3 Reasons Why Working for the CIA Isnt What Youd Expect

3 Reasons Why Working for the CIA Isnt What Youd Expect3 Reasons Why Working for the CIA Isnt What Youd ExpectHave you ever wondered if working for the CIA is really like in the movies? If youve ever gotten lost in a good espionage book, or watched a James Bond movie with excitement, then the answer is probably yes.When it comes to popularity, secret werbers easily surpass other cool professions like archeologists, (space) cowboys, and even (mad) scientists. No wonder- people tend to romanticise their exploits, access to classified information, even their love affairs. In reality, however, working for any of the worlds famous intelligence agencies is far less glamorous than you might think.That is, if the words of Scott Stern, an ex-CIA officer, are anything to go by. Over the past couple of years, Stern has been quite active on Quora, giving the public an inside peek at what it was like to be working for the CIA.In the end, working as a CIA agent has its perks and benefits. They jus t dont come in the form of exploding cigars and shooting pens. How does the reality of working for the CIA differ from its romanticised film portrayals? Lets find out.1. Working for the CIA means spending a lot of time doing boring office work.We used to joke that if there someone made a TV show or movie about what CIA officers actually do, Stern explains, itd be more like The Office than Homeland or 24.This one probably comes as the biggest disappointment, yet hardly a surprise. After all, the CIA is an enormous institution. For this reason, it faces all the problems of any large organisation, public or private. Departmental politics, bureaucracy, malfunctioning computers and empty toner cartridges, they have it all.If you become a manager at the CIA like Stern was, your day will closely resemble that of a manager in any company around the world. Youll be worrying about your employees schedules, editing reports, coordinating with other offices, etc.The only difference is that youll worry much more than other managers. When they overlook something, its a problem. When you do, people might die.Finally, most of the secret agent exploits you see on TV wouldnt happen because theyre illegal. The CIA, just like any large organisation, has built many preventive mechanisms to eliminate such rogue or unlawful behaviour.2. Having access to classified information isnt nearly as exciting as most films and conspiracy theories would lead you to believe.As Stern ironically puts it Why, yes, Ill get back to coordinating the secret world government thats somehow always 30 steps aheadright after I get someone from IT to reset my password because I hadnt had my morning coffee and managed to lock myself out of the system.Apparently, when you have a first-hand access to whats happening behind the curtains, you find most conspiracy theories so ridiculous you cannot even be offended. And when you consider the previous point, theories about 9/11 or chemtrails conspiracy, really do so und incredibly implausible.(Or maybe the CIA didnt take part in those? Suspicious)At the saatkorn time, Stern doesnt mean to say that no made up stories ever made him upset. The things that frustrate him the most are those that are plausible but off-the-mark. He says the only reason anyone would talk to a reporter is to push a certain agenda, so you only get that slanted perspective.Moreover, if you have a burning desire to impress your friends with your secret knowledge, working for the CIA probably isnt for you. In the end, its a place where you almost never receive credit from the outside word. Not only you cannot talk about it when you succeed, you mostly prevent bad things from happening. Its not as flashy as making something good happen.3. CIA agents are a more diverse bunch than you might expect.According to Brian Goral, a former CIA technical operations officer, the biggest misconception about working for the CIA is that theres no stereotypical agent. In the end, the organis ation has to accommodate a huge range of diverse personalities and political mindsets.For every gun-rights activist at the CIA, there is a coworker who wants reform right now. For every devout Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu in the building, there is someone who prefers the scientific exploration, Goral explains. Most conflicts dont arise from ideological differences. On the contrary, youll mostly see normal disagreements on expense reports and petty non-issues.It would be foolish to believe that the CIA only employs thousands of near-identical copies of Agent Smith. We can only blame Hollywood for portraying an entire array of professions inaccurately- CIA agents notwithstanding. Unsurprisingly, life at the CIA is much more complex, personalities and emotions more diverse.In the end, both Goral and Stern cite the people they worked with as the best thing about working for the CIA. They were also the main reason why it was so hard for them to walk away.Do you want to know what s it like to work at other cool companies and organisations? Check out our Cool Offices series and enjoy stories from the worlds most interesting workplaces.Share Your Feedback or Ideas in the Comments

