These documents are your opportunity to market yourself to future employers. These are living documents that you should be constantly updating and improving. Moreover, they should be tailored for each job or internship you apply for.

Tips:

• Cover letters can be a great opportunity to highlight work that you’ve done and show (not tell) your skills. Keep it simple. Paragraph one should include: who are you and what job are you applying for. Paragraph two: how can YOU help the hiring entity meet their needs (which they usually list on the job listing, website). Give examples that highlight your skills and show that you are a good fit. This is NOT the place to say how the job fits into YOUR career goals/five-year plan. Paragraph 3: thank them, provide contact information, and express willingness to answer any additional questions they might have.

• Keep a master copy of your resume that includes EVERYTHING you’ve done (this will run long) and then tailor your resume for the job you are applying for. You don’t need to include everything you have done on every version of your resume. Save the versions that you send out to each job, you’ll want to print the correct version when you get your interview.

• What should you include? Remember the resume is a marketing tool, not a history of work. You don’t have to put that job scooping ice-cream, unless you want to show something about yourself that will be attractive to hiring entity in question. Ask yourself if you have something about your work you want to highlight (EG – asked to train new employees, can quickly learn new skills, ability to multi-task, ability to work unsupervised.) You also might want to include a job if it is your only work experience. You want to show you know how to have a boss.

• Don’t neglect non-traditional work! Volunteer, worked part-time, temporary/contract work, freelance, blogged, school paper… YES!

• Review, review, review! The more eyes the better (friends, family, professors, anyone you might know in the field). I also can’t emphasize enough the importance of working with an expert on your application materials, here at Purdue we have the Center for Career Opportunities (https://www.cco.purdue.edu/) 

• Include “relevant coursework” on your resume if you have space (and you probably will at this point in your lives). This is a nice way to show that you’ve been learning material that relates to the job or internship you are applying for.

• Make sure the resume is easy on the eyes. You want lots of white space and a simple font. The goal should be to make the one-page document skimmable. Use bold strategically.

• Creative resumes with graphics/icons are not generally what you want for jobs in political science, unless you are applying for PR or marketing jobs.

• Contact information should be easy to see at the top of the resume. You do not need to include your address, just your telephone number and professional email.

• Scan job listings, pull key words into resume. This will help it get pulled by search algorithms.

•  Show don’t tell, terms like “strong leader” and “effective communicator” can feel like meaningless buzzwords.

• Include tech skills, skip assumed skills (like email and Microsoft word).

• And remember, Times New Roman is the sweatpants of fonts!

Useful websites:

https://www.myperfectresume.com/career-center/resumes/how-to/write

https://www.themuse.com/advice/43-resume-tips-that-will-help-you-get-hired

https://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/resources/resumes-impact-creating-strong-bullet-points

https://iccae.ku.edu/intelligence-community-resume-writing-best-practices

I was lucky enough to do an internship at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) when I was a junior at Smith College. I was a Political Science and Economics double major, and at the time I was very interested in trade policy and international finance. I had an amazing experience at USTR. I got to 1) see the how the US develops and negotiates trade policy, 2) be a part of the US delegation to the World Trade Organization Ministerial Meeting in Seattle (also called the “Battle for Seattle” due to all the protesters and riots that broke out), and 3) meet the President of the United States. I also was able to establish that I did NOT want to pursue a career in international trade or finance. This allowed me to pivot and focus more on the security piece during my last year at college and, later, in graduate school.

Internships are really important for helping you narrow down what you want to do (and not do) with your life. They are also a great opportunity to demonstrate skills to future employers and start building your network (which is incredibly important for careers in political science).

How do you get an internship? Well, it’s not always an easy process. Here are some best practices:

• Start looking before you think you need to. Many hiring entities list their internships extremely early. This is particularly true with internships that require a security clearance. I’ve had many students miss the window for applying to summer internships at the CIA National Security Agency (NSA), and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) because they wait until the spring semester.

• Make sure your documents (cover letter and resume) are at their best. With competitive internships, these documents need to be in great shape. As noted above, you can have a great resume/cover letter even if you do not have a lot of work experience.

