Honest Feedback Appreciated

Sounds like you would be a first ballot entry. You have such a unique background plus have the grades, i don't why they would say no to you.

public ivy.. and your name is utexas... HMM.. who can put THIS puzzle together lol

youre first rounding? and identify as hispanic? i think you have a solid shot at columbia prolly solidly in at nyu and decent shots at H/W. make sure you identify how and why you want to make the transition and all...

^ I stalk your posts just so I can read the quote in your signature about arbitrage.. there I said it.

God I miss compliance work. I hate consulting. Man that's SCI clearance (CIA right?). How do I get that? That's beyond sexy ya know.

Honest feedback? I think with your background and a 720 GMAT, NYU Stern and Columbia are givens. And if I weren't married I'd ask you out.

maybe I'm wrong here, but if you worked with the CIA abroad you were most likely an operations officer (what movies/media mislabel as an 'agent')...i've always wondered how somebody substantiates they worked at the CIA when the CIA itself would never acknowledge you ever worked there (assuming you were an operative)? Always found that to be a conundrum/reason not to work there prior to grad school...You prob know better tho.

Do you have a brilliant human interest story about the currency crisis? I took the GMAT but haven't actually done MBA applications...but I would imagine the admissions committee would eat that up. I have the MA in econ booby prize from when I left my PhD program. (Lots of fun if you love calculus, not trmendously valuable.) I know my department would have gone gaga for a well written macro personal interest story as an impetus for studying econ.

My husband is an outside director of a commercial bank and his best friend is the chief counsel of the compliance dept. Those guys all have law and enforcement backgrounds - I find it interesting that you say the federal law enforcement agencies are hiring from accounting. I know this is lame...but I don't have enough coursework for the CPA test but I do have enough for the CFE test. Is it worthwhile to pay for that thing if I wanted to apply to either a state or federal financial crimes unit. Or should I just finish accounting coursework? Like you I'm figuring out what to do next. I didn't like buy side research so I went into more investigative due dilligence research. Now I'm doing consulting to the public and non profit sector and I really really miss the excitement of compliance. I just never really thought of FBI/CIA because I assumed I would need to go legal/law enforcement (which I have like zero background in.)

The SCI is crazy hard to get though right? My brother is some kind of insane tech genius. He's military career track (major) but he wants to go to the private sector now when his contract is up (doesn't like moving the kids around, doing overseas deployments etc.) He was trying to upgrade to SCI at one point but there's some kind of major backlog. They did the interview with me and I told them he was a great American - but that was 18 months ago now. Did you the clearance to get the position or do you start as a low lewel analyst, get the clearance and then get the

Job? Sorry don't mean to hijack your thread. I mean, I totally get why someone would want to go to consulting or IB. But damn...your job is awesome. I would love to go that route.

Esbanker- Basically how it works is you are given a cover with a detailed profession during your stint at the CIA. If and when you decide to retire or resign you are given 2 options: First option is keep your undercover profile and use it on your resume and still have the opportunity to go back to the CIA if needed. Second, you can opt to put the CIA on your resume but as a result you give up any future employment opportunities with the agency. I had a college professor that was an overseas operative and did this but went for a PHD and decided to give up the CIA life and throw it on his resume (which opened many doors such as Cisco consulting, etc.) So there are "exit opportunities" if you do decide to join. Obviously just don't talk about any assignments in detail etc.

Sophie- No worries about hijacking, I am more than happy to fill you in. Unfortunately, no brilliant human interest story...but I could talk about working the biggest ponzi scheme in history ;) The gig is great but financially living in NYC it is quite a challenge on a government salary. Your background sounds impressive I honestly think you should apply. The FBI/CIA has many positions now including forensic accountants, financial analysts, agents, operations analysts, etc. They love diversity too. The hardest part about getting a gig at either agency is passing the background check. My check was detailed but stress free. I never tried drugs and was relatively a good kid which helped a lot. The SCI was granted after I passed a polygraph interview. It was relatively easy and automatic but I do remember a backlog in my agency. They put analysts last but I received it after a few months on the list. Basically I accepted the offer contingent on the fact that I pass the background check. Once I passed it and started working I had SCI in a couple of months. Tell your brother to keep at it, the backlog will flow eventually, but got to remember the government is the government though.

If you think you can pass the background check then by all means go for it. The CPA will be extremely valuable if you want to be an agent. If you want an analyst role it will give you a leg up but won't be completely necessary. The CFE would be perfect for an embedded forensic accountant and or financial analyst role but still not completely necessary. Your MA will give you a higher starting salary too (GS-9 at least) and your work experience would put you at a GS-11 (around 70K salary in NYC). CIA will operate out of DC for the first 3 years at least before other posts are granted.

Both agencies love former accountants and lawyers but will also consider just about any other field you could imagine. In my division I would venture to say half are former accountants (Not all CPA's), another third are former lawyers, and the rest come from financial services. Only one or two were previous law enforcement. There are a few military. The other analysts in my office have majored in international relations, intelligence studies, business, psychology, etc. but they are spread out across different divisions.

I noticed your SN says BK. I am in NYC as well. If you are serious about a career in these agencies PM me and I can keep you posted on openings in NY that I hear about around the office. Would love to help out if possible! Let me know if you have any other questions as well, hope this helps.

insightful! thx

trust me, say youre hispanic. itll mean a world of difference. lol.

I just might have to haha. I was under the impression MBA admissions didn't focus on that as much as law school admissions. Thanks for the heads up.

hispanic with good grades and okay gmat. I'm gonna say 80% harvard 95% at the other schools. Let us know how that goes.