Intelligence Operatives are often shown in movies with fake passports/papers as well as other equipment to help them blend it.
What is the offical name of the department which takes care of aquiring these? Say, for the British Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6.
I dunno about MI-6, but the Directorate of Science & Technology of the CIA is in charge of equpping American spies.
You might be interested to know that they are currently looking for a texile designer to design, uh, spy clothes.
Seems like they want a lot of textile design and testing horsepower for 50K. Isn’t this a bit of a measly salary to pay someone with the qualifications they list as necessary?
To me, the qualifications they’re asking for don’t seem all that impressive. Then again, I’m not familiar with the American labour market so maybe $50k is a pittance but I would expect that limiting the available pool with the security checks would be what really bumps up the salary. Of course, many of the people they’re after would also be required to move from NYC or even CA so they’d need a sweetener apart from relocation costs.
The KGB museum in Moscow has an exhibit concerning a string of Americans being caught with faked passports. The department producing fake documents just couldn’t understand what the problem was but were absolutely confident that their work was impeccable. Finally, they realised it was too impeccable and that the Soviets were picking out the books with the quality, rust free staples.
Well, some people like to serve their country. And pay for our spies starts at around $37,000. Most of these folks, who are generally recruited for their know-how and their ability with languages, can certainly command much more money working for an international investment bank or whatever.
My guess is that the position is for someone who can create, say, a duplicate of a Russian border guard uniform, so tailoring skills and the ability to operate the machinery to create custom fabrics is most important. Given that, $50,000 is reasonable.
Well, I’m not at all familiar with the textile industry, but it’s possible that the listed qualifications would be consistent with a BS in “textile engineering” (who knew?), so this could be something that an applicant could qualify for directly out of college. $50k isn’t bad for a recent grad.
Also, I believe that government jobs tend to be lighter on salary, but heavier on benefits than non-government positions. My father was in the Air Force, and while his salary may not have been that impressive, my whole family had full medical/dental/vision coverage, housing was covered by the AF (either by living on base or getting a “rent stipend”), etc. That may or may not apply to people working for the CIA, though.