Join the Military. Less Painful w/ Better Benefits
Pros
You can move from job to job every two to three years, so you're never bored. An abundance of training opportunities. A mission that can matter (depending upon where you are). Proud to see Gina H. as our Director.
Cons
Where to start? Polygraphers who accuse you of sexually abusing your own children just to get a rise out of you. Your life is the Agency's, they insist on knowing everything so don't expect ANY privacy. Survive sexual abuse? They'll want ALL the details on record/video. Unqualified people in positions of power (bc they couldn't fill the position with someone qualified) making the calls. People with whom you've never directly reported make career making/ending decisions and rumor/innuendo amongst these decision makers make or break your career and you have ZERO recourse. The "Directors Advisory Group" is a useless PAR bullet, they will do nothing to upset their career plans. Seniors expecting credit for your promotion (egotistic "I got you there") when you've done the years of hard work and seven day work weeks to get there. You're in a bubble the entire work day: no personal phone, no encrypted "open line" so you don't want ANYONE calling your work phone lest they reveal private information every intel service in the world is listening to. You may not even have Internet access (no, I'm not kidding here). Day one they tell you "it's harder to get into the Agency than into Harvard or Yale" so the ego building begins right away. The "I'm a special snowflake" message continues, becomes an integral part of self-identity and makes it tough to leave. But for my friends and colleagues still in, there is a better life on the outside. You may think "what could I possibly be qualified to do in the outside world??" but those of us out now know the private sector recognizes the intense responsibility we've had -- and they reward accordingly. Reach out to us on social media before you begin your job search bc you WILL under estimate your worth and we want to support you. It's a rough transition. But you'll have freedom, no longer living paycheck to paycheck on Fed salary in NoVA, no longer the constant paranoia, no longer the "how do I fill out this basic form when it asks for employer?" Truth - the work in private sector will never rival our Agency's work and... like a divorce, it will take years to get over the end of your Agency relationship/obsession. And be prepared, many of your "still in" friends *will* ghost you. Once you're out you're dead to them, out of distrust or CI paranoia. You will serve in war zones, have injuries but you'll have NONE of the benefits of our military. (No record of service when you're a spy.) If you're in a high-demand job (i.e. counter terrorism) then plan to move into another job once you've had a kid -- there is no work/life balance in some of these positions unless you have a stay at home parent or nanny (neither of which you'll afford on a fed salary). The truly exhilarating work will demand time from your family - period, end of story. You marry someone on the inside or expect to divorce (if you're in the D.O.) And if you read this and apply anyway, then those of us who've been through the process have no interest in hearing your "woe is me, I sacrificed for my country" story. We've all been there done that but didn't have the benefit of Glassdoor to know what we were getting into.
