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The US Gov has struggled to hire millennials for some time. My guess is this is to try to appeal to the younger generations

fit2rule 6y ago
It'll take more than a vacuous web site to bring millennials to heal for the CIA. They'd have to actually prosecute their war criminals and demonstrate that they are willing to allow free societies to live free, without interference... this is what the kids want.
thatguyagain 6y ago
I think you hit the nail on the head. Once you think of it that way it makes a lot of sense.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
nickelcitymario 6y ago
I think you're right about the motivation. But I also think it's wrong-headed. They should lean into who they are: The biggest, baddest, most secretive government organization on the planet. THAT's their brand. That appeals to some and turns away others. But trying to pretend they're anything else will fail to persuade anyone. Those who are attracted to the truth about the CIA are likely to be turned off by this mass-appeal approach. And those who hate them are unlikely to feel differently based on this. It's like the Freemasons: What makes them attractive to those who are interested is the secret nature of the organization. Trying to make the organization more friendly and open is counter-productive. Lean into the mystique, gosh darn it. Very few "brands" genuinely and organically have that kind of mystery about them. The CIA, like them or not, definitely have it.
- apendleton 6y ago
  My guess is that the set of people attracted to that mystique is demographically skewed, and the demographics it favors are probably already well-represented. The copy in this new redesign seems specifically oriented towards doing better on that score. I would imagine the CIA has a particular interest in diversity -- on the operations side, they probably need people who can plausibly pass as locals in a wide variety of countries, and on the analyst side, they probably need native speakers of lots of languages, people familiar with lots of cultural contexts, etc.
stanrivers 6y ago
Do you think it’s basically a pay gap and career track gap? Or more systemic than that for young people not being interested?
- derision 6y ago
  Pay gap for sure, last time I looked I would be taking a 20-50% pay cut on similar roles
  - the_only_law 6y ago
    There are plenty other reasons I wouldn’t work at the CIA, but the pay is insulting for some positions. I saw a job there that sounded interesting, but demanded some relatively specific skills and the lower end of the salary range was less than I made starting out doing bullshit enterprise type work. On top of that I hear qualifications for higher level pay grades are bureaucratic and generally non-negotiable.

fit2rule 6y ago

It'll take more than a vacuous web site to bring millennials to heal for the CIA. They'd have to actually prosecute their war criminals and demonstrate that they are willing to allow free societies to live free, without interference... this is what the kids want.

thatguyagain 6y ago

I think you hit the nail on the head. Once you think of it that way it makes a lot of sense.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

nickelcitymario 6y ago

I think you're right about the motivation. But I also think it's wrong-headed. They should lean into who they are: The biggest, baddest, most secretive government organization on the planet. THAT's their brand. That appeals to some and turns away others. But trying to pretend they're anything else will fail to persuade anyone. Those who are attracted to the truth about the CIA are likely to be turned off by this mass-appeal approach. And those who hate them are unlikely to feel differently based on this. It's like the Freemasons: What makes them attractive to those who are interested is the secret nature of the organization. Trying to make the organization more friendly and open is counter-productive. Lean into the mystique, gosh darn it. Very few "brands" genuinely and organically have that kind of mystery about them. The CIA, like them or not, definitely have it.

apendleton 6y ago
My guess is that the set of people attracted to that mystique is demographically skewed, and the demographics it favors are probably already well-represented. The copy in this new redesign seems specifically oriented towards doing better on that score. I would imagine the CIA has a particular interest in diversity -- on the operations side, they probably need people who can plausibly pass as locals in a wide variety of countries, and on the analyst side, they probably need native speakers of lots of languages, people familiar with lots of cultural contexts, etc.

stanrivers 6y ago

Do you think it’s basically a pay gap and career track gap? Or more systemic than that for young people not being interested?

derision 6y ago
Pay gap for sure, last time I looked I would be taking a 20-50% pay cut on similar roles
- the_only_law 6y ago
  There are plenty other reasons I wouldn’t work at the CIA, but the pay is insulting for some positions. I saw a job there that sounded interesting, but demanded some relatively specific skills and the lower end of the salary range was less than I made starting out doing bullshit enterprise type work. On top of that I hear qualifications for higher level pay grades are bureaucratic and generally non-negotiable.