How to Become a Spy

Hollywood is good for entertainment and special effects. Explaining real life, on the other hand, is not a task that Hollywood does so well. One aspect of real life that Hollywood has romanticized for decades is the job of spying.

Spying can be defined as the act of covertly and without drawing attention gathering and collecting intelligence, information, facts, or evidence.

Contrary to popular belief, not all spies are employed by governments. Contrary to popular American belief, not all spies work for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Spies who work for governments work for the interests of their employer. Spies can be overtly or covertly employed. Overtly employed spies are those who work for spy agencies but whose employment status is publicly known. These spies are usually desk jockeys who analyze, interpret, or translate information. Covertly employed spies are spies who secretly work for a spy agency. Their employment is denied by the agency and the person is not an official employee. In most intelligence agencies the covert employees will most likely be the one to travel the world and create cooperative foreign agents. This is the job of most spies. Few spies actually work like James Bond to gather intelligence themselves. They usually gather intelligence by convincing citizens of foreign countries to turn against their government in return for money, gifts, or special favors. The spying operations of most democratic nations are usually controlled by a civilian agency, but there are various opportunities to become a spy in the military.

Military spies usually conduct missions that directly impact or are of significant importance to the military branch of a government. Just like their civilian counterparts, most military spies are also desk jockeys. These are the military troops who are analyzing, interpreting, or translating information relating to defense objectives. Usually, a person who joins the military, no matter their job, is an overt employee of that military. This means that a military spy does not usually have to hide their status as a military member. Military spies will usually have to protect the actual details of their jobs and many may not be able to tell loved ones exactly what their job is. Some militaries of the world may even supply their military spies with false occupational specialty covers. Some examples of military spies are linguists and unmanned aerial vehicle operators. Several other jobs in the military may require troops to perform functions similar to spying, but spying won't be the main purpose of the organization. For example, reconnaissance troops may spy on enemy troops in order to formulate a plan of attack, but spying on the enemy takes back seat to the main objective of the group; to destroy the enemy. Military police and security troops may need to spy on local populations in order to gather intelligence that may affect installation security. In this example, spying is a task that comes second to protecting the military base.

Private industry espionage is another option for those who are interested in becoming a real life spy. Corporate spies are private spies hired by private companies in order to gather information and intelligence on competitors. Most state and federal laws which protect patent holders and company secrets strictly forbid many actions that restrict the private spying industry. This does not mean, however, that open source tactics cannot be used in order to learn intelligence on a competitor. Open source intelligence is intelligence that is legally gathered through lawful means and is usually available to any member of the general public. Examples of open source intelligence include newspapers, radio broadcasts, television broadcasts, public service announcements, company financial histories, etc. One company may use the information of a competitor's mass recall of an item to flood shelves with their own product in order to fill the void left by the competitor's recalled product.

Applying for a spy job isn't too difficult so long as no information exists in your past which could be considered vulnerable. In most circumstances, vulnerable information is information that could be used against you in order to force you to cooperate with the enemy. This is why applicants with large amounts of debt, even though it is not a criminal violation to hold debt, are precluded from holding the high level security clearances necessary to do the job because agencies want to minimize the chances that some low paid government employee is going to sell classified information to the enemy just so he can make his car payment. Applicants may also be required to pass various physical testing requirements depending on the agency and the exact nature of the job. The application process for many intelligence jobs with most agencies can last between a few months to a couple of years.

Private spy jobs are not usually as easy to get, but options do exist. Most good company spy jobs are handed out to former government spies who have made contacts in the private sector. The spy responsibilities of many private companies may be assigned to the company security department, so that they may protect the company from competitive threats. Joining some companies as an entry level security guard may provide many interesting opportunities to climb up the corporate spy ladder. Pursuing a degree in foreign relations, economics, or intelligence wouldn't be a bad idea either. Lastly, for smaller companies who want the dirt on their competition, private investigators are often turned to. Private investigators conduct secret investigations into the lives, habits, character, and actions of individuals or companies for private parties. Private investigators very often act as professional researchers. It is their job to dig through the debris of information that exists and deliver clear and precise facts. Based on the facts gathered decisions of how to proceed with various matters can be planned out. Some corporate spies have even been as brazen enough as to gain access to the competition's office space to learn valuable company secrets.

While each agency will have slightly different hiring requirements, most require a college education and some level of experience. Many federal agencies advertise for specific jobs such as covert employee, linguist, analyst, etc. A good way to earn a foot in the door with a lot of these places is to apply for an internship or low level entry position. These jobs won't be very exciting and a lot of the juicy information won't be shared with you, but you'll learn a few names, shake a few hands, build a list of contacts, and really discover if it is something that you want to pursue. The worst part about chasing your dream job is finding out that you hate it. Espionage is not a career to jump into blindly.

Many spies, government or private, keep very strange hours and are constantly on the alert. Psychologically the job is very taxing. Spies are required to constantly lie or deceive in order to preserve the efforts of their organizations. They can't share their feelings about what they learn at work and some can't even tell their families what they do for a living. Being a spy is no cake walk, but it can be very rewarding for the right person.

Spying is a career field that really does exist, but may not be as exciting as the movies make it out to be. It takes someone very special and very dedicated to dedicate their life to fighting shadow wars. Don't take this the wrong way, it is true that some jobs within some organizations are actually going to be the thing of movies, but for the most part, jobs in the intelligence field are very desk oriented and quite boring at times.

Sources:

Career Opportunities. Central Intelligence Agency.

Schneier, Bruce. Corporate Spying. Schneier on Security.

Powers, Rod. Air Force Fact Sheets: Air Intelligence Agency. About.com

Brandel, Mary. How to Spot--and Stop--A Corporate Spy. InfoWorld. Security Central.

Your Career. MI5 Security Service.

About Us. Mossad.