The popularity of James Bond films, and more recently the Jason Bourne series, have always had everyday citizens intrigued with “spies” – as they are called in Hollywood. While this terminology is not accurate for either James or Jason (intelligence officers manage spies who collect information for them) the role has inspired a great many to seek out answers on what it means to be an intelligence officer.
When you operate in the shadows, you celebrate in the shadows.
After the tragic events of 9/11 applications in the intelligence community went through the roof and with the Global War on Terror raging still, the volume of wannabe intelligence officers is still remarkably high. In the content that follows, we will help describe the realities of these positions, while also explaining the process for entering the US Intelligence community.
Before someone applies to any of the 17 member agencies of the United States Intelligence Community, it is important to know what function you want to play in that community. It must be understood that the vast majority of individuals in the community are not field operators. However, such positions do exist and we will attempt to explain the best ways to seek those out as we progress in the article.
When thinking of the intelligence community, most minds go right to the movies, but operators and analysts are not the only positions available, far from it. Think of the Intelligence Community as its own ecosystem, where all the roles you would find in the outside (non-classified) world exist.
Whether you are a scientist, a doctor, a lawyer, a custodian, a general contractor, a pilot or an artist – you can find a home in the intelligence community. Just remember this, and we will repeat this often, your main goal to break into this selective world is just to be accepted in the first place. Once you have a clearance and are in the community, while not necessarily easy, it is far more possible to move around from organization to organization or switch roles.
