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I think that a lot of us dream of being spies when we are kids but as with all things the nuts and bolts reality of that dream is not nearly as compelling. If you want to be a spy the organization to go through is the Central Intelligence Agency. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also does undercover work but the scope is nowhere near the same.

You cannot simply go apply and ask to be a spy. The number of jobs in the CIA is in the thousands and the vast majority of them have more to do with analysis than active surveillance and even then most of that is done from a distance. Undercover and deep cover operatives are not hired out of hand but rather promoted from within. And you never know who they are going to pick...

It is important to know that there are four main directorates within the Agency: Mission Support (administrative), Intelligence (analytical) and Operations (human intelligence collection) and Science and Technology.

The four main categories of jobs in most of there directories are: Operations Officers (OO), Collections Management Officers (CMO), Staff Operations Officers (SOO) and Paramilitary Officers (PM).

The Operations Officers live overseas for most of their careers and specialize in recruiting and handling agents. Agents will provide confidential information to the Operations Officer who will then encode it and transmit it back to Washington.

The Collections Management Officers review intelligence reports and try to make sense of them, correlating them with known data and intercepts from the past. Their job is to draw conclusions about the data received and note trends, as well as establish its authenticity.

Staff Operations Officers live in Washington and provide support for Operations Officers as needed. They focus on finding American agents and convincing them to share secrets, as well as keeping them safe from discovery and maintaining the technical support for their operations as they need it.

Paramilitary Officers are the closest thing you will get to spies. This is where you would go if you wanted to emulate an American James Bond. These are the field agents who handle the dangerous operations and collection of secrets. They are seen as a breed apart and training for these positions is quite rigorous.

Overall the CIA is a great place to work if you are looking for an exciting career that makes a difference in the world we live in. If mystery and secrecy get your heart pumping then you should definitely look into it. Just remember that things are not always as exciting as a 007 movie!

Learn more about this author, Royce Radcliffe.
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