As 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.”
I’d work for the CIA, as long as I am still permitted to pound my secretary in the ass.
Finally, something Yalies are qualified to do.
what does that asshole have against kansas?
And here I was hoping to get away from average Palestinians, Chinese, Indian, and Lebanese’s.
@3 he’s just providing a voice to what everybody else thinks. also, just pointing out that your average Kansas cracker would probably stick out like a sore thumb on foreign assignment.
@5 I get the whole notion of wanting guys that can blend in with the crowd but how exactly does “your average Palestinian, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese” THINK differently?
@6. it’s not a comment that you’re never going to find agreement between you average Palestinian, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese and Opie from Kansas. The point is there is often a different world view that contributes to a different way of thinking from country to country and culture to culture. not seeing this is a sign that you might have never left kansas… no offense
@ 7
I have been around the world, I merely don’t give two shits what others that don’t look like, walk, talk, and act like me think.
No offense…
Classy, 8. Real classy.
@8 rest assured nobody cares about your ignorant hick “world views” either.
@7… that Gasparino?
Prevent another 9-11? That’s only in the movies Bess. Cmon. The only thing the CIA does is undermine foreign regimes. (Please don’t give them my IP address)
@12 that was a quote from “Jim”
@3/5
Because this is what you’re average Kansas boy looks like
http://www.bagsnob.com/images/teamamericagary1.jpg
@6 they think less, they are dumber, duh
lets try to prevent comments 9-11
I’m not signing up for shit unless I get a company Maserati, an automatic firing arm to carry on my person, tailored tuxedos from Ralph Lauren and an Omega watch.
Legacy of Ashes was a good book but it was damn depressing. Reading it will terminate, with extreme prejudice, any motivation you have to work for the CIA.
@8 said, “I have been around the world,…… ”
I don’t think the group here knows that when @8 stated “around the world” he/she was referring to a “sexual act” provided by some in the sex industry.
Please carry on.
@1, you can, but you have to settle for Moneypenny
@20… i might accept that offer if i can decide which moneypenny we’re talking about
Too soon!!!!!
If they’re looking for Chinese, Palestinians, Indians, and Lebanese, they should recruit at the delis in Queens.
When’s the CIA going to start up a foreign leader assassination unit?
@6 if you are on foreign assignment, people might suspect you work for the cia if you look like a lilly white american
@6 if you are on foreign assignment, people might suspect you work for the cia if you look like a lilly white american
@ 1 — You wouldn’t say that if you’d ever seen the typical “talent” hired as clerical and admin suport at federal agencies…
24- I’d totally join that over any banking job. Keep me updated.
has anyone actually found the link to apply? their website has links for positions in different divisions, but which one is specifically targeting former bankers?
silly people it’s not THE CIA. it’s simply CIA.
@30 Exactly. Same reason it’s not ‘The God’.
naaah, to hell with that “it’s not *the* CIA” jive. when they started dropping the article is right about the time it became clear uncle sugar and his minions really did see themselves as god, or maybe even above. they all do it now: including such rugged agencies as (the) department of agriculture; (the) EPA; (the) department of weights and measures….it’s why the commandos who work for (the) IRS and (the) library of congress think they need to be carrying guns. (oh yes they do. the rubes in soho and santa monica need to be reminded who has the power.)
“freeze, dirtbag! LOC!! take out your library card, **real slow**….”
like all government entities, they’re ass-covering black holes whose primary mission – no matter what they tell the hicks in chicago and miami – is “maintenance and expansion of our little bureaucratic fiefdom.” and you’d better believe (the) CIA is just exactly as well-run and competent as (the) FDIC has shown itself to be lately. the only difference, (the) CIA gets to make their fuckups ‘top secret’, so no gets to know. so screw (them) all.
@32
Anyone not living in DC or NY is obviously a hick
@3
Gooood, do emobody the stereotype that all Kansans have a massive chip on their shoulder.