which is one reason military personnel (current & former) are overrepresented.

The importance of having lived a fairly clean life cannot be stressed enough. If there has been drug use, criminal activity, or unusual contact with people from foreign countries, it complicates the all-important security clearance process.

They will talk to friends, neighbors, & co-workers to see if you are odd in any way. My kid did a semester abroad & they even talked to a family in that country whose children my kid gave English lessons to.

Getting treated for mental health issues doesn’t automatically disqualify people, but it’s just one more thing you will have to explain in detail & probably show documentation of. It’s pretty much the more interesting your life has been (meeting a wide variety of people, moving often, changing jobs frequently, & traveling abroad), the more complicated the security clearance process is.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone recommend an accessible book or two that would help someone in their late teens / early 20s understand the modern CIA and/or NSA and the range of roles and groups within these agencies?

Not looking for a history of the CIA or NSA or a moment of time / incident in the past, but rather something more current but still broad enough to get a sense of the range of these agencies. (Obv they’re not all spies trying to recruit assets in foreign countries …. )

Fiction would work, assuming it’s not grounded in reality rather than speculative trash. Thx.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a close friend who was a CIA agent briefly (she learned quickly that the job was not for her). She was a history major.

One of my friends in law school applied to the agency. She comes from a semi-famous family and there’s tons of info on them if you do a google search. I could see why the CIA would not want to hire someone with this profile.

FBI is in the business of law enforcement. They need to be law abiding citizens. CIA on the other hand, is beyond this level. They are the type that goes overseas to "take out" enemies. No sense in talking about law and order here.

The CIA is filled with lawyers. Every agency, including IC agencies, produces memos to justify actions. In the case of most agencies, lawyers actually try to make sure agency action is lawful. In the case of the IC, they just pretend knowing their assessments will likely never be released.

The CIA is lawless. No point in arguing. They have conducted sickening experiments on US citizens. They also knew of and/or assisted in the assassination of JFK.

[Anonymous]

Korean and tax law

[Anonymous]

James Comey - W&M