This is out of pure curiosity, but do you think people in top notch intelligence agencies like the CIA Clandestine Services ever land gigs on Wall Street? I would assume the exit opps are pretty solid for these individuals if they choose to actually leave the agency
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Haha Im sure one has sometime but i wouldn't say it would be common
I agree with pubfinanalyst. Probably more into management consulting, lobbying, and maybe corporate development then say PE, IB, or HF. Even if there are quite a few, do you think they openly walk around saying that they used to be in intelligence haha?
No. I've dealt with people coming from within the US intelligence services. They come into their industry, but visibly.
Wait. I apologize if I don't follow. They do or don't land jobs on Wall Street? If so, what type of industries do they typically go into? Thank you in advance.
Thank your for all of the responses.
Ivan Boesky (convicted of insider trading during the Micheal Milken scandal) claimed to work for the CIA. James Stewart doesn't know how true that is, but he is pretty sure Boesky claimed to work for it.
Look, the CIA probably has tens of thousands of folks doing accounting-related work for them. In fact, my guess is that this is a majority of people working for the agency. I'm sure some of them get tired of it and think the grass might be greener in banking. (Which could be true).
If that's you, or if you know someone like that, I think the skills are clearly transferable to Ops as well as Big Four Audit & Attestation if you're going for IBD. I don't know how exactly one can put this experience on their resume.
If you are interested in pursuing this path: you could also always go the b-school route and if you have a solid undergrad GPA and 700+ gmat score, then you should be pretty competitive for top 10 MBA programs. It would provide an ample opportunity to rebrand yourself
I'd be interested in @ssits experience of coming across ex company guys in IB but I've come across them in developing country deals where they retire/quit and want to use their in country contacts to do a deal. They're usually pretty frightening deals, and I'm not easily scared, and unrealistic because they're accustomed to having to having CIA, DoD, DIA support but Ive seen them out there. I've never come across a colleague who was ex CIA though.
I was drinking Friday night, so was probably a little more firm with my "no" than I am in the cold, lonely and joyless light of sobriety. Quite possibly there's ex-CIA people all over the place and I've just never come across them.
People I've come across who are ex-CIA or ex-military-industrial complex (whether US or elsewhere) within banks have normally come in as security advisers or geopolitics advisers. For example, we have a team who deal with staff security in high risk situations, threat assessment etc who are ex-military and/or ex-US State dept/soft arms of the State department. I've outlined a situation in the last paragraph below where they helped set me up with some security.
Otherwise, I've mainly come across these types in Asia in the security risk front (eg Control Risk, although they do a lot of other stuff) or background check front (eg Kroll). That said, on the background check front, it tends to be more ex-cops and ex-journalists.
I've also worked with some ex-US military brass and possibly ex-intel people in Asia, where they had started their own relationship broking firm, using their military and diplomatic contacts to broker deals and take a cut, similar to what @DingDong08 refers to.
Finally, I've worked with former diplomats who were doing the same relationship brokering, although usually where they were taking "regional chairman" positions in banks and getting a bank-issued business cards to go drum up business, do high level meetings etc. This role was entirely relationship-based and they weren't even deal sourcing, just being used as extra leverage to open doors and, in particular, help in dealings with governments.
On the personal security risk front, I had an ex-Chinese cop assigned to me in China for some meetings. His job was to linger a little distance away from the room where I was meeting some Chinese guys who owed us a lot of money, ready to run in if it got heated and I had to hit speed dial. The other side didn't take it that direction (nor did they pay us our money). The situation I was most worried about there is that they'd turn up with police from their home town who they'd paid off to arrest me. If it was just fisticuffs, I would have been happy as I'm a student of the sweet science and nothing would have given me more joy than to punch these guys' faces.
they probably can get lobbying jobs FOR the iBanks. Takes some pretty networked people to get bailouts like they did back in the olde times.
I had one interview me at a bank - she was an associate level straight from the CIA Clandestine Services. I butchered that interview though :/ Wanted to start a family and needed something a little less stressful apparently. Though, she did say most people love their jobs in the CIA and stay - she only left for her family.
I'm also interested in hearing about @"SSits" experience
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