Time You are not a UPS truck. Stop avoiding lifes left turns

Time You are not a UPS truck. Stop avoiding lifes left turnsTime You are not a UPS truck. Stop avoiding lifes left turnsPerhaps youve seen this time-saving hack making the rounds UPS trucks almost never make left-hand turns Should you do the same?Or maybe youve seen thatkitchen time-saving hack pre-soak your pasta, so it cooks quicker Then theres my personal favorite DVR your favorite shows so you can fast-forward through the commercials. You save about eightminutes every half hour, so in the course of watching twohours of TV, you find 32 minutes to exerciseThis is true, but you know another way to find 32 minutes to exercise?Dont watch two hours of TV.Time hacks in general often miss the pointTime hacks maysave minutes here and there, butthose minutesare easily squandered on other things. Its betterto focus on the big picture and do the important stuff first, and the bits of time will take care of themselves.Lets start with those UPS trucks. It makes sense if you have thousands of t rucks making thousands of turns to optimize what you can, but the average person lacks this scale. Rather than reroute to avoid twoleft turns while doing errands, join Amazon Prime and get stuff delivered. That waythose UPS trucks are on the road (avoiding those left turns) rather than you.Youll save much more time by lowering your standards than by any particular strategyI collect old magazines, and one of my favorite time saving tips from a 1960s Good Housekeeping was to use a butter knife to spread wax evenly on your floor waxer. Most of us dont spend a whole lot of time waxing our floors these days,which turns out to save more time than any butter-knife technique. You can fold your towels more efficiently, but if you re-use your towels, youll be doing less laundry and hence less folding. Or you could find a wash-and-fold service that delivers.You can streamline your morning routine and get an app that sends your bestellung to the coffee place before you get there. But it might b e an even bigger win to negotiate to work from home once a week. Yes, you might need to make your own coffee, but youll have plenty of time with the twohours you save.As for the DVR, theres nothing wrong with fast-forwarding through commercials. But I suspect that most people use the eightminutes saved every half hour to watch more TV threeshows when once you only would have been able to watch two. This is certainly efficient, but its not very productive.Think about what you want to do more of with your timePlan the big stuff- the meaningful stuff, the fun stuff- first. Having trouble getting out of work by 7 p.m.? Try getting tickets to a sports event that starts at 7 p.m. You might surprise yourself with how efficient and motivated you are.I used to think I didnt have much time to read. Then I started getting some real page-turners, and wow I found all kinds of time. I didnt actually make more time, but it felt like it.When we build the lives we want, time saves itself.Laura Vande rkam is the author of I Know How She Does It, 168 Hours and What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast.

Why Do You Need an Employee Referral Program

Why Do You Need an Employee Referral Program Why Do You Need an Employee Referral Program In order to gauge the true impact and relevance of employee referrals, it is necessary to assess the larger role played by the referral program in both improving organizational climate and productivityandcontrolling employee attrition. A referral program is leid merely a recruiting tool, but an important driver of team dynamics within an organization. Referral hires tend to becomeproductive much faster than hires from other sources and are also able to adjust better to organizational culture.The need for an employee referral program becomes clearwhen an organization is unable to meet its talent needs viatraditional recruiting methods. Placement agencies, job boards, career sites, and the rest canconverge over time, comingup with similar databases. There are often repeated candidatesfrom multiple sources. These are typically time-consuming sources of hiring, with an average closing time of 45-6 0 days, and they tend to be very costly as well. They also carry a high rate of failure three out every seven candidates sourced from these channels choose not to accept an offer or simply do not show up for work.These drawbacks oftraditional recruiting sources have motivatedorganizations to turn toward employee referrals to solve their urgent talent needs. There are several benefits associated with implementing an employee referral program both in the short term and in the long term.Short-term recruiting benefits include1. Faster and Better HiringReferrals from employees tend to be of superior quality, compared to other sources. Because employees often brief theirreferrals on theorganization and the open position, recruiters do not need to spend time convincing referralsto consider the role, which speeds uphiring. Most of ZALPs clients have reported a 50 percent drop in the time neededto fill open positions since they started using the companys employee referral software.2. Lower R ecruiting Costs The cost of hiring a referralis much lower than thecost of hiring from other sources referral bonuses are generally pegged at a certain percentage of what the organization would normally pay an outside agency for hiring the same candidate.3. Stronger Sourcing Pipeline Not all employee referrals can be hired immediately those that are not hiredmake for a great reserve of potential candidates who can be tapped for future roles.Long-term benefits of referral programs include1. Value Addition to Employer Brand A big advantage of implementing an employee referral program is the positive value-add to the employer brand in the long term. When employees speak positively about their existing organization both on social media and to referral candidates they build positive perceptions of their employer.A good employer brand can be a great recruiting aid it acts as a motivating factor for many good candidates to seek employment with the organization, bringing down the need for active sourcing.2. Higher Retention Rate Employee referrals tend to stay longer with the organization than non-referral hires, reducing the amount of recruiting the organization will have to doin the long term. Lower attrition rates mean happier employees referring more people to the organization, who are again likely to stay with the organization for longperiods of time.3. Higher and More EfficientProductivity Referred candidatesalso become productive much faster, because they receive mentoring and guidance from the existing employee who referred them. Non-referrals, on the other hand, take a longer time to assimilate to theorganizational culture and processes hence, they turn productive much later than referral hires.4. Global Mobility For global corporations with talent needs across countries, employee referrals add tremendous business and recruiting valueemployees from one rayon find it easy to refer someone they know in the region or someone who is looking to relocate to the r egion that is hiring. As global teams increasingly work together across time zones, organizations findthat opening up positions for employee referrals across the globe can help close positions much faster and much more cost effectively.