Spy IT

Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.

  Career Development  

Want to be a big hit at parties and make your folks and family real proud? How about trying to land a job with the CIA? If you're a hotshot project manager between jobs, what do you have to lose if there is nothing else in the offing? The timing couldn't be better, because the CIA is hungry for talent.

In mid-November, President George W. Bush instructed CIA Director Porter J. Goss to increase the number of analysts and spies at the CIA by 50 percent. The CIA had not bolstered its staff so aggressively since the beginning of World War ll.

Although figures are classified, it's estimated that the CIA's annual budget is approximately $5 billion and that the agency employs more than 17,000 people. Its clandestine service employs several thousand people, and its analytic branch--better known as the directorate of intelligence--is significantly larger. Bush said the staff increases are to take place immediately.

Up for a major career move? Working for the CIA will be more than a new job experience, it will also be a major lifestyle change. Continue reading and find out what it takes to qualify for the U.S. Government's cloak-and-dagger agency.

The CIA's mission is to uncover and collect intelligence information in foreign countries that is useful to the U.S. government. The information is analyzed and turned over to government …

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