4 ms·

The CIA largely recruited only from Ivy League universities well into the 1980s.

by grajaganDev 2y ago

ajcp 2y ago
Now it's mainly BYU...
- grajaganDev 2y ago
  They will have to compete with the FBI.
- PittleyDunkin 2y ago
  I saw a photo pop up a few months back from a hiring fair at Yale. I guess Skull and Bones isn't pulling them in like it used to.
  - whimsicalism 2y ago
    there are definitely actively people going to Yale that are going to the CIA, I actually think Yale is a more common one
    - PittleyDunkin 2y ago
      Well something must have changed if they're having to show up at a job fair.
      - whimsicalism 2y ago
        i knew people, they were recruited prior to even entering college crazy as it sounds as part of their scholarship
- cushychicken 2y ago
  Turns out having firsthand experience living abroad, plus airtight foreign language skills, is quite valuable to intelligence agencies. (The fact that they don’t really drink or do drugs makes them a nice cultural fit, too.) Paraphrasing a sarcastic comment from Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character in Charlie Wilson’s War: “What a wild fucking idea: our spies should probably speak the same language as the people they’re spying on.” Lest anyone hammer on the LDS for this: missionaries as spies is not a novel concept nor exclusive to Mormons.
  - WillAdams 2y ago
    Yeah, but back when there was actually an ethos of morality, there were certain lines which weren't crossed: - no use of religious/academics/medical practitioners as cover identities - no high-level clearances to people who had ties overseas and might be vulnerable to blackmail/coercion Somehow that all went out the locks during the "War on Terror" and I would gladly vote for and donate to a candidate who would make an issue of instances where the above moral considerations were ignored and operations which I would view as war crimes were perpetrated. It's not worth winning any war at the cost of the moral high ground.
    - cushychicken 2y ago
      > when there was actually an ethos of morality, there were certain lines which weren't crossed Uh, what? Could you perhaps tell this to the Catholic Church, who DEFINITELY used their capacity as religious leaders to spy on the Japanese on behalf of the Portuguese around, I dunno, the year 1600? This is simply the easiest answer I could recall because I just watched Shogun. This limit you’re describing only exists in your head.
      - WillAdams 2y ago
        The context was the CIA, which used to have such guidelines.
  - warner25 2y ago
    Yes, I don't have a reference immediately available, but I've read that the DoD has studied this and found that LDS kids join the military at a disproportionately high rate and turn out to be better than average troops. Anecdotally, I've found this to be true too. The Utah Army National Guard also has the 300th Military Intelligence Brigade of linguists which is pretty unique.
- seatac76 2y ago
  I chuckled at this. Tried to find an article that came out recently about why Mormons make good spies but couldn’t unfortunately.
  - boomboomsubban 2y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35772466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35772466
- Der_Einzige 2y ago
  The creator of civit.AI, the largest AI porn website/huggingface for diffusion models, is a Mormon and he felt the need to tell me this quickly when I spoke to him. I knew what he was really telling me, lol.
  - 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
    That he's a Mormon who watches porn, or that civit.AI is government-controlled?
    - Der_Einzige 2y ago
      Yes
neilv 2y ago
I wouldn't be aware of any secretive recruiting, like in the article or the movies, but the first time I bumped into them was actually at an Ivy job fair, where they were publicly recruiting CS nerds. I went by their table out of curiosity, or to see if they were giving away any schwag. Because who wouldn't want a "CIA" pen, even if it didn't shoot tranquilizer darts. Since I was a very nerdy kid, I gave the people at the table my resume, while probably forgetting to make eye contact. There was zero indication of them having any interest in talking with me, so I left. But, maybe because I'd started working very young, my resume looked a lot better than I did, and they must've later glanced at it. As I was later leaving the job fair, about to enter the elevator, this CIA representative comes bounding across the room at me, shouting to get my attention. Then she asked if I could come in the next day for an interview. If I did the interview, they must've mind-control drugged me to forget it. But I did retain a nerdy kid story about being chased by a CIA agent. Still no schwag.

