SOF to Intel Agencies
- Thread starter goon175
- Start date
http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12106
They've got something. I've met a DIA HUMINT collector overseas. I don't how much of his job was being out in the field vs just interrogating jailbirds.
I think of DIA as the Title X equivalent of the CIA. Slightly different missions, arguably less capable, but fairly comparable.
Do they have the same type of hiring plan as the CIA does (College grads, foreign language skills) or do they focus more on people who already have some of the skills necessary for the job?
Not really the case at all. There several former SF TL's who are now PMOs (were hired in the last couple years). While not as common as their hiring of SMU guys they do still hire a few. There are some former SF guys who are case officers too...
Crip
Depends on if they are being hired as a green-suiter or GS level employee and also what the position/job it is that they are hiring for.
I'm mainly thinking about their HUMINT employees, and more along the lines of their GS employees. I'm assuming that contractors generally have to have a good amount of experience because of their higher salaries.
You think they were highered because they were TLs or those just happen to be guys with degrees that applied?
Sometimes having a military sense of dress, speaking and staring down people like you're about to plunge a bayonet into their heart when they're only asking how you have your coffee isn't advantageous.
Brill
SOF Support
There is a lot of info on here and honestly Dknob and Crip are the most accurate. Times are tougher now than after the hiring surge for all Federal agencies (there is talk of thinning the ranks just like all other USG agencies). However for jobs within the NCS, the key items NOW appear to be advanced degrees, foreign travel, and most importantly ability to get a clearance. I know SF and RR guys who became both COs and protective officers and but have met many, many, many more who do not have any mil experience at all. Contracting is another way to go too. Many blue badgers started out as green but there are more and more chasing the greenbacks by trading their blue to green.
If you want to be a CO within NCS, you had better be learning a language alright: English.
My advice: if you want to go from SOF to an IC job; do your SOF job very well, get as much training as possible, go to school and then get a Masters all the while living a boring ass life to keep your nose clean. The Boren Scholarship program is very highly regarded by everyone in the biz as are the degree programs at NIU.
Of course there are those out there who got hired without a degree and then went SOF. Those are few and far between and most certainly have mental problems to begin with.
If you want to be a CO within NCS, you had better be learning a language alright: English.
My advice: if you want to go from SOF to an IC job; do your SOF job very well, get as much training as possible, go to school and then get a Masters all the while living a boring ass life to keep your nose clean. The Boren Scholarship program is very highly regarded by everyone in the biz as are the degree programs at NIU.
Of course there are those out there who got hired without a degree and then went SOF. Those are few and far between and most certainly have mental problems to begin with.
It was because of certain experience(s) the guys had previously on the UW side of things...
Crip
Yet again it depends on if the guys are green-suiters or not. They hire GS, green-suiters, and contractors to fill some of the same positions, HUMINT, CI, SSE, etc...
This is VERY important and I cannot stress it enough. It is much easier for an 18 y/o straight out of high-school to get a TS(+) than a guy in his mid-thirties simply due to having survived (or not) many life experiences (speeding tickets, debt, nasty divorces, etc.)
Brill
SOF Support
Videos and drunk FB photos are the silent killers.
Glad to hear it! And thanks for the correction. Like I mentioned earlier; I'm just going off what the NCS recruiter told me.
I'm not sure, all of my time "with" the DIA was as a student in NIU, so I'm not sure what their plan is and I'm not sure I could discuss it even if I did. I do know that they hire a LOT of "entry-level" (i.e. straight out of college or whatever) folks and spend a good deal of time training them up. There are also a lot of ex-.mil types in the DIA, representing a lot of different flavors of SOF, and of course a lot of uniformed folks as well. I'm a big fan of DIA and what they're able to do. If I had to pick an intel agency to work for, it would probably be them.
Brill
SOF Support
Their employees also fast track up the payscale. I knew SSGs analysts who were hired as 12s and quickly progressed to 14s.
So we've talked about the good but what about the ugly? Word on the street is that the IAs at FBI are hating life although I cannot confirm that.
Most of our guys couldn't even get close to considering the FBI. You talked about keeping your nose clean, they want squeaky clean people.
A former Soldier of mine works in the FBI. She said she liked the job but in many cases the IAs and other support types get treated like crap because they're not field agents. So yeah, it's a lot like being an enabler in an SF group ;)
Brill
SOF Support
A TS with SCI is almost universal though and I meant Intel Analysts vice Special Agents. The folks I've worked with are really down to earth but the IAs seem very frustrated. Round peg square hole kind of thing.
