Want To Work For CIA? NSA? DIA? Don't Use USAJobs! (+ What To Do Instead!)

(My undergrad research assistant, McKenzie Rowland, and I are in the process of updating a series of posts I did back in 2009 called "How To Get A Job In Intelligence".  As part of her research, she took a detailed look at the career websites of all of the US national security intelligence organizations.  Her very useful analysis and comments are below.)

By:
McKenzie Rowland

When searching for a job in intelligence, one of the first places many people look is USAJobs.gov.  This site lists many postings for a number of agencies and features an advanced job search tool that allows you to filter and refine results.

While USAJobs makes the search process much more straightforward, it should not be the be-all and end-all for job hunting within intelligence agencies.  There are plenty of other alternative search engines and sites to consider, such as agency websites, when searching for intelligence-related careers, many of which yield more favorable results.

The matrix below displays yesterday's search results for the word “analyst” on both the websites of members of the Intelligence Community and the USAJobs section for that intelligence organization (Note: These search results are not indicative of the complete availability of jobs for either the organizations listed or for USAJobs. Furthermore, results may change over time.).

Category 1 Sites

For the following intelligence organizations, it is most beneficial to visit their respective website as opposed to USAJobs.  Note: some positions on these sites may overlap with ones already listed on USAJobs.

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA): While the DIA’s general job postings do overlap to an extent with USAJobs, the DIA Jobs site lists several positions that USAJobs does not.  DIA’s job site also gives very detailed information for each individual posting, such as the “job family,” which allows you to quickly sort through positions relevant to you.

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA): For the NGA, it is more advantageous to search for open positions on their website.  Similar to the DIA, many of the jobs listed here are not available on USAJobs, so it is important to visit NGA’s career page to avoid missing out on potentially relevant job postings.

National Security Agency (NSA): For the NSA, you are almost certainly better off searching for jobs through this agency’s job site, as USAJobs does not list any positions for this agency.

Category 2 Sites

For the following agencies and departments, there is some benefit to visiting their respective websites for career information, but USAJobs provides the most in terms of actual search results.  For some of these, searches can only be conducted through USAJobs, or the websites will include that organization’s section within USAJobs.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI): The ODNI lists job vacancies directly on their page, but applicants are redirected to USAJobs for the majority of available positions.  (Investigative Analysis is an exception here, as you can only apply for this job through ODNI’s recruitment office.)  USAJobs does, however, list a couple of analyst positions that the ODNI’s job site does not.

Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence: When you search and apply for a job on DOE’s site, you’re almost immediately redirected to USAJobs.  While the DOE has a job searching page with detailed descriptions of each position, I’ve found that you are actually better off searching USAJobs for open positions.  Upon searching for “analyst” on DOE’s site, I discovered that many of the analyst jobs were already filled, and that USAJobs seems to filter these available positions better than DOE. For more information on the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, you can visit their website here.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Intelligence and Analysis: When searching within the DHS main site for jobs, it redirects you to their section on the USAJobs site, dhs.usajobs.gov. You do, however, have the ability to narrow down your search by skill, component, or location on DHS’ site before you are redirected to USAJobs.  For more information on the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, you can visit their website here.

Department of State (DOS), Intelligence and Research: While the DOS career page offers information about positions such as foreign and civil service officers, all actual job searches must be conducted through USAJobs.  For more information on the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, you can visit their website here.

Department of Treasury (DOT), Office of Intelligence and Analysis: For the DOT, all job searches are redirected to the USAJobs section for DOT, treasury.usajobs.gov. The site does, however, give links to the career pages of the 10 bureaus and services under the DOT.  For more information on the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, you can visit their website here.

Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA): For the DEA, all job searches and applications must be conducted through USAJobs at dea.usajobs.gov. If you’re having any trouble setting up your USAJobs account or have questions regarding careers with the DEA, this career page includes ample support and information on the application process.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI):  The FBI website is useful if you’d like to learn more about careers within the FBI before you apply, and also contains a link to a page specifically for interns and college students. When applying for a job on their page, however, FBI Jobs redirects you the Bureau’s USAJobs section, fbi.usajobs.gov, which solely displays results for postings from the FBI. This is particularly convenient for when you actually want to search for a specific position within the FBI instead of just finding information about it, as FBI.gov does not have a search engine tool of its own.

