Rocky Recap: Careers in International Affairs-U.S. Intelligence

Read a student's account of our CIA Event co-sponsored with Career Services. For more information about our public programs, click here.

For students who are interested in providing information to inform the decisions of U.S. policymakers, they should consider a career in U.S. intelligence agencies. Specifically, students can work for as a Central Intelligence Agency information analyst to gather and analyze information regarding national security and then forward their findings to policymakers and members of the executive branch.

Undergraduate students can apply for paid internships that will prepare them for a career in the CIA; internships will begin in the summer and continue through a proceeding academic semester - a total of two semesters - to train as a future analyst. Internships lead directly to a job as an analyst. Careers in the CIA are secure and allow for flexibility in regards to work hours and world travel.

The prospect for becoming an analyst seemed very exciting to me - analysts get to take the most current events, gather information, and then process the information to help national security. However, this kind of a job is also suited for a very specific type of person: analysts write a lot of papers for the first few years, and then they will be perpetually traveling to different front lines all over the world without much of a choice. The selection process is very competitive, and requires a lot of commitment and complete loyalty and confidentiality. Although analysts get to experience a lot of new, military cutting- technology, their lives are not accurately portrayed in the movies, where they seem like modern ninjas. Analysts are not like agents - they just process and present information (although this may at times be from areas of violence). For students who wish to inform decisions by the executive branch, have a career of constant traveling, writing papers using critical thinking skills, then this job would fit such interests.