Working for Intelligence Community

[cuzg8tor]

I spent 21 years in the Naval Security Group and I have a beautiful and smart 22 year old grand daughter who just completed her bachelor degree in English. She wants to be an intelligence analyst for the federal government and is interested in employment with CIA, NSA, DIA, FBI or another agency of the IC. I know we have some villagers retired from the IC. Do you have any insight into how best to approach employment? She will be filling out the application today with CIA from their web page, she is looking at starting a masters program specializing in eastern european/Russian studies and would love to learn to speak Russian. She knows Russian is now a secondary need by the IC but this is her interest. She sees where females are playing a much larger role in intel analysis these days (e.g., UBL location) and would like to join their ranks. Any insight as to how to enhance her chances of employment will be greatly appreciated. Do you know anything about the intelligence analysis virtual masters program offered by Henley-Putnam University out of California? Would you suggest a particular school for a masters in intelligence analysis?

[l2ridehd]

There are few approaches that seem to work well. Start out working for a contractor who supports those agencies. That will get the clearance process started and she will get to know when and where the direct jobs are available. However she will earn more money working for a contractor in that field. For those TS/SCI clearances she has to have a very clean background. Any drug charge, DUI, or other type arrest will eliminate her from the higher clearance levels. University of Maryland has a really good cyber security program attached to Ft Meade and the NSA. One skill in very high demand and difficult for them to fill is ethical hacker. Most of those who have the right skills have a background that will not pass muster. I can probably answer more specific questions, but not on a public forum. PM me and we could discuss another way.