<story><title>After Snowden, the NSA Faces Recruitment Challenge</title><url>http://www.npr.org/2015/03/31/395829446/after-snowden-the-nsa-faces-recruitment-challenge</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>strictnein</author><text>Had an interview with them about three months after I applied. Well, had a phone interview with them at least. It lasted about three questions because, unfortunately, I had smoked pot in the last year (the one time I had done it in my life actually).&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m actually not sure if I should have failed it after the second question, which was whether or not I work closely with any foreign nationals. Doesn&amp;#x27;t everyone in the tech sector? I work closely with a Romanian, a Filipino, and a guy from Sierra Leone. They may all be US citizens now, but i have no idea, so I said &amp;quot;no&amp;quot;, after trying to get some guidance from the interviewer (she offered none).&lt;p&gt;Strangely, after my failed three question phone interview I still got an in person interview request and it took two calls to straighten that out.&lt;p&gt;If I lived in the Denver or DC area, I&amp;#x27;d probably apply again in six months or so (once my one year has lapsed), but I just don&amp;#x27;t think it&amp;#x27;s worth moving across the country for a job there.</text></item><item><author>bazillion</author><text>The article doesn&amp;#x27;t truly address such a large claim -- it basically could be titled &amp;quot;After Snowden, the NSA Faces Recruitment Challenge from 3 College Students&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;The NSA has nearly unlimited hiring potential with just the pool of military folks alone that work there.  There are constant hiring freezes for a year at a time, because a lot of buildings are over capacity.&lt;p&gt;If one of these college students were to apply to the NSA through NSA.gov (mandated as the only way someone is allowed into the agency), they would have to apply a minimum of 2-4 times, because the application stays good for about 90 days, and the average applicant waits 6 months to a year to get accepted.  This is assuming they&amp;#x27;re applying straight through without having someone with hiring power pull their application from the queue.  After that, the process to get a clearance could take anywhere from another 6 months to 2 years (possibly more in some exceptional cases) and costs the agency about 250k.&lt;p&gt;So, it goes without saying that bringing onboard a fresh college student who isn&amp;#x27;t going to even get to walk through the door at least a year after applying, can pale in comparison to bringing on someone who already has a clearance and training.  The article assumes that the NSA relies heavily on its external recruitment, but the vast majority of folks working there just change out of a uniform into jeans and a shirt.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bazillion</author><text>The pot question won&amp;#x27;t immediately disqualify you -- you&amp;#x27;d just have to sign a waiver saying your employment means you&amp;#x27;re not allowed to use illegal substances.  They&amp;#x27;d also ask you and confirm this in the lifestyle polygraph.&lt;p&gt;The foreign nationals question is a matter of seeing how deep your clearance process is going to go.  If you&amp;#x27;re in Kansas and the only people you know are from Kansas and all of your Facebook friends live in Kansas, it&amp;#x27;s going to make it easy for the FBI agents (who conduct the clearance work) to do the required interviews.  If you start listing foreign national contacts, each one of them has to be investigated individually (the ones who are  close relatives), and that&amp;#x27;s a lot of work.  It&amp;#x27;s basically easier to fail someone on that and hire the person in Kansas.</text></comment>
<story><title>After Snowden, the NSA Faces Recruitment Challenge</title><url>http://www.npr.org/2015/03/31/395829446/after-snowden-the-nsa-faces-recruitment-challenge</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>strictnein</author><text>Had an interview with them about three months after I applied. Well, had a phone interview with them at least. It lasted about three questions because, unfortunately, I had smoked pot in the last year (the one time I had done it in my life actually).&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m actually not sure if I should have failed it after the second question, which was whether or not I work closely with any foreign nationals. Doesn&amp;#x27;t everyone in the tech sector? I work closely with a Romanian, a Filipino, and a guy from Sierra Leone. They may all be US citizens now, but i have no idea, so I said &amp;quot;no&amp;quot;, after trying to get some guidance from the interviewer (she offered none).&lt;p&gt;Strangely, after my failed three question phone interview I still got an in person interview request and it took two calls to straighten that out.&lt;p&gt;If I lived in the Denver or DC area, I&amp;#x27;d probably apply again in six months or so (once my one year has lapsed), but I just don&amp;#x27;t think it&amp;#x27;s worth moving across the country for a job there.</text></item><item><author>bazillion</author><text>The article doesn&amp;#x27;t truly address such a large claim -- it basically could be titled &amp;quot;After Snowden, the NSA Faces Recruitment Challenge from 3 College Students&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;The NSA has nearly unlimited hiring potential with just the pool of military folks alone that work there.  There are constant hiring freezes for a year at a time, because a lot of buildings are over capacity.&lt;p&gt;If one of these college students were to apply to the NSA through NSA.gov (mandated as the only way someone is allowed into the agency), they would have to apply a minimum of 2-4 times, because the application stays good for about 90 days, and the average applicant waits 6 months to a year to get accepted.  This is assuming they&amp;#x27;re applying straight through without having someone with hiring power pull their application from the queue.  After that, the process to get a clearance could take anywhere from another 6 months to 2 years (possibly more in some exceptional cases) and costs the agency about 250k.&lt;p&gt;So, it goes without saying that bringing onboard a fresh college student who isn&amp;#x27;t going to even get to walk through the door at least a year after applying, can pale in comparison to bringing on someone who already has a clearance and training.  The article assumes that the NSA relies heavily on its external recruitment, but the vast majority of folks working there just change out of a uniform into jeans and a shirt.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>locokoko</author><text>Is asking such questions (smoking pot, questions about your social life) in a job interview legal in the US? From what I know, this would be illegal in most European countries.</text></comment>