Getting On Board

What qualities should you have to be of interest to the CIA for a Case Officer position? You might think that the ability to keep a secret, to keep your mouth shut, would be an asset. During the investigation process, the agency will determine that you can, indeed, keep a secret. Surprisingly, however, this is not one of the qualities demanded once you are inside The Company. The good-old-boy network inside the CIA is one of the most vocally prolific inside the US government as Case Officers brag with pride about their agents and their exploits.

Officially, when you go through a pre-employment background investigation, the agency attempts to determine your suitability for employment based on what is known in the counterintelligence community as LIDMC (pronounced Lid Mac). This acronym stands for Loyalty, Integrity, Discretion, Morals and Character. To determine whether you possess such qualities, the agency will investigate your personal, academic and professional history interviewing teachers, employers, co-workers, friend and foe, alike, virtually anyone with the exception of former spouses who most probably will have nothing good to say about you anyway. LIDMC are the personal qualities that get you qualified, but these qualities alone are not enough to get you employed and ensure you have a bright career with the agency. They will also conduct a National Agency Check with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other federal and local law enforcement agencies to determine if you have so little as a parking ticket. All this is done without exposing to those interviewed that you are interested in joining the CIA.

This investigative process may take four to six months during which time you will also be put through a battery of tests and interviews and finally a polygraph examination before a position is offered. It is these other tests and interviews that will establish that you have the other qualities the CIA desires in its Case Officers. Your battery of tests will include academic tests much like the Scholastic Aptitude Tests you took in high school. There will also be at least one multiple-choice test that will develop your psychological profile. This is a particularly important test to insure the CIA is able to weed out undesirables from a well-tested psychological profile.

You will also be asked to write something based on a given theme. This may be used to assess your writing abilities. There will also be a series of personal interviews by one or more of the Directorates that may have an interest in hiring you.

Once you get to the phase where you are given a medical examination you may feel more comfortable that the investigative process has gone well thus far. Toward the end of the investigative process you will be required to take a polygraph examination. This is at the final stage just before you will officially be offered a position.

The polygraph will focus on any unresolved areas of your background investigation and you may be asked about your sexual preference which may reveal any unusual deviancies and, of course, your drug history. If you have a past history of drug use that has not been made a part of any police record but you are no longer a user, it is best to lay the facts on the table before you come to the polygraph stage. Concern over drug use is a major reason to disqualify a candidate from consideration for employment by the CIA. Well, once you have gotten past all this, you’ll be invited “on board” as they say in the CIA. Now the real work begins.