U.S. Air Force (USAF), Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance: Currently, there are no actual applications available on the Air Force’s site, but their career page does provide useful information on different jobs and duties within the Air Force. In this case, it is most beneficial to search USAJobs for openings. For more information on Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, you can visit their website here.

U.S. Army, Army Military Intelligence: The Army’s Career Management page is designed for both enlisted and civilian individuals searching for a job in the Army. Civilian career opportunities are posted on USAJobs, which you can search for using armycivilianservice.usajobs.gov. For more information on Army Military Intelligence, you can visit their website here.

U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), Coast Guard Intelligence: For reserve and enlisted careers within the Coast Guard, you can search within the site for recruiters and available positions near you.  When applying for civilian careers, however, the site redirects you to a page on USAJobs of results for the Coast Guard. But before applying for actual positions, you may want to take a look at the Coast Guard’s career page that gives descriptions of all job types. For more information on Coast Guard Intelligence, you can visit their website here.

U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), Marine Corps Intelligence Activity: Similar to the Army’s career page, civilian positions are not listed directly on the Marine Corps’ site, and USAJobs provides the most filtered search results for specific openings. For more information on the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, you can visit their website here.

U.S. Navy, Naval Intelligence: While no job searching tool exists on the Navy’s career page and searches are conducted solely through USAJobs, the Navy’s career page provides very detailed information on the many different disciplines and career paths you can choose.  For information on the Office of Naval Intelligence, you can visit their website here.

Category 3 Sites

These intelligence organizations are neither listed on USAJobs, nor do they return actual job search results.  The only way one can apply to these agencies is through their agency website or through another agency.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA): The CIA’s career site doesn’t list specific job postings and does not have any positions posted on USAJobs.  To apply for a job, you must fill out an online application through their site once you’ve found the type of job you’re interested in. You then create an account, add that job to your “job cart” (limit 4 jobs, and your account terminates within 3 days, so act fast!) and begin the application process. If you don’t really know what you’re looking for, though, the  Job Fit Tool matches you with potential career paths based on a series of questions and can provide a good starting point for searching.

National Reconnaissance Office (NRO): The NRO is an exception to the other job search tools within agency sites.  Due to the nature of this organization, the careers page only contains links to the career pages of the agencies that collectively make up the NRO; their website suggests that you take a look at those websites instead.

Last Bit Of Advice...

When first looking for a career in intelligence, it is best to begin your search on the websites of members of the Intelligence Community. These websites oftentimes provide valuable career information and allow you to broaden your search within a specific search term. However, if you’re searching for a specific discipline not within one particular agency or department, such as "domestic counterterrorism", USAJobs will retrieve such positions.

All in all, USAJobs can be highly useful for many intelligence job searches, but it shouldn’t always be used as the primary job search engine--explore your other options!  

2nd Annual Report On Entry-level Analyst Hiring In Law Enforcement Is Out!

If our recent report on national security hiring for entry level intel analysts was bleak and the similar report for intelligence in business was positively rosy, then the annual report for law enforcement (LE) falls somewhere in the middle.


The major reason for the lack of clarity in this particular market is the lack of corroboration of our sources.  One the one hand, almost 66% of those surveyed, all of who had direct or significant indirect information of hiring intentions within their organizations and within LE more generally, indicated that they thought hiring would increase.  The same crowd, when asked about hiring within their own agencies or organizations, however, were much more conservative - only about 28% expected hiring to increase. 

We saw the same effect last year and we are still at a loss to explain it.  At first blush, it looks like a simple grass-is-greener effect:  "Everything looks great -- except for right here..."  We think it may be more complex than that for a number of reasons the first of which is that hiring, particularly in small to medium sized LE agencies, does appear to be picking up.  It is something we intend to keep an eye on for next year.

What is more clear is the functions that are in demand:  Crime analysis and cyber remain hot.  What is more interesting, however, is the amount of push-back we received with respect to compartmentalizing functions at all.  As one respondent stated, "While there may be a need for specializations in Federal Government agencies, I think most small to mid-sized agencies will continue to need analysts [with] a combination of skills..."

Written by Greg Marchwinski (the author of this year's other two reports), the entire document is well worth the read!

2nd Annual Mercyhurst Report On Hiring Prospects For Entry Level Intelligence Analysts In The National Security Community Is Out! (And It Is Not Pretty...)

http://www.iismu.org/white-papers

Sequester, draw-down, RIF, early retirement - these are the buzzwords that are dominating the hiring discussions in the US government these days.  While last year was marginal, the next 12 months are shaping up to be very tough ones for entry-level intelligence analysts trying to break into the US national security intelligence community. 

