Life and Careers in the Intelligence Community
On Thursday, November 5, the UCF Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence (IC CAE) hosted “Life and Careers in the Intelligence Community.” Held as a panel discussion, this event brought together five representatives from different intelligence agencies to introduce and discuss their departments with the students.
The panelist talked about their agencies, how they became involved in the intelligence community, and a typical day in their work lives.
The agencies represented were the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Department of Energy’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (OIC), the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The DIA speaker described his agency’s mission as focusing on where conflict currently exists or predicting where it will be next. The CIA speaker explained that 
they consist of four main areas: the collection of human intelligence, providing analysis, participating in covert action, and providing counter intelligence.
The DEA’s main objective is to collect intelligence and evidence to further investigations, while the INR does not collect information at all, but instead analyzes it for policymakers. The OIC analyzes for policymakers as well, but they also provide technical expertise and pre-trip briefings for officials.
Each of the speakers came into her or his career in the intelligence community in different ways.
The CIA and DEA speakers began their careers in the Air Force and the Army respectively, and then transitioned into their agencies through networking. The OIC speaker was accepted into the Presidential Management Fellows Program during graduate school, which helped her secure a job after graduation.
The DIA representative was hired through a career fair, where he talked with the DIA recruiter. The INR speaker was initially hired as a contractor for the Department of State and eventually received a full time position in the Department.
All of the representatives explained that there was no typical day in their job, each day provides them something different. Part of the excitement of their job is that they have many different tasks to accomplish throughout the week.
Depending on the job and the agency, the speaker’s days could consist of daily briefings, creating policy analyses, connecting with sources of information, gathering intelligence, and collaborating with other agencies.
There was one task that they all had in common: a lot of writing.
Students had a chance for Q&A with the speakers as well as some time at the end to talk with the speakers personally. Approximately 120 students were in attendance.