“Bond…Jane Bond”
If you qualify for a Secret Clearance for a position, would that mean you would have also been eligible for a Top Secret Clearance if it was necessary?
You need a different type of investigation for a top secret. It is more extensive than that for a secret.
@soccerguy315 why is it that way with the peace corps? well crap, this ruined my vague plan
I’m very interested in this type of thing, but two things:
-I did a service trip in “country A” and I have maintained contact with some friends there. When I first returned to the U.S., i was saying stuff like “i want to go back” and “people in country A are nicer”, etc. through Facebook message
-I have downloaded music illegally because my dad did it, so i thought it wasn’t a big deal
does this bring my chances down to zero? to be fair I don’t think I’d end up a “spy”, I’d be perfectly happy in a desk job
@collegebound1516 it is that way so there is no connection between the Peace Corps and intelligence activity. If there is the appearance of someone using their peace corps knowledge for the benefit of U.S. intelligence, that is extremely dangerous for all of the Peace Corps volunteers around the world. They already have to deal with claims some places of “being the CIA”
I don’t think this will cause a problem… but you should probably not post things like that. Basically, they want to make sure you are (and will continue to be) loyal to the United States. It is ok to like other countries, the U.S. government works with other countries all the time. If you want to read a current story, you can google this guy: Jonathan Pollard.
Just be honest. If they didn’t take people that have downloaded music illegally, they would have no employees. That said, if you are downloading terabytes of stuff, you might want to stop.
Conclusion: you can still get a job in the intelligence area.
I wanted to be a spy after watching The Man from UNCLE TV series in the 1960’s. I was 11 years old.
Sad to see Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) as the spokesperson for an ambulance chasing law firm nowadays.
thanks for the info, @soccerguy315
That makes a lot of sense. I guess I have some stuff to figure out and some decisions to make
Edit: and I feel like having a brother in the military might help prove that I’m not exactly an enemy of the state, haha
My father-in-law was an executive with a large corporation that, among lots of other things, manufactured a number of weapons. He traveled all over the world selling the weapons he build to our allies’ armies (paid for, of course, with U.S. military aid, or sometimes ExIm Bank financing). Anyway, part of the job, for years, was reporting back to the CIA what he learned about the personnel, capabilities and plans of foreign militaries.
A weird aspect of that life: He was having an affair with a woman who (after several years and a divorce) became his second wife. She was foreign-born, although a U.S. citizen. Another suitor of hers tried to blackmail them into stopping the affair by threatening to expose that he had brought her along on sales trips where she had access to classified information. The threats were ineffective – because it turned out that before beginning the affair he had disclosed his interest in her to the CIA and FBI, and gotten her a security clearance. Hard for me to imagine living like that, but, if that’s the life you want, that’s how you live it.
I know various people – not as well as I knew my father-in-law – who as a function of their professional interests and patriotism wanted to work for one or another intelligence agency, and some did.
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does this mean I shouldn’t/can’t study abroad?
No, no, no - don’t make that assumption. If anything, I’d argue the opposite. See posts above. You can study abroad and travel abroad. See the link to the article I posted about Mormons and CIA/FBI recruitment. One of the things, among others, that makes Mormons attractive is their missions trips which result in fluency in another language and cultural awareness. If travel abroad was an issue, these former missionaries wouldn’t make good candidates, would they?
@doschicos thanks, I was questioning my life choices, haha. I get it, it’s kind of like you should travel, but not too much or to the same place over and over, and don’t be weirdly close with the people you leave behind
My kid was studying abroad when her security clearance was being processed. It didn’t hurt her in getting it, although because of the logistics it was quite a hassle. She kept having to go to the US embassy in the city she was in for questioning, fingerprinting, etc. And the timelines were tight, so at one point she had to send something overnight international (don’t even ask what that cost!). Although she was in a country with limited political/foreign relations impact, too.
@intparent can i ask what your daughter’s major was? curious
Extensive travel abroad definitely doesn’t have to be an obstacle to obtaining a security clearance. I have a good friend who was able to obtain a high level security clearance (necessary for her to work as an attorney on major terrorism cases) despite having traveled extensively in Europe and the Middle East, including living for several years in Egypt, and also spending a lot of time in Syria and Iran. And also, by the way, despite having something in common with me about her history. About all of which she was very forthright. (I was interviewed by the FBI as part of the process – I was asked a lot of questions about her, but there wasn’t anything hostile about it.)
you can definitely participate in study abroad… maybe not in North Korea though.
Haha @soccerguy315 ok thanks I’ll make sure to steer clear of North Korea
Here is a list of the top 100 most militarized universities. Supposedly these are the universities that produce the greatest number of students who are employed by the Intelligence Community (IC)
https://news.vice.com/article/these-are-the-100-most-militarized-universities-in-america