[S1E3] Made You Look

Much like Kat, Jules also relies on the internet for yet another integral part of human interaction: love. A lot of things stand in the way for Jules to build friendships, let alone find love in a new neighborhood. Most people do not pay much attention to her because of being the newbie, and her sexuality was also something that made people (particularly men) ridicule or belittle her. Aside from Rue and Kat (though not really), Jules had no friends, so when Tyler comes into the picture, she readily goes head over heels for him.

[S1E3] Made You Look

Mike: Absolutely. Yeah. We are certainly a unique organization. I think we're very, um uh, we're an organization I think that that a lot of people don't fully understand obviously just by nature of our mystique and, and our mission and things of that nature. We're not as public as the average employer. Uh, there's a lot of benefits to working to the Agency. Having worked in the private sector, now coming into the government, I have had the experience of working both sides. So just to give a little bit of insight and perspective there, you know what, what does the Agency actually offer that your average, you know, corporate organization may not? I mean, this is a very, when I say unique, uh, you can't really perform much of the work here that we do at the Agency anywhere else. I mean, our mission is unique. Our mission is challenging. It's fascinating. It's tip of the spear. Certainly you can go work for any Fortune 500 company, but our mission, I mean, where else can you do this work, right? I mean, obviously you know where you look at at our mystique, our reputation, you know, we are spying organization. So you're not really going to do that in the corporate world.

Dee: Absolutely. And I'm thinking, you just mentioned how we are looking to obviously diversify our workforce. So, having been on, you know one of the main leaders here in the in the recruitment side, can you explain a little bit more about how we are doing that? How we are looking to diversify our workforce in in more ways than just the normal way we look at diversity?

Mike: Absolutely. And and I think, like many employers, right, we really have, you know, you want to diversify for a lot of reasons, right? And there, there are different ways to approach diversity, right? We look at racial, ethnic, gender, geographical, socioeconomic, and we're trying to cover all of that, right? Uh, a lot of that has to do with the way that we conduct our outreach, we communicate with certain communities, certain academic communities. Uh, it's your ability to reach out, be committed, be consistent, and deliver a message that's ultimately going to resonate with whatever audience you might be pursuing. Obviously, people from different backgrounds bring different skills. They bring different areas of expertise, different experiences that apply to our mission. The Agency is doing that. We are. We are really investing more in our workforce and our ability to recruit. I will tell you, um, without going into much detail, having been across the private sector and the government, I can tell you that the government really highly invests in this mission. I will tell you that there are probably private companies that would be envious of the support and the investment that is made in the human capital and the recruitment area here. So you know, what the Agency needs to continue to do is to change over time. I mean, that's that's just what it is. This is not a static type of of function. It is something that changes, uh, rapidly. It changes frequently. We all saw what Covid has done to our workforce. It's changed us, not just here at the Agency, but, you know, nationwide. Uh, so just that quickly, some societal disruption could come in and actually change the course of an entire, you know process or an entire function, if you will. So all of these things we have to stay out in front of.

But diversifying our workforce is one of the top priorities. Our Director has made it one of our top priorities. Talent has made it, and the organization in general has made it one of our top priorities. But again, we are competing, right? Every other employer is attempting the same things. So that goes into the strategy that we put together. We've got to be that much better. But we also have to make sure that we're reaching the populations of the communities that ultimately we feel we'll meet our mission and certainly through through diversified efforts, you're going to achieve that.

Walter: So we've talked about some of the recruitment process, some of the benefits of working here and why some people might want to come work at CIA. But can you talk about the characteristics and the expertise that CIA is looking for in candidates? I know we must get asked this question a lot.

Mike: Sure, Absolutely. So it's interesting you know, and a number of folks, I'm glad you asked the question, because a number of folks are probably very unfamiliar with the way that we are structured. I mean, if you look across the Department of Defense of the U.S. Military, pretty much you see that, you know, across the board you have all the services. Here it's a little different, right? Um, we are obviously again, the the, the HUMINT, uh, and for those out there, it's Human Intelligence uh, we are the leader for the United States and the world in Human Intelligence. So how are we structured? How are we set up? It's interesting because we're on a very similar military model. So currently we do have five Directorates. And without going into much detail, you have your Directorate of Operations, which is the Directorate of, obviously all, you know it really drives our mystique and our brand, which is a good thing. They are the tip of the spear. They are the spies. They are the case officers overseas, in addition to other duties. There's also the Directorate of Science and Technology, which is extremely interesting. They do a number of engineering functions and other technical, uh, and STEM related functions in support of that overall foreign HUMINT mission. We also have the Directorate, which is a relatively newer Directorate, I guess what 10 years now, since since Director Brennan had rolled out what we considered then our reorganization or I apologize, it's escaping me. But modernization. Thank you. Uh, so it's been about 10 years there where we had established the Directorate of Digital Innovation, right? Obviously threats today in area of cyberspace, are in artificial intelligence, data analytics, things of that nature. That's a Directorate that specializes in that area. And, of course, our Directorate of Analysis, I mean, the Agency performs analysis, obviously the the leader, the world leader, in analysis when collecting raw foreign intelligence. Our ability to analyze that of course, provide to policymakers is critical. So we have the Directorate of Analysis, and then ultimately we have our Directorate of Support, which is the largest Directorate here in the organization. And that's all of the support functions. That's like a corporate body within private industry, providing HR, providing finance, logistics, security and a host of other functions. So careers are actually across all of those Directorates and certainly disciplines do kind of span across all of those Directorates.

We are an organization, I do want to say this because, you know today, how are you competitive in recruitment? Certainly people want to talk about work-life balance, remote work. Although remote work isn't very common with our organization, for obvious reasons. And I know that that's something that we compete with, and I and I make that because, uh, we are looking for the folks that want to join the mission and that is probably going to require either deploying overseas or working here within the Washington, DC, metro area. Certainly your ability to relocate and things of that nature. So for those of you out there who are looking for a career to join the team, come on board for, for reasons, unfortunately, we just don't have that competitive edge. I can't set you up from home in Chicago or Los Angeles because of just the nature of the work that we do. So we want to appeal for the folks who really are looking to, to take that on and who may not necessarily be looking for a remote opportunity. Although I, I love the idea of remote work, it's just not really conducive for our mission and the work that we do

Walter: Well, I think that would be informative for a lot of people. And we know how tough it can be to put a human face or voice, at least on the folks who work here and what it takes to join CIA. So Mike, thank you for coming on today and for, for giving us an overview of this process and the types of candidates that CIA is looking for.

Dee: But before we go, um, we just want to highlight that going down the road with this podcast, we would like to go dig a little deeper into some of the occupations that we have here and really put a focus on some of the skills and abilities that we're looking to recruit. Um, and we're wondering, would it be possible to ask you back on here in a future episode?

Lee Coffin:This was bubbling below my radar for a while. Last summer, I had an email from an incoming parent who said, "I'm the president of the Class of '24 Parent Facebook group." And I said, "Had no idea that that existed." And I wasn't looking for it. So, it's not that I was ignoring it. It just didn't occur to me that parents had organized themselves and were gathering on these sites to create community and in some ways kind of monitor what was happening on campus. I think there's this bigger question hiding here around college, and what's the role of a parent versus a student in the college dynamic. And I'm old enough now to remember going to college, getting dropped off. I called home once a week and saw them at the end of each term. There's a different dynamic happening now and I think social media has opened a pathway for parents to be part of the undergraduate experience in a way that is much more visible and engaged than what I remember. 041b061a72