The CIA also looks for people who have traveled and have a little wanderlust. My colleagues coming into the operational side of the house were lawyers, professional athletes, people from finance-there was really a huge range of backgrounds.ĭo you have any advice for people hoping to work in the CIA?įirst of all, you have to live a fairly clean life to be able to make it through the background checks, polygraphs, medical tests, and all that. I think people with the more traditional political science backgrounds tend to go into the analytical side of the CIA. Was it more difficult for you since it hadn’t been your initial career trajectory?īelieve it or not, no. Read on to learn all about what it takes to work like a spy-whether you’re in the CIA or in a cubicle.īreaking into a career in the CIA is notoriously challenging. Intrigued, we sat down with Carleson to learn more about her time in the CIA and hear a few of these career tips. So, she decided to share her insights with the world, and wrote the book Work Like a Spy: Business Tips from a Former CIA Officer. And as she started to think about what might come next in her career, it dawned on her how valuable the tactics she learned in the CIA would be in the corporate world. It was about as exciting as you can imagine, but after eight years in the field, Carleson decided to abandon her jet-setting life to spend more time with her young children. One cryptic voicemail and two years of interviews and background checks later, Carleson began work as a CIA operative, traveling around the world to identify potential spies and convince them to share secrets with the U.S. “I thought, ‘Okay, this might be a joke, but I can send my resume,’” she explains.

Unsatisfied with her work in the corporate world, Carleson saw an ad for the CIA in the classified section of the good old-fashioned newspaper.

When you’re bored with your day job, you probably find yourself daydreaming about a more exciting position: Maybe you could go be a Hollywood starlet, play with animals all day at the zoo-or get in on all the action as a CIA officer.

Message likke a spy agent