No better option, for most.
Family tradition, and not wanting to be the first helpless civilian in my line, when I did it.
Playing with guns and explosives is always fun, and quite hard to do outside the U.S of A.
Discussion
I don’t believe that the 20,000 CIA employees are coerced into working there.
Just as I don’t believe that those who think the CIA turns people into bad individuals will leave the CIA and become good people.
Self-delusion is far more powerful than coercion.
But people really do wise up and leave these organisations. Its quite common, unless your colleagues already have serious blackmail material on you.
As a CIA agent, I can state that this is completely true. I have reached the point where I cannot leave the CIA because one of my colleagues is blackmailing me with a photo of me in torn underwear and without a bra. I cannot bear the fact that someone might find out that I do not have money to buy new underwear.
The salary isn't great and the unpaid overtime sucks - but the job security is really top-notch!
There's always going to be a market for well-researched, well-written reports supporting a decision that was already made long ago.
GPT4 might fill that market one day, but for now it just doesn't hallucinate enough.
If the salary isn't great, how do you explain this?
Drugs?
No, the purpose was to show that I have a bathroom with Swarovski stones.
Your boss will be sad.
That is not the crystal the importer was supposed to get from Thailand.
Back to analyst work you go!
