posted on Nov, 12 2008 @ 12:37 AM
reply to post by dashen
If it were strictly the NSA, then I would say get an electrical engineering or computer science degree. I had a little chat with the NSA recruiter
years ago. Nothing scheduled, but I was in the area for another interview and the guy was trolling for engineering grads. He even laughed when I said
"Oh, you mean'No Such Agency.'"
However, the SCS is a hybrid of the CIA and NSA. They do black bag jobs. So I would say to get into the SCS, you probably were both ex-military and in
the NSA already. The NSA is really a bunch of geeks or translators.
Incidentally, I've heard ads for the CIA and NSA on a local radio station, but strictly for translators. Now for an alternative way into the NSA, you
would get a job at one of their many many private sector partners. L-3 and Applied Signal Technology come to mind. I haven't checked lately, but
there was and still may be a NSA officer on Applied Signal Technology's board of directors. They certainly don't hide the fact that they build spy
gear.
Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO, is ex-CIA, so there is one example of a programmer going spook. He worked on Operation Oracle, then of course started a
company based on what the CIA paid him to do. Note that the programmers, analysts and such are what you find at CIA HQ. Agents are handled
differently.
If you already have the right degrees, the spooks advertise in the usual places (Monster, etc.) They also recruiting on their websites:
NSA
CIA