The CIA largely recruited only from Ivy League universities well into the 1980s.

ajcp 2y ago

Now it's mainly BYU...

grajaganDev 2y ago
They will have to compete with the FBI.
PittleyDunkin 2y ago
I saw a photo pop up a few months back from a hiring fair at Yale. I guess Skull and Bones isn't pulling them in like it used to.
- whimsicalism 2y ago
  there are definitely actively people going to Yale that are going to the CIA, I actually think Yale is a more common one
  - PittleyDunkin 2y ago
    Well something must have changed if they're having to show up at a job fair.
    - whimsicalism 2y ago
      i knew people, they were recruited prior to even entering college crazy as it sounds as part of their scholarship
cushychicken 2y ago
Turns out having firsthand experience living abroad, plus airtight foreign language skills, is quite valuable to intelligence agencies. (The fact that they don’t really drink or do drugs makes them a nice cultural fit, too.) Paraphrasing a sarcastic comment from Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character in Charlie Wilson’s War: “What a wild fucking idea: our spies should probably speak the same language as the people they’re spying on.” Lest anyone hammer on the LDS for this: missionaries as spies is not a novel concept nor exclusive to Mormons.
- WillAdams 2y ago
  Yeah, but back when there was actually an ethos of morality, there were certain lines which weren't crossed: - no use of religious/academics/medical practitioners as cover identities - no high-level clearances to people who had ties overseas and might be vulnerable to blackmail/coercion Somehow that all went out the locks during the "War on Terror" and I would gladly vote for and donate to a candidate who would make an issue of instances where the above moral considerations were ignored and operations which I would view as war crimes were perpetrated. It's not worth winning any war at the cost of the moral high ground.
  - cushychicken 2y ago
    > when there was actually an ethos of morality, there were certain lines which weren't crossed Uh, what? Could you perhaps tell this to the Catholic Church, who DEFINITELY used their capacity as religious leaders to spy on the Japanese on behalf of the Portuguese around, I dunno, the year 1600? This is simply the easiest answer I could recall because I just watched Shogun. This limit you’re describing only exists in your head.
    - WillAdams 2y ago
      The context was the CIA, which used to have such guidelines.
- warner25 2y ago
  Yes, I don't have a reference immediately available, but I've read that the DoD has studied this and found that LDS kids join the military at a disproportionately high rate and turn out to be better than average troops. Anecdotally, I've found this to be true too. The Utah Army National Guard also has the 300th Military Intelligence Brigade of linguists which is pretty unique.
seatac76 2y ago
I chuckled at this. Tried to find an article that came out recently about why Mormons make good spies but couldn’t unfortunately.
- boomboomsubban 2y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35772466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35772466
Der_Einzige 2y ago
The creator of civit.AI, the largest AI porn website/huggingface for diffusion models, is a Mormon and he felt the need to tell me this quickly when I spoke to him. I knew what he was really telling me, lol.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
  That he's a Mormon who watches porn, or that civit.AI is government-controlled?
  - Der_Einzige 2y ago
    Yes

neilv 2y ago

I wouldn't be aware of any secretive recruiting, like in the article or the movies, but the first time I bumped into them was actually at an Ivy job fair, where they were publicly recruiting CS nerds. I went by their table out of curiosity, or to see if they were giving away any schwag. Because who wouldn't want a "CIA" pen, even if it didn't shoot tranquilizer darts. Since I was a very nerdy kid, I gave the people at the table my resume, while probably forgetting to make eye contact. There was zero indication of them having any interest in talking with me, so I left. But, maybe because I'd started working very young, my resume looked a lot better than I did, and they must've later glanced at it. As I was later leaving the job fair, about to enter the elevator, this CIA representative comes bounding across the room at me, shouting to get my attention. Then she asked if I could come in the next day for an interview. If I did the interview, they must've mind-control drugged me to forget it. But I did retain a nerdy kid story about being chased by a CIA agent. Still no schwag.