It's no secret: CIA scouting for recruits
By John Diamond
USA TODAY
11/22/2005
LANGLEY, Va. — The CIA has launched a crash program to clear a backlog of job applicants and hire recruits who can speak Arabic, Korean and other languages critical to national security priorities.
As recently as five months ago, CIA applicants with sought-after skills such as fluency in Arabic or Korean faced long delays in hiring if they had relatives living overseas, CIA Director Porter Goss says.
To fill the shortage of experts in key languages and meet a presidential order for a 50% increase in analysts and overseas operatives, Goss started an end-to-end overhaul of the recruiting system.
Today, security issues that once took 18 months to overcome are being handled in a matter of weeks, according to Betsy Davis, the agency's No. 2 recruiting official.
Last year, the commission created to investigate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks criticized the agency's lack of language experts and the delays in obtaining security clearances.
CIA security officers have long worried that job candidates with foreign ties could leak sensitive information. That meant those candidates would have to endure long waits as the agency investigated their families and friends.
While he's concerned about possible security breaches, Goss says those lengthy checks were costing the agency valuable recruits.
Goss says he's more worried about terrorists killing people than "I am about (a) terrorist reading a top-secret report."
Even with the changes, an applicant still takes about nine months to become an officer, Davis says.
Such a time-consuming process didn't deter the candidates who lined up five deep recently at the CIA's recruiting desk at a job fair a few blocks from the University of Virginia's main campus in Charlottesville.
When asked how many of the day's roughly 100 applicants will become spies, Davis says, "As many as I can get through."
It's a big change from a decade ago, when the post-Cold War agency was cutting jobs and hiring hardly anyone for its clandestine service.
While the agency is hiring new operatives, its new challenges are apparent in conversations with some of the students.
"I'd like to do something different for a few years — about two years — then law school," says Anna Lee, a fourth-year marketing and business major. She speaks Korean, a critical language skill given the concern about the nuclear threat posed by North Korea. But after two years at the CIA she'd only just be getting started as an analyst. If she chose to be a clandestine officer, she might not be ready for her first foreign posting after two years. The CIA wants people like Lee not for two years but for 20.
The agency's hiring campaign includes slick ads, more than 800 recruiting events per year and about 200 staffers devoted full time to recruiting. The campaign walks the line between pitching an exciting career and making sure recruits don't confuse the agency with what they see in the movies.
"One of the things frankly we have to do is demystify (the CIA) a little bit," Goss says. "You are not going to be James Bond if you sign up and five years later you're going to be driving an Aston Martin with a beautiful young lady at your side on the Riviera. You might be, but I'm not aware of that program yet."
Several of the students say they're too busy with their studies to follow the CIA in the news. They get their information about the agency from movies and television shows such as Alias and 24.
"It seems exciting," says Eaming Wu, a fourth-year comparative literature major at Virginia. "I would like to know the secrets behind what goes on and to experience the power that goes with knowing those secrets."
Complicating matters for recruiters is the need to find operatives who can speak languages such as Arabic or those spoken in many Asian nations.
"Census data tells us that 1.6% of Americans speak critical languages at home," Davis says. "And how many of those have academic degrees? It's frighteningly small." About 27% of applicants claim proficiency in at least one foreign language, Davis says, though seldom in the languages essential to the war on terrorism.
Stephanie Danes Smith, the CIA's chief administrator, says that as a result of a just-completed "end-to-end review" of hiring and training procedures, a CIA administrator can, with the stroke of a computer key, locate every fluent Arabic or Pashto speaker anywhere in the agency at home or abroad.
The CIA still needs more analysts and operatives fluent in key foreign languages, says former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who regularly consults the White House on national security issues.
"Less than 10% of our analysts of North Korea are fluent in Korean," says Gingrich. He said he believes 40% of intelligence analysis should be contracted out.
Goss has also ordered a shake-up of time-honored assignment schedules that often had field officers rotating out of regions just when they were becoming effective. He can also approve higher pay for people with key language skills and keep officers on assignment longer.
Goss says he was "horrified" to hear that potential applicants waited months, even years, for a reply from the agency.
"I've got to tell you, it was a broken system," Goss says. "It was one of the things I found most stunning when I got here."
Members of the 9/11 Commission said they were stunned to hear from Goss and his predecessor, George Tenet, that getting the right number of spies with the right skills in the clandestine service will take five years. In some areas, Goss says, the agency is ahead of schedule. In other specialties, particularly those involving obscure foreign languages, "we are maybe at the 5 or 10% level."
The CIA is getting better, Goss says, but "there are some very hard aspects of this that take longer. We are an overseas organization. We are an organization that requires what I would call sacrifice of quality of life. ... We are looking for specific people that we think will fit our needs. And that means an aggressive recruiting effort."
Agency hiring data are classified, but Steven Aftergood, an intelligence expert at the Federation of American Scientists, says his analysis of public statements by agency officials and other information shows that CIA hiring may exceed 2,000 people a year.
Surveying her prospects at the job fair, Davis points to Johanna Peet, who is writing a senior thesis on the assimilation of Islamic immigrants in the Netherlands, where she studied for a year. Davis had already spoken with her and predicted she would join the agency.
While she is considering career options at international organizations such as the United Nations, Peet says, "I'm very conscious of being an American."
She knows that the CIA has been criticized for lapses prior to the Sept. 11 attacks and the Iraq war but says those lapses are not necessarily negatives for her. "It has potential," Peet says. "There's a lot of work cut out for this agency in terms of picking up the pieces after 9/11. I have a lot of faith in the agency. I don't see it as broken."
