Here in the bowels of democracy, there are well-groomed, steely-eyed manager-types who are never there and never seem to participate in any work. While you may scoff “Typical government worker”, think again… could be they’re a spook. That pleasant couple down the street who just moved in down the street and work for “Foreign Service”? Spookalooka ding dong!
Only in Washington can these things be not only observed, but chuckled at. People like Aldrich Ames or Robert Hansen, but just haven’t been caught yet, walk among us.
My sister was an agent for the FBI, but that wasn’t her title. I don’t recall what it was but it was something sounded made up. Like someone gave her a title instead of a promotion.
She was an agent typical of TV and movies but that wasn’t her real title, and when she’d put down what she did on a rental agreement or anything, everyone would ask “Are you an agent?” And she’d say “No, I’m just a peon.”
Of course if anyone checks for a reference with the FBI, they know what that title is and can give her the reference, as instructed by the FBI
Why? I’ve known several FBI Special Agents. I’m sure there are those who, say, do undercover work in drug stuff or gangs, but otherwise there’s nothing secret about being a G-Man. It’s like being a cop.
Please note that I wrote, "As long as you aren’t covert/clandestine. . . "
The circumstances you describe would preclude you from listing your employment as CIA. According to your official resume, you’d have been a State Department employee. This wouldn’t change if you went to work in the private sector, or most any other government job. Only you and your former employers would know the “real” story.
But if you wanted to get similar work in the future, you’d simply have to work the issue back channel with the appropriately cleared personnel.
This really isn’t too challenging-- after all, they don’t advertise clandestine openings on Monster.com or USAJOBS. Sure, you might get recruited into such work from there, but once you’re “in,” then you’re just dealing with finding a new job via alternative methods that everybody else would be familar with (word-of-mouth, recommendations from mentors, even jobs postings on classified intranets).
It’s a lot like finding a job in the military. Most civilians seem to think that once you enlist or become an officer, your entire future career-- including assignments, jobs and duty stations-- are arranged for you. That’s actually quite far from the case-- at times, the services will order you to a location no matter what, but for the most part, they are so flexible in their assignments as to be practically indistinguishable from the private sector (the only difference being that you must move every so often, as the military promotes you and you need to find new jobs with greater responsibilities). Officers have to keep their ears open to new possiiblities and assignments, and they apply in their own ways, through their own channels, using regulations and procedures they understand.
The intelligence community, even the secret-squirrel parts of it, works much the same way. It’s the “getting in” that’s the hard part-- moving around once you’re there (and once you have the appropriate clearances) is a substantially different creature. AND affected by those people you interview with-- you might not be able to tell Joe Public that you worked for the CIA, but you could almost certainly tell a government employee with the appropriate security clearance that you did-- you just might not be able to tell them what you did, but you can tell them enough to get you by. Plus, most of your performance record will likely be unclassified, so you’ll have reviews and grades from your supervisors just like in any other job.
I’m removing “attention to detail” from my resume as we speak.
Right, I guess that logically follows.
I suppose most times a clandestine officer is qualified to do the cover work (indeed, he actually does the cover work sometimes), but I wouldn’t think that was always the case, is it?
When NSA people go to conferences, they put “Department of Defense” on their badges. I actually made a sales call to NSA once. Someone asked one of our contacts for his business card, and he just laughed.
When in the Air Force, I was stationed at NORAD (Cheyenne Mountain) for 3 years.
Right next to the main Command Center was a work center for FEMA. It was never staffed with more than two people, and they were usually two guys in their 50s.
They had the highest security in the entire Mountain. Even more so than SPADOC (Space Defense Operations Center) and NavINT (Naval Intelligence Center).
They never left the work center either. They had their own bathroom (unusual since the Command Center was the only one with its own bathroom) and got their meals delivered from the chow hall (ahem – dining facility). Even the General In Charge (not the base commander – the two-star that had the little red phone next to his desk) ate his meals in the chow hall (ahem – dining facility).
Every time we were called to fix a monitor or TV in their work center, they would scramble for a few minutes clearing all the classified stuff off their monitors and desks before letting us in. Then they would hover over us while we performed our duties and basically grill us when we ventured more than one foot away from our tasks. And I had a Top Secret SCI clearance too, so I was authorized to see pretty much everything in the Mountain.
There were rumors abound (even some from officers in the Command Center) that they were NSA spooks. Not CIA, but NSA which lends credulity to the rumor.
FEMA at NORAD? FEMA with material more classified than NORAD Command Center??
Now that I told you this, I have to kill all of you. Please sit still for a moment…
The OP question was something I wondered, too, when I saw Burn After Reading. When the character Ozzie quit his intelligence position, not only did I wonder what kind of resume would he produce, but in what other field would he be able to find a job?
The OP issue isn’t limited to government workers. As a lowly tech writer, I usually assume the products I work on are proprietary and confidential, at least until a product is released to the public. Sometimes, after working through a contracting agency, I’m not even comfortable naming the actual client on my resume. I’ll say something like, "for a client, wrote <whatever docs> for a new <widget>. The agency will confirm my employment. I figure if I don’t name the client, I can say a little more about the work, and vice-versa.
I don’t know if other tech writers are this circumspect, and maybe it’s a bad technique. My current resume hasn’t been getting any nibbles. Then again, things are tough all over.
I worked for the NSA for four years. They allow analysts to propose an unclassified version of what they do for approval. Here is my approved “Unclassified” resume of my time there:
Arabic Linguist (June 2002-July 2006)
National Security Agency, Fort Meade, MD
Achieved Professional Certification as Level 3 Voice Linguist and Level 3 Graphic Linguist, passing two of the four examinations with honors.
Served at an overseas field site.
Through the National Security Agency, has studied Iraqi Dialect and Egyptian Dialect and used each in an operational context.
Now there were things I tried to get approval to say that the Security Office deleted and said I couldn’t include. But basically, that’s how it works.
When Clifford Stoll visited the CIA (as related in his book The Cuckoo’s Egg), he was so entertained by the array of rubber stamps on one person’s desk, he filled several blank pieces of paper with them.
Classified.
Top Secret.
Eyes Only.
Shred After Reading.
That kind of stuff. He managed to leave, but his “rubber stamp sampler” collection stayed behind.
Beats me I never really knew what she did. All I know is she used to go to Quantico, Virginia a lot, and she was fluent in Russian, and this was the 70s. So that’s about as close as I ever got to finding out what she really did.
She was always telling me of rules, some made sense like, never acknowledge another agent in public, but most of them seemed to a bit off.
In the UK they tend to provide you with your next position as part of the discharge process. There are a huge number of companies who are on friendly terms with the services.
This was (at least a few years back) the procedure for anybody either ‘retiring’, invalided out (and not chosing to stay in an adminstrative/training role) or anybody of reasonable standing who decided they just needed out. If you were leaving under a cloud, I heard it’s not quite so well assisted.
Do you know what **your **bank manager used to do?
Heh. My favorite moment in the spy comedy Top Secret! was when the East German general hunted through all of the rubber stamps on his desk to find and use the one that said:
If you were at an interview and you were asked what you did at the overseas field site could you give a more responsive answer than “Sorry, that’s classified”?