• Network! At Purdue, we have established relationships with many local and state entities looking for recommendations for interns. Utilize alumni networks, family friends, and previous employers to get more information about available internships. Sometimes it works to have your contact pass your resume to the relevant person(s).

•  Apply, apply, apply! You don’t have the luxury of just applying to your dream internship, you need to get as many applications as possible out there. Don’t get discouraged if it is taking a while to land something. It’s a numbers game!

Internships in Intelligence (these just some of the big ones, there are other out there):

https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/neworleans/news/fbi-honors-internship-program

https://www.cia.gov/careers/student-programs

https://ugr.ue.ucsc.edu/NSA

https://www.nro.gov/careers/student-programs

https://www.dia.mil/Careers-Opportunities/Internships

https://www.dhs.gov/homeland-security-careers/office-intelligence-and-analysis-internship-program

https://www.energy.gov/careers/students-recent-graduates

https://www.intelligencecareers.gov/nga/students-and-internships

https://www.intelligencecareers.gov/odni/students-and-internships

https://www.oni.navy.mil/Careers/Intern-Programs/

Internships in Foreign Policy (these are just some of the federal agencies that offer foreign policy oriented internships, you should also expand your search into International Organizations, Intergovernmental Organizations, Non-profits, and even banks/businesses with overseas interests):

https://careers.state.gov/interns-fellows/student-internship-program/

https://www.usaid.gov/careers/student-internships

https://ustr.gov/about-us/office-human-capital-and-services/careers/student-internship-program

https://www.commerce.gov/work-with-us/internships (several participating offices within Commerce have foreign mandates)

Other great federal internship experiences:

https://www.house.gov/educators-and-students/college-internships

https://employment.senate.gov/senate-internships/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/get-involved/internships/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/get-involved/internships/white-house-internship-program/apply/

I spent 10 years working for the CIA as an intelligence analyst. This was an absolutely amazing experience and I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to serve my country doing such interesting and exciting work! I was able to work with great people, travel extensively, utilize my analytic/writing/communication skills, support US policy towards Afghanistan, and learn a lot about the intelligence process and US foreign policy. What more could one want from a job?

I get a lot of questions about working for the CIA and how to get into the business of intelligence and foreign policy. Here are some of the suggestions I give to students looking for career advice and a few FAQs.

Considering a Career in Intelligence

Let’s start at the beginning. It’s really important to assess if this is the kind of work you want to do before beginning the long and complicated job search and hiring process. Here are some points I bring up with students who come to me interested in working in the intelligence community.

• Those interest in analysis need to consider whether they are okay with NOT making policy. Analysts in the intelligence community are tasked with understanding the “what is happening” and the “why” and the “what’s next.” It’s not their job to recommend what “should be” and “how do we get there.” In other words, analysts do not make or recommend policy EVEN IF THEY HAVE SOME GOOD IDEAS or REALLY, REALLY WANT TO. You also have to support policy if you do not agree with it or think that it is wrong. This is not always how it is conveyed in movies and television. I personally struggled with not being able to suggest policy at times. I was a subject matter expert and I had ideas on what we could do in Afghanistan to improve governance and help the Afghan people. However, it just wasn’t my job to recommend policies that I thought would be best. Not everyone wants to do this type of work, and that is fine! There are a lot of other career paths where you can make and implement policy.

• Future collectors need to understand how they will be collecting information (big picture, clearly many of the details are classified) and be okay with what this entails. Similarly, those involved in covert action need to think about what this entails and if that is right for them. When I was on the job market, I didn’t apply for a few law enforcement jobs because I was worried about what I would be exposed to on a day-to-day basis (the FBI has gotten a lot better on giving their people a choice of where they work, but when I was looking there was a chance I would get assigned to an issue that I knew I couldn’t handle). I also didn’t apply for counterterrorism jobs, because I wasn’t interested in that kind of work for a variety of reasons.

• Working for the intelligence community in any capacity demands a huge amount of secrecy. Are you okay NOT talking about your work at all with friends and family? Would you be willing to live under cover? Are you okay with there being limitations to what you can tell people about where you work? There are rules that need to be followed in order to maintain your security clearance. Living with this level of secrecy can be difficult for some people. The good news is that you cannot take your work home with you!