Greg Marchwinski, one of our current crop of graduate student all-stars, prepared this year's report which, like last year's report, is based on collected survey data, interviews and emails from knowledgeable individuals, and relevant secondary sources. 

Here is what Greg has to say about the prospects for the next 12 months (from the executive summary):

"Due to uncertainty over federal government deficit reduction initiatives and a decreasing military presence globally, it is highly likely that overall hiring of entry-level intelligence analysts within the US Intelligence Community (IC) will decrease significantly from recent levels until the next budget cycle begins in October, 2013. The only exception to this general trend is cyber-related positions which are likely to see a moderate increase despite budget cuts. Additionally, it is highly likely that sequestration throughout the IC will significantly limit hiring entry-level intelligence analysts in all analytic functions until defense funding negotiations are resolved."

Click on this link to download the full report.

Look for our reports on entry-level intel analyst hiring in law enforcement and in business next month.

How Many Entry-level Analysts Will The US IC Need In 2013? (Survey)

Good question, right? 

 

If you have direct knowledge of information that might help answer the question in the title or you have indirect knowledge that is relevant to the answer to the question in the title, please take 2 minutes to complete this survey. 

 

What do I mean by direct and indirect knowledge?

Direct knowledge means that you know personally or have good information concerning the hiring plans of your agency or organization (or at least your section or division).  You might work in HR or be a manager with hiring responsibilities. 

Indirect knowledge is information that is relevant to the question that is not due to your direct responsibilities.  You might have spoken with an HR manager or have been involved in meetings where this issue was discussed. 

We are NOT looking for opinion based on purely circumstantial information.  If you are not involved in the hiring process either directly or indirectly, please DO NOT take this survey.

Why are we interested?

Every year, other disciplines announce hiring projections for the year:  "This year's hot jobs are for engineers and chimney sweeps."  That sort of thing.  Entry level intelligence analysts who are searching for a job, on the other hand, receive no such guidance.

We hope to change that.  Working with one of our hot-shot grad students, Greg Marchwinski, we put together this survey to get a better feel for the the job market for entry level analysts for the year ahead.

Once we get enough survey data, Greg will compile it and combine it with the macro-level, mostly qualitative data that we already have and put together a "jobs report" for the year ahead.  I will publish it here once we are done.

We understand that there are some legitimate security concerns here so we have tried to frame the questions such that they are focused on broad developments and general trends.  We are not interested in the kind of deep details that might compromise security.

Finally, we intend to follow this study up with similar surveys of the law enforcement and business job markets for entry-level intelligence analysts as well.

By the way, this is the same question we asked last year and here is the answer we got...

Thanks for your participation!

Entry-Level Intel Analysts In Law Enforcement Jobs Report Now Available For Download!

Last fall, we began a quest to capture the hiring prospects over the next 12 months for entry-level intelligence analysts (the kind we produce) in each of the three major sub-disciplines of intel:  National security, law enforcement and business.

Today we are putting out the 2012 Entry-Level  Hiring Projections for Law Enforcement Intelligence report (click on the link to download).

The report was compiled by the same analyst who produced the national security report to rave reviews, Whitney Bergendahl.

This report contains, in addition to Whitney's analysis, the collected wisdom of all the hiring managers and intelligence professionals who took our survey on job prospects.  I would particularly like to thank the International Association of Crime Analysts and the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts for circulating our survey among their members.

Of course, we welcome your feedback (send it directly to me or leave a comment below).   For those of you interested, in December, 2011, we put out the national security report and you can still find the details here.  We look forward to publishing the last installment on the business market for jobs next week some time.

How Many Entry-level Intelligence Analysts Do The Business And Law Enforcement Communities Need This Year? (Survey)

Good questions, right?

 

If you have direct knowledge of information that might help answer the question in the title for business or for LE or you have indirect knowledge that is relevant to the answer to the question in the title, please take 2 minutes to complete

 

the business survey or

the law enforcement survey.

What do I mean by direct and indirect knowledge?

Direct knowledge means that you know personally or have good information concerning the hiring plans of your agency or organization (or at least your section or division).  You might work in HR or be a manager with hiring responsibilities.

