Page 3 - aruba-today-20210105

A3
U.S. NEWS Tuesday 5 January 2021
CIA's new recruitment website aims to diversify spy agency

By DEB RIECHMANN ment, Ilka Rodriguez-Diaz, fiscal 2019 were men com-
Associated Press a veteran of more than pared with 39% women,
WASHINGTON (AP) — three decades with the according to an annual
WANTED: Spies from all agency. She first joined af- demographics report com-
backgrounds and walks of ter attending a CIA job fair piled by the Office of the
life. in New Jersey. "The CIA had Director of National Intelli-
Striving to further diversify never been on my radar," gence. In fiscal 2019, the in-
its ranks, the CIA launched she wrote in an op-ed in telligence community saw
a new website Monday to The Miami Herald after get- an incremental increase
find top-tier candidates ting the job in October. "I in the number of minority
who will bring a broader didn't think I fit the 'profile.' professionals — 26.5%, up
range of life experiences to After all, the spies I saw on from 26.2%. But that's still
the nation's premier intelli- TV were male Anglo-Saxon lower than 37 percent in
gence agency Ivy leaguers, not Latinas the federal workforce as a
The days of all American from New Jersey. Still, I went whole and 37.4 percent in
spies being white male to my expert life coach, my the civilian labor force, the This May 21, 2018 file photo shows incoming Central Intelligence
graduates from Ivy League mother, for advice. She report said. Agency director Gina Haspel at the agency’s headquarters in
schools are long gone. The said, 'No pierdes nada con The largest minority or eth- Langley, Va.
CIA director is a woman ir.' (What have you got to nic group at all the intel- Associated Press
and women head all five lose in going?) So, I went to ligence agencies, includ- at all the U.S. intelligence is the third largest in a de-
of the agency's branches, the job fair. The rest, as they ing the CIA, was Black or agencies — up a point cade and represents the
including the directorates say, is history." African American at 12% from the year before. most diverse talent pool,
of science and technol- Across the more than a followed by Hispanic at 7% "Even with all the chal- including persons with dis-
ogy, operations and digital dozen U.S. spy agencies, and Asian at 4%. Persons lenges 2020 posed, it was a abilities, since 2010," said
innovation.But while the including the CIA, 61% of with disabilities represent standout recruitment year CIA spokesperson Nicole
CIA has been diversify- intelligence professionals in 11.5% of the workforce for CIA. Our incoming class de Haay.q
ing for years, intelligence
agencies still lag the fed-
eral workforce in minority
representation. With thou-
sands of job applicants
annually, the CIA wants to
do more to ensure its work-
force reflects national de-
mographics.
The revamped website
has links for browsing CIA
jobs complete with starting
salaries and requirements,
sections on working at the
agency, and a streamlined
application process.
"We've come a long way
since I applied by simply
mailing a letter marked
'CIA, Washington, D.C.,'"
said CIA Director Gina Has-
pel, who joined the agen-
cy in 1985. She said in a
statement that she hopes
the new website piques
the interest of talented
Americans and gives them
a sense of the "dynamic
environment that awaits
them here."
Haspel has made recruit-
ment a priority since she
became the first female
director in May 2018. Since
then, the CIA has started
advertising on streaming
services, launched an In-
stagram account and an
online "onion site," a fea-
ture that makes both the
information provider and
the person accessing in-
formation more difficult to
trace. Last year, the CIA
designated its first execu-
tive for Hispanic engage-