• Where do you want to live? Many intelligence jobs are either tied to agency headquarters or field offices, or entail living and working overseas. You don’t always have much control over where you’ll be living. Are you okay with this?

Pursuing a Career in Intelligence

Okay, you are still interested in pursuing a career in intelligence. Now how do you get that first job? This is a complicated question. To some degree, you have to get lucky by being at the right place at the right time. This said, there are things you can do to make yourself a more competitive candidate.

• Do your research! The US intelligence community (IC) has 18 separate organizations, and they are all very different. Within each agency, there are a variety of jobs that require very different skills. Find the jobs that are a good fit for your skills and background. The IC has really updated their online presence and it is now possible to learn about the missions of the different agencies AND the different jobs that are available. I suggest starting with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and working your way through the different agencies. There are also several great books, that can be really helpful understanding who does what within the IC.

•  Go to career fairs and talk to all the IC representatives there. Tell them you are on the job market and give them a quick overview of your background, ask what kind of jobs there are at their organization for someone with your skills. If you are not on the job market, go talk to them anyway. Tell them about yourself, ask about jobs, and get some advice on what you can do in college to make yourself more competitive. You’ll be surprised how much good information these recruiters have and how willing they are to help!

• Apply to as many jobs as possible, across a variety of agencies. Analytic jobs at the CIA can be very difficult to get into, because there are a huge number of applications (thanks Hollywood!). There might be fewer applications for an analytical position at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) because it is a less well-known member of the IC. It’s a numbers game, apply to all the jobs. This applies to jobs within an agency as well. Maybe your dream job is a political analyst position at CIA. Apply for the dream job but also apply for other jobs within the Agency. For example,  a position as a collection management officer (CMO), an analytic position in the Directorate of Operations that requires many of the same skills. Or, there are jobs in finance that are not getting as many applicants. Once you join an organization, it is fairly easy to move around internally. Just get a foot in the door!

• Make sure your application material are representing your best self (see tips on resumes/cover letters).  With so many applications, typos or any confusing parts are enough to get your resume thrown out.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did you get your job at the CIA?

I applied online to analytical jobs at the CIA, DIA, and NSA. I received conditional offers of employment at all three (and had multiple offices interested in me at the CIA). I had just finished a Master’s Degree at New York University. All three agencies were interested in both my substantive knowledge of international relations and my comfort analyzing a large amount of information. If you take Spies and Lies with me, you will learn all about the processing and exploitation gap. Intelligence agencies globally are collecting so much more information today than they have in past and need people to analyze this information. I was in the right place at the right time.

Do you need a graduate degree to work in Intelligence?

It depends. Some jobs do require an advanced degree. Other jobs do not but sometimes an advanced degree might give your application an edge. I tell students to apply to jobs coming out of undergrad and, if nothing works out, apply again after gaining some work experience or getting a graduate degree.

How long does it take to get a security clearance?

It took me over a year, but it can be faster. It feels like forever, and it is VERY hard to make plans. I took another non-intelligence job while waiting. The whole process requires a lot of patience.

What classes should I take in college to help me get a job in intelligence?

Well, it depends on what you want to do. There is such a range of jobs available—from analyst to cryptologist to engineer to human resource specialist—that there is no one path of study. I generally tell my political science students that they should demonstrate excellence in political science and then have something that sets you apart from OTHER political scientists. This can be a second major that gives you additional skills or knowledge (economics, computer science finance, history communication, psychology, just to name a few) or a specialization within the discipline that they can highlight. For example, research methods or understanding authoritarian regimes or a deep understanding of regional politics. I tell my STEM students at Purdue to take some political science classes! Show that you are interested in learning more conflict and cooperation, how policy is formed, and how technological change can shape the political landscape.

I want to be an intelligence analyst, do I need another language?

If you have a gift for languages, you should learn as many languages as possible! There are jobs for you. If you have a deep regional or country expertise, it probably makes sense for you to know the language. If you do not have an ear for language, however, I do not think the opportunity cost is worth it. My language in graduate school was statistics, which was a way better use of my time than me struggling to bring my poor Spanish up to less poor Spanish.

What about foreign travel?

I think it’s a good idea to have some experience living/studying/traveling overseas.  By no means is it required, but it probably helps at the margin to help your application stand out.