I Chose the CIA
SUSAN — Program Manager
CINDY — IT Engineer
KATHY — Ops Officer
DOUG — Network Engineer
STEVE — Deployment Manager
BILL — Information Officer
ABEL — HR Officer
JAMES — Electrical Engineer
LISA — Electronics Engineer
JEROME — Senior Engineer
SUSAN — Program Manager
A few years after moving to Washington, I applied to and was hired into a training program that led to open-source foreign language procurement and dissemination. That job evolved into Project Management. Now I provide guidance to four visible and uniquely different programs working with teams of contractors and staffers. I help with tactical and strategic plans for each team, identifying opportunities and resources in their missions, while removing or resolving obstacles. I have a personal desire to help aspiring Program Managers since I received a lot of help and support along the way. I consider this a "special" organization. There is a passion for the mission and indescribable talent here.
CINDY — IT Engineer
Having worked for CIA for almost 15 years, I started my career as a cryptographer in the Office of Communications. After spending a year in the Women's Executive Leadership Program, I became a project manager, and then Branch Chief. Now I manage a division of approximately 130 staff and contractors, and serve on panels - evaluating and providing direct feedback to our engineers. The Agency employees are truly the best and brightest. Potential applicants should have high energy, ambition, a positive attitude and a strong desire to serve their country.
KATHY — Ops Officer
I heard about the Agency during a College Career Fair. Although many other positions sounded intriguing, I was drawn to the idea of living overseas and serving as a collector of intelligence. After receiving extensive training, the Agency put their complete trust in me to travel and recruit foreign agents who provide information, carrying out this entire process in a clandestine manner. Dealing with people, operating with so much independence, and relying on my own street smarts and training to make critical decisions is the ultimate challenge. Every week is different - it can be slow one minute and breakneck speed the next. I've done some thrilling operations that mirror what is seen in the movies, and I feel tremendous pride that I, an average all-American female from an average American family, am the one doing it.
DOUG — Network Engineer
After graduation, I came to work for the network service branch, and have been in engineering and configuration management and re-orgs for three-and-a-half years now. A typical week involves troubleshooting tier-3 networks, while handling the coordination and design of new solutions and proactive changes to the existing network. I also delegate work and provide mentoring and peer review to younger engineers and co-ops. Occasionally, I travel to field sites for pilot installations and core infrastructure changes. Working for the government provides extensive resource support, and the CIA gives me the opportunity to go anywhere in the world.
STEVE — Deployment Manager
During college, I was looking to co-op while obtaining my electrical engineering degree. I interviewed with the CIA and enjoyed three co-op tours, so I decided to come on board full time. Since then, I have held many engineering positions, from hands-on work to leadership of major efforts. I've traveled the world while learning what our mission is all about. In my present position, as a deployment manager for the initiative to modernize the Agency's network, my main focus is to provide program oversight of each phase of deployment. I am involved in planning meetings, communicating daily with customers and providing updates to senior management. CIA is partly responsible for the freedoms others have in the US. Applicants should be proud to be a part of it.
BILL — Information Officer
Due to the technical nature of my job, substantial training was required when I came on board. I couldn't believe I was learning the things I was learning and getting paid to do it! I've been here for 10 years and am currently a senior operations officer for Information Systems Infrastructure. I break down complex problems and present alternative solutions, allowing senior CIA and Agency managers to make decisions. I will say that you make sacrifices to be part of this Agency — personal privacy, and openness with friends and neighbors, for example. But each day my work proves two things that I believed when I started — that this Agency performs a critical role in the defense of our country and that career success ultimately lies in your own hands.
ABEL — HR Officer
My career path has been a continuous learning experience. I have been able to move into positions, which have made me grow professionally and personally. After several years of traveling overseas, I returned to the States and became an Instructor. Career-enhancing programs have enabled me to move into Staff positions where I developed new skills. I now work in an office that assists Officers in the selection of their future assignments through career counseling and consultations with their Supervisor and Home Office. Having a sense of direction is critical — not only for your personal life, but also in making a contribution in a professional atmosphere.
JAMES — Electrical Engineer
The Office of Technical Services is about as close to the "Q Section" in the James Bond movies as possible in real life. My initiation into the cloak-and-dagger aspect of the Agency's mission came on my first day of work when someone from a foreign embassy tried to tail me to my workplace. Since then, I have worked for the Agency for 17 years, traveling overseas, on average, about three times a year for one-to-four weeks. A typical assignment involves being under cover with a multi-disciplinary technical team — often, with only a few days' notice. My job is to take apart equipment, figure out how it works and change it, and put it back together so that it does what we want it to do without the enemy realizing we have done it. Typical projects involve electronic design and fabrication, software design, and antenna fabrication and measurement — and require a creative, flexible thinker. The only constant in real-world operations is that everything is always changing. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow.
LISA — Electronics Engineer
Twenty years ago, I started my career at the CIA as a co-op engineering student. I worked several tours, and then came on as a full-time staff employee. As an Electronic Engineer, I see new challenges every day. The lab I work in is a quick-reaction environment, our projects last only a few days or maybe weeks. On one challenging project, the timeline was just 32 hours and then I grabbed my tool kit, got on an airplane and traveled halfway around the world to install it. We have talented people who are well rounded and motivated top performers. You have to be flexible. You have to confront the (nearly) impossible on a daily basis.
JEROME — Senior Engineer
I heard about the job through my school co-op program and my brother who was working with CIA as a student at the time. I wanted to stay in a technical position rather than move into management as my career progressed, and I was lucky to be nominated into a senior scientist program where I could continue to make technical contributions while receiving recognition similar to colleagues in a management track. As a Senior Engineer, my work consists of using skills in electrical engineering, chemistry, biochemistry, materials science and other areas to solve operational problems. Hiding these solutions to protect assets is very challenging, as is pushing the frontiers of science and engineering. But I work with the most interesting people in the world and help my country at the same time.