Indirect knowledge is information that is relevant to the question that is not due to your direct responsibilities.  You might have spoken with an HR manager or have been involved in meetings where this issue was discussed.

We are NOT looking for opinion based on purely circumstantial information.  If you are not involved in the hiring process either directly or indirectly, please DO NOT take this survey.  

If, however, you know someone who does fit the descriptions above, please forward this post or the survey links to them.

Why are we interested?

 

Every year, other disciplines announce hiring projections for the year:  "This year's hot jobs are for engineers and chimney sweeps."  That sort of thing.  Entry level intelligence analysts who are searching for a job, on the other hand, receive no such guidance. 

 

We hope to change that.  Working with one of our hot-shot grad students, Whitney Bergendahl, and my colleague and marketing expert, Shelly Freyn, we put together these surveys to get a better feel for the the job market for entry level analysts for the year ahead. 

One of the questions you might have regards our definition of "intelligence analyst".  This means something that is more or less clear in the national security community but, in both the business and law enforcement communities, it is a bit more muddied.  In fact, very few jobs in either community are actually labelled "intelligence analyst".  I leave it up to you to decide if the jobs you are likely to have fit a broad definition of "intelligence analyst".  What I would ask is, if you think you might be employing intelligence analysts (no matter what the job position is actually called), please, at least take a look at the survey -- and then fill it out if it seems appropriate.

Once we get enough survey data, Whitney will compile it and combine it with the macro-level, mostly qualitative data that we already have and put together a "jobs report" for the year ahead for both communities.  I will publish them here once we are done.

 

Regular readers of this blog know that we have already published our report on job prospects for the US national security intelligence community.  These two new surveys will allow us to cover all three of the major "intelligence communities".

 

Thanks for your participation!

1st Annual Entry-level Intel Analyst Jobs Report Out Now!

How good is the job market for entry-level intelligence analysts over the next 12 months? 

Good question, right?  If you are a recent graduate from college or you are graduating in 2012, and you are interested in working as an analyst in the US national security intelligence community, it is probably one of the questions you are asking yourself.

The answer is contained in this document.

We tasked one of our outstanding grad students, Whitney Bergendahl, with examining this question back in the early fall.  He put together a survey (which some of you may remember) and conducted some fairly extensive secondary research to put together this report.  It is obviously a tough nut to crack but Whitney has done yeoman's work on this first ever, job market report for entry-level intel analysts.

Whitney and I are both interested in your feedback, of course.  After you have had a chance to read the report, please leave a comment!

But wait, there's more!

(I know that sounds cheesy but there is, in fact, more...)

This report only covers the job market for entry-level analysts in the national security intelligence community.  Between now and the end of February, we hope to publish two other reports on the job markets for entry-level law enforcement intellience analysts and for entry level intelligence analysts in the business community. 

But wait!  There's even more!

(Had to do it...)

Benjamin Wittorf, who publishes occasionally on the blog, Netzwerk-Organisatorische Formen, but is probably best followed via Twitter and makes a living as a researcher for eVenture Capital Partners, has turned my series of blog posts, How To Get A Job In Intelligence, into an epub for easy (and free!) download. (Note:  I am sure there is something clever I could say here about "the kindness of strangers" but I can't think of it so I will just say, Thanks, Ben!)

While this series is a little old, I think much of the general guidance ought to still be good.  If you want to read it, you will, of course, need to have an epub reader to access it.  If you don't, there is also a pdf version or, of course, you can still access the original series on this blog.

Two New Job Hunting Resources (How To Get A Job In Intel)

Two of our students (Thanks, Mike and John!) recently pointed me towards some interesting resources if you are looking for a job in the US national security intelligence community.

The first is a new resume database sponsored by the Director of National Intelligence. The service allows job-seekers to submit their resumes one time and have it be available to the entire intelligence community for up to a year after submission.

I don't see this as a replacement for more traditional ways of applying for jobs in the US IC but it is a welcome addition. I think it will help the IC most in those crisis or hard to fill positions (like if something major goes down in Burkina Faso and you are one of the few speakers of dioula in the US...).

The other resource was actully put together by John. It is a list of links to all of the contractors he could find who, according to John, currently "have openings for either intelligence analysts, cyber analysts, or both." The links go directly to the career/jobs page of the 40+ companies he identified so there is no needless hunting and pecking through some corporate website for the right place to search for positions and apply.

