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C.I.A. DIRECTORATE OF OPERATIONS INTERVIEWS

   In contrast to what followed, the various rounds of interviews were, in of themselves and with but one exception, actually interesting, enjoyable, and even fun - which is not something you often hear when describing job interviews.  That's what happened though.  At least I thought they were fun at the time - turns out that I did " too well" in the interviews - but that's a separate story, narrated below. 

   Anyhow, at the time I was blissfully ignorant of the possibility that anyone can do "too well" in anything, so I showed up for the first round, February 14-15, 2002, feeling pretty comfortable.  I mean, I knew that between being a bookworm and quasi walking encyclopedia of mostly useless information, political grassroots activist, plus a policy wonk, there probably weren't that many relevant topics that I couldn't shoot the breeze over. 

   Between that, a natural calmness, and the realization that any mental sparring in those interviews probably wouldn't come close to getting grilled or watching others get grilled by professors John Harrison or Amy Wax at UVA Law, I wasn't too worried.  So now it's mid February of 2002, the start of the first round of formal interviews with the Directorate of Operations. 

   Before stepping into the first interview, a prescreener walks me and three or four other applicants through additional administrative details - who we’ll be interviewing in the next couple of days, where we’ll go, how many extra rounds of interviews to expect, how long the process takes, etc.  

   Freakiest part though was when she did some extra explaining about the difference between covered CIA officers (have a day job with the US embassy and thus diplomatic immunity - if caught, they get kicked out of the host country) and non-cover CIA officers (no embassy connection - if caught, they end up in a dungeon getting their fingernails yanked out with pliers in the morning, and likely getting sodomized in the afternoons), and how some of us will be “lucky” to end up as non-cover officers in some nasty places like the Middle East or what have you.  Other applicants in the room were a couple of Valley Girls and a very blond dude, as I recall, so it wasn’t hard to figure out who they had in mind for cavorting around Cairo or Khartoum without cover. 

   To make it freakier, she adds that the CIA sometimes needs deniability in case a non-cover officer gets caught, so those lucky guys will get an offer of employment letter, followed a few months later by a second, rejection letter, that we’re supposed to ignore - just something that Uncle Sam can wave around in case you break under the torture and sodomy and blurt that yes, you do work for the CIA.  Not the most reassuring thing to hear at 7am, before you’d even gone through your first interview. 

   As it turned out though, by the time the second letter arrived, I had changed my mind about the whole spy business and sent a letter of my own, withdrawing my application - but we'll get to that part of the story in due course. 

   Anyhow, after that macabre early morning downer, it was time for the first interview.  It went so well that, within minutes, I forgot all about the risks of dungeons and getting my fingernails yanked out.  Interviewer's a pleasant and white bearded elderly gentleman, who looked like a professorial Santa without the rolls of fat.  We chit chat about this and that, current events, Kim Jong Il, Turkey, the ramifications of the battle of Manzikert, root causes of Argentenia's economic meltdown, etc.  I hadn't had a conversation like this since undergrad - if you're a history geek or geopolitical wonk, conversations like that are few and far in between (when's the last time you heard people gabbing about Manzikert?) outside of college, which was a few years past for me, or with other geeks or wonks, of whom there were precious few in my circle.  So I had a blast. 

   I guess people are supposed to be nervous at those interviews, but I was happier than a pig in shit to go through that back-and-forth. Then we did a few role playing scenarios - you’re in sticky situation X, what do you and why? - that were also fun.  I mean, this was an interview where you actually got to use your mind creatively, instead of just going through rote motions (had quite a few of those in law school, so I appreciated the difference).
 
   Aside from enjoying the conversation, I thought the interview went well - found out down the road that he’d marked my application "EXPEDITE" as part of a partial FOIA release of his interview notes.  Still - you know an interview had gone well when the interviewer starts discussing salary and basically offers the job, pending security clearance and "the other stuff." Just goes to show that even the most seemingly useless trivia can come in handy every now and then. 

   Anyhow, he offered a starting salary of $50k plus benefits, at a step something, grade other (how they refer to levels in the federal wage structure), that he characterized as exceptionally high for a new operations officer. Of course, "high" is relative - compared to what can be made lawyering in the private sector, $50k isn't much.  But I was a public interest lawyer anyway, so money wasn't that big a deal compared to the intangibles or subjective satisfaction factors that draw some people into public interest work to begin with. 

   In hindsight, I sometimes wonder if I should have asked about the “other stuff” that he mentioned. Then again, at the time I had no reason to doubt that it was what I had been told to expect by way of “other stuff” during the employment seminar - twelve month course that mixes paramilitary training with James Bond stuff at a place called “the Farm,” tucked just a few hours’ drive away in the Tidewater region of Virginia.  What's more, I doubt he would have told me if I had asked. 

   At the end of the interview he double checked to make sure I had filled or was about to fill out a security clearance background check form called an SF-86.  The background check form might seem lengthy and daunting at first glance, but the SF-86 was similar to, and actually shorter and less detailed than, the background check forms I had filled out as part of my Virginia and DC law license applications in the preceding two years. So all I had to do was copy the information I had listed in the recent applications, which took no more than a few hours. 

   And so, I left my first interview with a good vibe, thinking to myself that if this guy’s the norm at the Directorate of Operations, I’ll probably like this career change. Turns out the norm was very different, which is a shame. 

   Up to that point, things were rosy with the spy biz, far as I was concerned.  So I went into the next interview figuring I’d ace it - which I duly did.  Little did I know at the time that there‘s such a thing as doing “too well” in the CIA's Directorate of Operations - or at least there is if you happen to have the wrong complexion, far as some of good folk at the CIA are concerned.  

   Of course, I also didn't know that the right or wrong complexion were even part of the equation at the DO. Boy, did I find out different.


Next:  Interviews: "Too Good to be True" and Racism in the D.O.