USA TODAY
11/22/2005
LANGLEY, Va. — The CIA has launched a crash program to clear a backlog of job applicants and hire recruits who can speak Arabic, Korean and other languages critical to national security priorities.
As recently as five months ago, CIA applicants with sought-after skills such as fluency in Arabic or Korean faced long delays in hiring if they had relatives living overseas, CIA Director Porter Goss says.
To fill the shortage of experts in key languages and meet a presidential order for a 50% increase in analysts and overseas operatives, Goss started an end-to-end overhaul of the recruiting system.
Today, security issues that once took 18 months to overcome are being handled in a matter of weeks, according to Betsy Davis, the agency's No. 2 recruiting official.
Last year, the commission created to investigate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks criticized the agency's lack of language experts and the delays in obtaining security clearances.
CIA security officers have long worried that job candidates with foreign ties could leak sensitive information. That meant those candidates would have to endure long waits as the agency investigated their families and friends.
While he's concerned about possible security breaches, Goss says those lengthy checks were costing the agency valuable recruits.
Goss says he's more worried about terrorists killing people than "I am about (a) terrorist reading a top-secret report."
Even with the changes, an applicant still takes about nine months to become an officer, Davis says.
Such a time-consuming process didn't deter the candidates who lined up five deep recently at the CIA's recruiting desk at a job fair a few blocks from the University of Virginia's main campus in Charlottesville.
When asked how many of the day's roughly 100 applicants will become spies, Davis says, "As many as I can get through."
It's a big change from a decade ago, when the post-Cold War agency was cutting jobs and hiring hardly anyone for its clandestine service.
While the agency is hiring new operatives, its new challenges are apparent in conversations with some of the students.
"I'd like to do something different for a few years — about two years — then law school," says Anna Lee, a fourth-year marketing and business major. She speaks Korean, a critical language skill given the concern about the nuclear threat posed by North Korea. But after two years at the CIA she'd only just be getting started as an analyst. If she chose to be a clandestine officer, she might not be ready for her first foreign posting after two years. The CIA wants people like Lee not for two years but for 20.
The agency's hiring campaign includes slick ads, more than 800 recruiting events per year and about 200 staffers devoted full time to recruiting. The campaign walks the line between pitching an exciting career and making sure recruits don't confuse the agency with what they see in the movies.
"One of the things frankly we have to do is demystify (the CIA) a little bit," Goss says. "You are not going to be James Bond if you sign up and five years later you're going to be driving an Aston Martin with a beautiful young lady at your side on the Riviera. You might be, but I'm not aware of that program yet."
Several of the students say they're too busy with their studies to follow the CIA in the news. They get their information about the agency from movies and television shows such as Alias and 24.
"It seems exciting," says Eaming Wu, a fourth-year comparative literature major at Virginia. "I would like to know the secrets behind what goes on and to experience the power that goes with knowing those secrets."
Complicating matters for recruiters is the need to find operatives who can speak languages such as Arabic or those spoken in many Asian nations.
"Census data tells us that 1.6% of Americans speak critical languages at home," Davis says. "And how many of those have academic degrees? It's frighteningly small." About 27% of applicants claim proficiency in at least one foreign language, Davis says, though seldom in the languages essential to the war on terrorism.
Stephanie Danes Smith, the CIA's chief administrator, says that as a result of a just-completed "end-to-end review" of hiring and training procedures, a CIA administrator can, with the stroke of a computer key, locate every fluent Arabic or Pashto speaker anywhere in the agency at home or abroad.
The CIA still needs more analysts and operatives fluent in key foreign languages, says former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who regularly consults the White House on national security issues.
"Less than 10% of our analysts of North Korea are fluent in Korean," says Gingrich. He said he believes 40% of intelligence analysis should be contracted out.
Goss has also ordered a shake-up of time-honored assignment schedules that often had field officers rotating out of regions just when they were becoming effective. He can also approve higher pay for people with key language skills and keep officers on assignment longer.
Goss says he was "horrified" to hear that potential applicants waited months, even years, for a reply from the agency.
"I've got to tell you, it was a broken system," Goss says. "It was one of the things I found most stunning when I got here."
Members of the 9/11 Commission said they were stunned to hear from Goss and his predecessor, George Tenet, that getting the right number of spies with the right skills in the clandestine service will take five years. In some areas, Goss says, the agency is ahead of schedule. In other specialties, particularly those involving obscure foreign languages, "we are maybe at the 5 or 10% level."
The CIA is getting better, Goss says, but "there are some very hard aspects of this that take longer. We are an overseas organization. We are an organization that requires what I would call sacrifice of quality of life. ... We are looking for specific people that we think will fit our needs. And that means an aggressive recruiting effort."
Agency hiring data are classified, but Steven Aftergood, an intelligence expert at the Federation of American Scientists, says his analysis of public statements by agency officials and other information shows that CIA hiring may exceed 2,000 people a year.
Surveying her prospects at the job fair, Davis points to Johanna Peet, who is writing a senior thesis on the assimilation of Islamic immigrants in the Netherlands, where she studied for a year. Davis had already spoken with her and predicted she would join the agency.
While she is considering career options at international organizations such as the United Nations, Peet says, "I'm very conscious of being an American."
She knows that the CIA has been criticized for lapses prior to the Sept. 11 attacks and the Iraq war but says those lapses are not necessarily negatives for her. "It has potential," Peet says. "There's a lot of work cut out for this agency in terms of picking up the pieces after 9/11. I have a lot of faith in the agency. I don't see it as broken."
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