Related Posts:

How To Get A Job In Intelligence

Mark Your Calendars! US Intelligence Community's Virtual Career Fair 16 March! (ICVIRTUALFAIR.com)

The US National Security Intelligence Community (IC) is about to hold a virtual career fair on 16 March, 2010. Nine of the largest agencies within the US IC will be represented and registration is free and open to anyone (though only US citizens can get jobs in the US IC).

Career opportunities in the following fields will be available:

• Cybersecurity/Information Assurance
• Engineering and Physical Science
• Foreign Languages (Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Mandarin, Pashto, Somali, or Urdu are the top choices)

• Information Technology
• Intelligence Analysis
• Law Enforcement
• Many others (though not specified on the Virtual Career Fair website).

Registration is easy. Just go to the registration page and fill in the blanks (Note: When it asks for "Event Login ID" and "Event Password" those are things that you make up, not things you need to get from the event organizers):

There are some browser and plug-in issues so be sure to click on the Computer Requirements link to check out your system. Also don't rely on the text alone. Make sure you click on the System Check link. For example, the text says Firefox 1.5 and above is supported but when I clicked on the Check System link it told me my Firefox 3.5 system was no good.

According to some of the press releases about the Fair, if you can't make it on the 16th, the site will still be up for 90 days after the event but there won't be any recruiters there to chat with.

How To Get A Job In Intelligence (Final Version With Abstract)

Abstract:

I wrote this series of posts to help entry-level job seekers understand the broader market for intelligence professionals and, particularly, intelligence analysts. I start by taking a look at not only national security but also business and law enforcement employment prospects for intelligence professionals and continue with detailed advice along with a number of places to look for employment. The series contains multiple links for job hunters as well as a substantial amount of background information on everything from resumes to interview skills to appropriate dress. Of particular interest to most job hunters should be the extensive and often lengthy comments to many of these posts.

HTML Version:

Part 1 -- Introduction
Part 2 -- The Intelligence Job Market From 20,000 Feet
Part 3 -- The Good News!
Part 4 -- Even Better News!
Part 5 -- Beyond The Big Three
Part 6 -- Beyond Borders
Part 7 -- Beyond Borders: India, Europe And South Africa
Part 8 -- Going It On Your Own
Part 9 -- The 5 Things You Must Have
Part 10 -- Advice From The Trenches
Special Report: Where The Jobs Are, 2009
Part 11 -- Advice From Intelligence Veterans
Part 12 -- Intelligence Job Links
Annex 1 -- "Plan B" Careers

Intel Analyst One Of The Best Jobs In America! (CNNMoney.com)

CNN and Money Magazine just announced their list of the 50 best kinds of jobs in the US. Coming in at number 9 this year was Intelligence Analyst (Thanks, Dave and Rachel!).

This is a pretty big deal for a job category that does not even have a Bureau of Labor Statistics code.

CNN and Money cited personal satisfaction, future growth and benefit to society as major reasons why being an intelligence analyst was such a good job. Job security was considered good but not great and the high stress of the job was cited as the major negative factor.

The report focused only on intel analyst jobs in the US government but did appear to include those analysts who work for contractors who support the US national security intelligence community. The study estimated that there were 51,000 analyst positions in the USG (which sounds a little high, even with the contractors thrown in...).

Fun fact #1: I looked at all of the top ten jobs and each already had a number off comments sent in by readers. The only job category not to have any comments was ... you guessed it ... intel analyst.

Fun fact #2: College professor came in at #3. If this were the BCS, then I would have the best job in America!

Related Posts:
How To Get A Job In Intelligence (series)

Annex 1: "Plan B" Careers (How To Get A Job In Intelligence)

Part 1 -- Introduction
Part 2 -- The Intelligence Job Market From 20,000 Feet
Part 3 -- The Good News!
Part 4 -- Even Better News!
Part 5 -- Beyond The Big Three
Part 6 -- Beyond Borders
Part 7 -- Beyond Borders: India, Europe And South Africa
Part 8 -- Going It On Your Own
Part 9 -- The 5 Things You Must Have
Part 10 -- Advice From The Trenches
Special Report: Where The Jobs Are, 2009
Part 11 -- Advice From Intelligence Veterans
Part 12 -- Intelligence Job Links

I thought I was done with this series...until I received a very interesting email from the Federal Citizen Information Center pointing me to an article on Bankrate.com about "Fallback careers" -- careers that you can fall back on if something goes wrong in your main profession.

