Become an Intelligence Officer
Being an Intelligence officer means being a spy. You do the kind of things, like surveillance, and analyzing to help your country. However, there are a lot of myths about being an intelligence officer as well. The steps below will teach you how to be an intelligence officer, and how to differentiate from myths.
Intelligence officers typically ‘collect’ raw information while analysts process it (the raw information) to determine its Intelligence value.
Steps
Educational requirements
- Be prepared to read and write a lot. Intelligence officers need to do a lot of reading, writing, and analyzing. are an important part of being in any kind of Government Career.
- Be up-to-date with current events. Additionally, you need to use your wits in order to identify different situations and what kinds of impacts would it leave on your country. Because of this, you need to know about politics.
- You will need to know how to follow up on News Reports and Newspapers.
- Be prepared to undertake surveillance. You may sometimes have to do "surveillance", the act of Conduct a Stake Out to determine whether or not they are threats to national security.
- Be a good communicator. You need to be able to really get out in community and talk to people if needed (e.g. to find out about international threats). You may need to ask people from completely different views.
Myths
"It's not at all a glamorous job.(e.g. James Bond) We're not even allowed to carry guns." - An intelligence officer for the CSIS
- Have realistic expectations. Intelligence Officers do not carry guns or super-cool technology all the time. Though spy movies may teach you a thing or two about being an intelligence officer, they bear very little resemblance to real life.
- Choose the right job. Intelligence Officers are not the ones who follow up on crimes like robberies. If that is the thing you really want, consider being a police officer, or a detective. Spies, only look for threats to their national security.
Tips
- Most people come from the social sciences field, though other fields may also be accepted. If applying for the CSIS, you are required to work for one year in Ottawa as an Analyst, reading and writing reports for different people.
- Intelligence officers can be recruited directly into a job/role or assigned to where they’re needed. Obviously, the easiest way to specialise is to applying directly for a HUMINT role.
- However, lots of intelligence agencies will hire a pool of intelligence officers and assign personnel to a role depending on the agencies needs or the ability of their applicants.
Warnings
- Terrorists are never friendly if caught by spies, so be extra careful if you are assigned to watch terrorist groups. Luckily in some countries, Law Enforcements are not forced to watch terrorists.
- Though Government spying is not as dangerous as people think, it can sometimes get tough. Be careful.
