The Top 6 Skills For Entry-level Intelligence Analysts

Top 6 Skills For Entry Level Intelligence Analysts

My colleague, Dave Grabelski, has spear-headed what turned out to be a multi-year research project to identify appropriate skills for entry level analysts across all three intel communities -- national security, law enforcement and business -- and match them against what we were teaching.

As an intelligence studies program that focuses on application as well as theory, a robust understanding of the needs of the communities we support made sense.  In the end, it was a lot more work than Dave thought it would be, but, with the help of a number of dedicated students, we have one of the most comprehensive and useful strategic planning documents I have seen.

One of the really interesting tidbits to come out of this effort was the chart embedded at the top of the page.  Dave asked some students to scour the job offerings at a variety of institutions across the three communities.  He then tasked them to categorize the skills identified in the job postings.  Finally, he asked them to rank the skills based on frequency.

His researchers looked at multiple entry-level job offerings in 22 different agencies, companies and organizations.  In all, they identified nearly 30 key KSAs - Knowledge, Skills or Abilities -- for entry level analysts.  Many of them were only represented in a few postings, however.  The six on the list above were broadly represented:

• Analytic Methodologies:  These included those methods and processes specific to the intelligence community examined.  Whether it was SWOT in the business community or ACH in the national security community or crime mapping in the law enforcement community, it is clear that knowledge of specific intelligence methodologies is important.

• Written Communication:  Obvious and essential.  Includes both formal communications (such as finished intelligence reports) and informal communications (such as email).

• Research Methods:  This is the general name given to a variety of skills that revolved around finding, retrieving, collating, processing and conducting first-level analysis of information. 

• Teamwork: Again, obvious and essential.  The focus was on both small teams of analysts working on a problem and on lone analysts providing close support to operational teams.

• Oral Communication:  Briefing skill is a must here but so is the ability to communicate effectively and professionally in less formal settings. 

• Databases:  This represented the ability to work with structured databases.  While these are often different in content, the underlying structure is often similar.  Students clearly need to have a working familiarity with databases and how to get the most out of them.

One of the questions I always ask myself on studies like these goes something like, "83%?  Don't the other 17% need people who can write, too?"  I think it goes without saying that virtually every organization needs people who can communicate effectively; some just choose to mention it.

In fact, if you look at it through a slightly different lens, it is kind of disappointing that 83% of the organizations looking for entry level intel analysts felt compelled to say that they were looking for people with good written communications skills...

The lesson learned for students hoping to enter the field of intelligence analysis is that these are the skills your potential future employers are looking for.  Ignore them at your peril.

Related Post:  How To Get A Job In Intelligence

The Mindset List -- Recalibrating Your Mind For The Class Of 2015 (Beloit.edu)

Every year the good professors at Beloit College publish a mindset list.  The purpose is to help old fogeys like me (and maybe you -- if you have kids, check with them) understand why their hip references to Two Live Crew and "Bueller? Bueller?" fall flat with incoming freshmen...uh, sorry, fresh-people.

This year's list is no different and a few of them really jumped out at me:

• Andre the Giant, River Phoenix, Frank Zappa, Arthur Ashe and the Commodore 64 have always been dead.
• There have nearly always been at least two women on the Supreme Court, and women have always commanded U.S. Navy ships.
• As they’ve grown up on websites and cell phones, adult experts have constantly fretted about their alleged deficits of empathy and concentration.
• Amazon has never been just a river in South America.
• Grown-ups have always been arguing about health care policy.
• Russian courts have always had juries.
• They’ve always wanted to be like Shaq or Kobe: Michael Who?

The full list is available on the Beloit website.

Purity First: The Anti-Human Augmentation Movement Of 2027 (DeusEx.com)

While the video below is a promo for a new video game called Deus Ex, this post is not about the game. 

The game is a "typical" (though the initial reviews indicate it is actually pretty good...) action RPG video game.  As with many games these days, there is an effort to create a promotional "buzz" in advance of launch.  One marketing tactic often used is to create faux reports of disasters or crises that haven't happened (in the great tradition of War of the Worlds, The Day After and Cloverfield).  It is particularly effective for these near-future kinds of story.  This is such an effort  (for another, see the trailer to The Curfew).

What caught my eye, though, was the subject of this "revolutionary propaganda film" -- human augmentation.  Take a look (Note:  This video is fairly graphic and not for the young or squeamish)...



In my post last week I noted how "human augmentation" -- the process of using technology to make humans better, smarter, faster (as we used to say back when this stuff only cost 6 million or so...) -- had made it onto the early part of the Gartner Hype Cycle.

Most of us would think, I guess, that human augmentation is generally a good thing.  Who wouldn't want an amputee to be able to hold his child's hand or someone who was without legs to be able to walk?

The idea that these kinds of prosthetics and implants are getting so "good" that they might offer people actual (unfair?) advantages rather than merely make up for a perceived deficiency is relatively new.

Two people who have dealt with the consequences of this are Oscar Pistorius and Aimee Mullins, both runners who have lost their legs. Pistorius is a South African who has had to fight to be able to compete for a slot on the South African Olympics team.  Mullins ran college track with the use of specially designed prosthetic legs back in the 90's.

Mullins is particularly interesting as she has gone on to a career as a fashion model and motivational speaker.  She actually makes the case in the speech below that her artificial limbs give her an advantage.



It is hard to imagine that the dystopian view of human augmentation depicted in Deus Ex will ever come to pass but both these videos are worth watching for the counterpoints they represent (and the kinds of decisions we might be faced with in the future).

New Gartner Hype Cycle Out; Some Interesting Changes From Last Year (Gartner.com)

Gartner provides, for my money, the most comprehensive and systematic coverage of technology trends among the commercial research providers.  One of their best free products is the annual Gartner Hype Cycle.

The Hype Cycle is a useful way of thinking about how typical technologies evolve and mature.  The 2011 version is displayed below (with a more complete report and video here):

http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=1758314

I covered the Hype Cycle last year on SAM and comparing 2010's cycle with this year's is an interesting exercise.  In the first place, there are a number of technologies that are not on both cycles.  Gartner covers 1900 technologies so it is clearly impossible to put them all on a single Hype Cycle graphic.

Secondly, most of the technologies have not moved very much in the last year.  This makes some sense given that many of the technologies aren't expected to mature for "5 to 10 years" or "more than 10 years".

A couple of notable exceptions include augmented reality and the media tablet which have both crested the first big wave of expectations.  If Gartner is right, we should start seeing an increasing number of reports about the limitations of media tablets and the problems with augmented reality over the next 12 months.

I also always pay attention to what is coming in at the beginning of the Hype Cycle and what is about to leave the Hype Cycle.  There are some interesting new additions this year:  3D Bioprinting and quantum computing.  Location aware applications, speech recognition and (surprisingly) predictive analytics are all set to leave the stage -- they have become mainstream in Gartner's eyes.

How Students Use Technology (Mashable.com and OnlineEducation.net)

As we approach the new school year, this graphic will resonate with the educators out there (via Mashable and OnlineEducation.net ).


Via: OnlineEducation.net

The Last Decision We Have To Make... (Intel Analyst "Words To Live By")

The quotes have been collected, the surveys submitted, the results gathered and analyzed.

The Intelligence Analyst's Deck of Cards is almost finished. 

All we need now is a design for the back of the cards.

I hired a local design firm to come up with some ideas and through a wholly unscientific process have down-selected to the two you see in the Swayable below.

I am interested in your opinion!  Please vote and pass the site on to others who should vote on this crucial decision of national -- nay, international! -- importance.