All of the careers on the list had evidence of growing demand and required less than a year of schooling to get certified according to the Bankrate article.

As I looked at the list, I immediately thought of a use beyond the one intended by the authors. These careers could also be a useful way of filling in the time between graduation and getting a clearance.

Many entry-level analysts get stuck waiting to start work because of a clearance. Predicting when a clearance will be complete is one of the hardest things to do (we had one student whose clearance took three years -- by which time she had married, moved, had a child and changed jobs!). Having a useful Plan B in this situation might allow one to avoid a "challenging career in the food service industry".

Obviously, in order to pursue one of these fallback careers, the job seeker would have to have the certification before graduation (which would likely necessitate summer or night school) and might, therefore, not be an option for everyone. If this is the case, then maybe seeking such a certification makes sense while waiting for a clearance (time and financing permitting). Likewise, if job offers are not as forthcoming as one would hope and grad school isn't an option, then pursuing certification in one of these fields might also turn out to be a good option.

What are the eleven "Plan B" careers?

1. Emergency medical technician
2. Police officer
3. Phlebotomist
4. HVAC technician
5. Drafter/CADD operator
6. Medical assistant
7. Truck driver
8. Dental assistant
9. Massage therapist
10. Medical records and health information technician
11. Nuclear medicine technologist

Some of these careers look particularly promising. With the number of analysts currently deployed in war zones, I can imagine that training as an EMT would be an excellent secondary skill to have.

I also have some concerns about this list, though. Police officer seems overly optimistic, for example. While the facts in the article may be true, the number of people already seeking jobs in this field make it seem overly competitive for a fallback career. Maybe if you included all security professionals (including bank guards and mall cops for example), it might make some sense. Otherwise, I would not advise anyone to go this route strictly as a fallback career.

I was also surprised that more information technology positions weren't on the list. Certified computer repair guys and website administrators always seem to be in demand. Getting some sort of technical certification in these fields will benefit an analyst in the lean times and when they are working as an analyst as well.

Part 12 -- Intelligence Job Links (How To Get A Job In Intelligence)

Part 1 -- Introduction
Part 2 -- The Intelligence Job Market From 20,000 Feet
Part 3 -- The Good News!
Part 4 -- Even Better News!
Part 5 -- Beyond The Big Three
Part 6 -- Beyond Borders
Part 7 -- Beyond Borders: India, Europe And South Africa
Part 8 -- Going It On Your Own
Part 9 -- The 5 Things You Must Have
Part 10 -- Advice From The Trenches
Special Report: Where The Jobs Are, 2009
Part 11 -- Advice From Intelligence Veterans

(Note: This is the last part of this 12 part marathon (not what I had in mind when I started, I assure you...) on jobs in intelligence. I would like to thank all those who contributed comments or even whole sections to the series. Your efforts made this series much more valuable to those trying to break into intelligence. I would also like to thank all of you job hunters who took the time to send me notes telling me how useful this series was to you. I wish you all the best of luck in your job searches!)

In this final post in this series, I intend to include all of those links for which I have not found a spot for in any of the previous posts. This list is by no means all-inclusive. Please do not hesitate to add your own good link in the comments...

The best single link I know:

Intelligence Jobs And Internships On Squidoo -- I set up this "lens" on Squidoo a couple of years ago to provide a "one-stop shop" for Mercyhurst students looking for a job in intel. I had one of our super work studies update it last year and will probably see if I can get another one to update it later this fall but the site covers may of the basic job sites and even has some dynamic content where new jobs appear as they become available in all three disciplines.

Other Links of Interest:

(Note: I apologize for not linking all of the hyperlinks to the appropriate text below. I simply did not have the time to make all of the links. To get to the sites you may have to copy and paste the URLs into your browser's address bar. In addition, much of this part of the list comes from LTC Rich Holden's amazing list of intel job sites first published on the US Army's INTELST. I genuinely appreciate him allowing me to republish it here.)

