Hiring Watch '09: CIA

Posted by Bess Levin, Jun 23, 2009, 9:32am

Picture 1572.pngAs previously mentioned, the Central Intelligence Agency wants you, yes you, up in its business. The Company will be conducting interviews in the city this summer, and though its website claims you had to submit a resume by yesterday to be considered, there's probably some wiggle room there. While starting salaries aren't as high as you'd probably like ($48,682 - $95,026), spokeswoman Marie Harf, thinks the "deeper sense of patriotism" than you'd get working for, say, Citi, is a decent trade. She also adds that many of you have no other options (unless you count choosing between what they're offering and zero dollars), which we find a tad bitchy but not necessarily untrue. Plus, there's the badass factor of telling people you work for The Agency, even if you're not staffed in the field and, let's be honest, none of you fairies are cut out for something that dangerous.

According to "Jim," who previously worked at an unnamed bulge bracket bank, and took a gig with the CIA after 9/11, working in finance is cool but if you're not actively shutting down the next attack on the country, you're not doing much at all. "Even though we were doing important work in investment banking, you don't get the feeling every day that you are making a contribution or doing something that matters. You might help a company go to the bond market and get some money, but is that really using all of your talents and abilities ... [to] avoid another 9-11? I wanted to find a responsibility here that would leverage my educational background but also my finance background." Interested? Here's what they're looking for:

Ideally, applicants are "specialists in international banking systems, financial markets, financial transactions, financial instruments, and energy. Economic analysts will also assess illicit financial activities, including networks used by terrorist and criminal groups, financing and procurement of weapons of mass destruction, money laundering, and corruption among foreign governments and companies."

"The skills sets are similar, trying to understand trends," says a senior banker with a Wall Street boutique firm, adding that the CIA's attempts at recruiting from Wall Street come at a time when many professionals who have lived through the financial crisis have to be "rethinking their priorities."

Oh, and there's this:

Tim Weiner, author of a history about the CIA entitled "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA," meanwhile, believes the CIA is trawling for people not just for their brains and knowledge about financial matters.

As he sees it, the agency wants to bring on people "who don't look like your average American. [It wants] people who look like and think like your average Palestinian, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese. Job one is hiring and training and retaining people who don't look like they just got off of the bus from Topeka, Kansas."

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