General Job Help:

Washington State Library's Employment and Job Seeking Site (some good info even if you are not a resident of Washington State)
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/library/hardtimes/employment.aspx

The HR Data Revolution: Your CV Should Be A DB
http://www.frontiereconomy.com/2009/08/the-hr-data-revolution-your-cv-should-be-a-db/

How To Write A Resume
http://www.wisebread.com/how-to-write-a-resume-12-steps-to-your-next-job

12 Top Tips To A Successful Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvuZY3DWtIY

Women's Fashion Tips: How To Dress For An Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMt2aJWRyE0

Professional Wardrobe For Men
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFaXXNkdr74

10 Boilerplate Phrases That Kill Resumes
http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-experts-10_boilerplate_phrases_that_kill_resumes-97

How To Prepare A Plain Text Resume
http://www.wisebread.com/how-to-prepare-a-plain-text-resume

Quintessential Careers - Guide to College, Careers, & Jobs
http://www.quintcareers.com/

Salaries and Wages
http://www.opm.gov/oca/payrates/index.htm

U.S. Department of Labor
http://www.dol.gov/dol/welcome.htm

Best Places to Launch A Career, 2009 (Thanks, Shannon!)
http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/career_launch_2009/

Best Companies to Work For, 2009
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2009/full_list/

Price Waterhouse Coopers Career Advice
http://www.pwc.com/us/en/careers/pwctv/career-advice.jhtml

VetJobs
http://www.vetjobs.com

Veterans Business Network
http://www.veteransbusinessnetwork.com/

Headhunter.net - job listings and resumes
http://www.headhunter.net/

thingamajob
http://www.thingamajob.com/

Defense Contractor Company sites:

Accenture
http://www.accenture.com

BAE Systems
http://careers.na.baesystems.com/

Battelle Science & Technology International
http://www.battelle.org/

BearingPoint
http://www.bearingpoint.com

Booz Allen Hamilton
http://www.boozallen.com/

Caliber, an ICF Consulting Company
http://www.calib.com/

Covenant Security / Covenant Special Projects
www.covenantsecurity.com

Cubic Applications, Inc.
http://jobs.cubic.com/opportunities/

DESE Research Inc.
http://www.dese.com/

Electronic Warfare Associates
http://www.ewa.com/

Imagery and Intelligence Solutions Inc.
http://www.iisolutions.com/careers.html

J.L. White & Associates
http://jl-white.com/jlwa/opportunities.do

Lockheed Martin Corporation
http://www.lockheedmartin.com

MPRI - Taking Expertise Around the World
http://www.mpri.com/current/personnel.htm

Northrop Grumman
http://www.ngc.com

Raytheon
http://www.rayjobs.com/

SAIC Job Opportunities Career Find Your Job
http://www.saic.com/career/find.html

Tapestry Solutions
http://www.tapestrysolutions.com/index.php

TEK systems
http://www.teksystems.com/

Titan - L-3 Communications
http://www.titan.com/home.html

Thanks again to everyone who read, commented or contributed to this series! Good luck and good hunting!

Part 11 -- Advice From Veterans (How To Get A Job In Intelligence)

Part 1 -- Introduction
Part 2 -- The Intelligence Job Market From 20,000 Feet
Part 3 -- The Good News!
Part 4 -- Even Better News!
Part 5 -- Beyond The Big Three
Part 6 -- Beyond Borders
Part 7 -- Beyond Borders: India, Europe And South Africa
Part 8 -- Going It On Your Own
Part 9 -- The 5 Things You Must Have
Part 10 -- Advice From The Trenches
Special Report: Where The Jobs Are, 2009

As I was doing research for this series, I reached out to a number of my colleagues for advice. I received some very good answers back. There was a surprising amount of agreement among these public and private sector veterans of intelligence work. Generally, their comments broke down along three lines, however: Specific areas to look for jobs or specific skills needed to get a job, the importance of internships and, finally, general advice to the job hunter.

(Note: All of the people quoted in today's post are intel veterans. They are trying to be helpful by providing the benefits of that experience to young analysts looking for their first job. These comments should not be construed, however, as the "official position" of their respective agencies, companies or organizations.)

Specifics

Deborah Osborne, who writes the popular crime analysis blog, Analyst's Corner and has a consulting business with the same name, provided some very specific guidance for entry-level analysts interested in pursuing careers in law enforcement intelligence.

"Certain parts of the country," she said, "have many more local level crime intelligence analysts jobs. The most concentrated areas for local level law enforcement analyst positions in the United States include the following states: Massachusetts, Virginia, Florida, Texas, Kansas, California, Arizona, Washington, and Colorado. This doesn't mean that other states don't have such positions - just that the concept of crime intelligence analysis is well-established in the listed states."

Drew Perez, of the Lockheed Martin Center For Security Analysis and the author of the also popular national security focused blog, JIOX, took a slightly different but no less useful perspective when he outlined the "hot" areas for analysts seeking employment today: "Competitive Intelligence, Information Operations, Perception Management, Prediction Markets."

Drew goes on to say, "Another area identified in the market research I conducted 2-years ago for Lockheed Martin showed that significant opportunities exist outside the traditional intelligence community (IC). Secretary Napolitano's recent speech at the Council on Foreign Relations addresses these opportunities outside the IC. Here are some excerpts: 'And so we're constantly looking for ways to better share information up and down the response ladder I just described, from individuals and communities to local law enforcement, to the federal level and then at the international level. In other words, as we build the fusion centers, we need to move analytic capacity from the Beltway to the country. In addition to the 70 current fusion center sites, the department will be collaborating with the Department of Justice and the FBI in more than 100 joint terrorism task forces across the country as well. So you see how we're creating the network—individuals, private sector, now among fusion centers and the law enforcement community.' "

What Drew is highlighting seems to be confirmed in the recent report on where the jobs are going to be in government over the next 3 years. That report indicated considerable growth in intel analyst positions within federal law enforcement.

Finally, another intel veteran, Cecilia Anastos, highlighted some particular skill sets that she thought would be useful, including mastery of analytic software (such as Analyst's Notebook), mastery of white hat hacking skills, and language skills (specifically, according to Cecilia, "Arabic, Farsi, Pashtu, Chinese and Spanish….I would include also Portuguese and Italian").

Internships

Virtually all of the intel veterans indicated that an internship was important. Drew was emphatic: "Get an internship with ODNI, CIA, DIA, NSA. The point is someone (an agency) has to sponsor your security clearance to get in the door. "

Deborah offered some good advice to those more interested in law enforcement careers: "Internships can be arranged by your universities and colleges. You may also approach police agencies yourself. Do research on the web to see if they have an analytical unit. Contact the unit staff and ask about opportunities. Some agencies use volunteers to help analysts. Look into these options because developing relationships with analysts and agencies is your number one best bet to getting a job."

Howard Clarke, of Toddington International, a commercial OSINT firm, in outlining some of the problems with intelligence as theory and intelligence as practice, also provided what turns out to be a pretty good checklist for interns when examining a company, agency or organization as a place for potential employment. Specifically, Howard recommends that young analysts, "do their homework on the agencies to which they are applying: as regards organizational culture, use of analysts, relevance and quality of training, etc. To make my concerns a little more concrete, I would point to issues such as:

• Problems with analyst tasking (does this function work well in the prospective hiring organization?)
• Is there coherence between the training provided and the actual work in which analysts are engaged?
• Is the organization analyst-friendly? Are there clear roles and reasonable expectations and a supportive or hostile organizational environment?
• Are systems in place to support the analysts or are the analysts in place to serve the data processing functions?"

Howard's list is a good one in my estimation, even if, in this economy, entry level analysts may not be able to be very picky. At least, they will be able to go into a job with their eyes open.

General Advice

There was quite a bit of just general good advice from all respondents for entry level analysts. Much of it has already been outlined in other parts of this series but some of it, at least, bears repeating and some of it is brand new.

For example, I thought Mats Bjore, the Director of Silobreaker made some excellent points when he stated, "Intelligence analysts need to be able to learn and unlearn at high speed. They also need to have a deep cultural and social understanding for the area or subject they analyze. Furthermore, they need to be able to do their own collection of data and information embedded in the analytical process. I have seen to many examples of "academic" and "IC" methods that give the individual a sense of a proven and accepted workflow, but, for the consumers of intelligence, just produce an overflow of words that they get too late."

Deborah adds that young analysts should make a point of attending "the International Association of Crime Analysts and International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts conferences if you are able. Besides the quality training you will receive there, networking opportunities abound. Make an effort to meet people who head analytical units and don't be afraid to market yourself." I would say the same holds true for the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professional's annual conference as well.

Cecilia recommends picking a specific topic or region of interest as soon as possible, studying as much as one can about it/them and actively writing papers or other documents to help develop your expertise but also to use in a portfolio. Another of her recommendations that made sense (either from an internship or a job perspective) was to "apply to organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations, think tanks, etc. This will brand your name with a region and an expertise, which you can use later to get a job at government agencies."

Next: The Ultimate Intel Job Search Link List