Creative agencies are known for providing social environments for their creatives to thrive in. This means that you can meet up with your friends or spend your leisure on your hobbies. Kiplinger: Should You Work for Uncle Sam? M could easily make such trips behind the Iron Curtain without raising suspicions. If you dont meet this number, chances are that you will get fired pretty soon. Call center agents can avoid physical work. This makes the job challenging for the creative and the account manager. If a target is in a very stressful or frightening position, for instance, the first person they talk to who shows them kindness and compassion is in a great position to glean information. In fact, you will consult many different people each day and this means that you will get in touch with many different characters. In such a case, you as an insurance agent can greatly help them out and explain what insurance will be most beneficial for them so that they can avoid getting into trouble sooner or later. Ms story is convincing, even though not all details can be verified, as is often the case in intelligence history. Bedford Street Feel superior to others. The job of a spy can be very lonely. As you can see from the previous discussion, there are many advantages and disadvantages to working as an insurance agent. As the largest employer of American citizens, the federal government has become synonymous with bureaucracy. To get more content and advice like this direct to your inbox, sign up for our weekly update and careers ebook. His two long-time Stasi handlers were known to him as Wolfgang and Heinz. Officers may have to adjust to changes in the government policies and and funding. A lot of being a spy is terribly mundane. Candidates must be at least 23 years of age and no older than 36 years and 6 months, possess a bachelor's degree, have three years of work experience, pass a physical fitness test and qualify for an accounting, computer science, language, law or diversified special agent entry program. Increased ability to get high and fuck around through all . When improvements can be made, they take time. Quick promotions are guaranteed to those who shine. Poor since you will be replaceable as a travel agent. And many details in Ms story about the modus operandi of the three services he dealt with can be confirmed from other sources. He feels the BVD did the same when they handed him over to the CIA in 1981, renouncing any further responsibility towards him. Ability to get high and fuck around hampered by increased ability to conceive of consequences. As an insurance agent, you will also be able to enjoy regular workweeks if you work for major insurance companies out there. If you like quick organizational change and seeing your ideas rapidly turn into action, you may be unhappy working for the FBI. Subscribe to Federal Drive's daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne. Litigation attorney 5. Earn Good Money. In our current state of the world, the job market changes rather quickly and it is also questionable whether insurance agents will still be needed in the future. In turn, those people will often not be able to pay their bills once they retire and may even end up homeless since they may no longer be able to pay their rent. They would even take M to toy shops where at their expense he could indulge his love for model trains. His wife did not know the details of his spying, but she was aware of the many trips he made behind the Iron Curtain to meet his Stasi handlers. If you are eager to learn, an advertising agency is the perfect place for you. While Special Agent John Jeffries does note that such situations are fairly uncommon, being involved in them is still part of the job. Creative agencies are not for everybody. That career would go on to provide excellent cover for his clandestine work, as it involved a lot of international travel. Ms meetings with them often took place in East Berlin, and sometimes in other venues in the Eastern Bloc such as Bulgaria or Yugoslavia. nibusinessinfo.co.uk, a free service offered by Invest Northern Ireland, is the official online channel for business advice and guidance in Northern Ireland. We at Filestage are looking forward to your comments. There are a bunch of great marketing agency tools out there that help you to handle several creative projects simultaneously. In between debriefings, they drank Georgian cognac with him, covered his expenses without much ado, took him for day trips and copious dinners in restaurants and accompanied him on visits to nightclubs in East Berlin and elsewhere. Even though the medal from the chief of the HVA flattered my ego, it also contributed to mixed feelings. FBI positions are divided into two categories: special agents and professional staff. Copyright 2023 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. FBI investigators will interview your friends, co-workers and family to determine whether you would be a good fit for the organization, and you'll need to take a polygraph and drug test. As an insurance agent, you can avoid those issues, at least if you are financially responsible and dont waste your money on things you actually dont need instead of investing it in senseful investment projects. This is for a number of reasons it improves your value judgment and it helps your cover because you have obviously done something before. Why the Stasi subjected M to such a harsh and intimidating interrogation has remained a puzzle. Hence, the mental pressure can be enormous for insurance agents and you should not underestimate the stress that comes along with it. This episode ushered in a period when both Wolfgang and Heinz became more distant. Stick with me since I will show you all the pros and cons of being an insurance agent so that you can better decide whether you still want to work in this field or if you want to go for other career options instead. Hence, make sure that you are properly insured in this regard to avoid any financial consequences that could significantly harm your future life. For instance, a construction worker has to lift heavy stuff all day long and this can be quite exhausting. Located in Pittsburgh, Chris Miksen has been writing instructional articles on a wide range of topics for online publications since 2007. BUT, at an agency the clients come first. CIA operations officers, though, serve on the front lines of what the CIA blandly calls "human intelligence collection." Changes in the needs of the government can result in agents being transferred, and not always to a desirable location. It contributed, in his view, to his ensuing depression and nervous breakdown in the early 1990s for which he would receive psychiatric treatment. Decreased blog hits because no one knows what youre talking about. Decent work-life balance for call center agents. If you go to the secret service website, which is the starting point for anybody thinking of joining, you will see they ask for proven experience in another field. He became a double agent: by successfully pretending to be a Stasi agent, M would acquire valuable information on the personalities of his Stasi handlers for the Dutch service. We were able to corroborate some, but not all of Ms claims about his spying career with documents from his personal files. The Federal Bureau of Investigation had about 35,000 employees in 2017. He was in East Berlin at the time and the men had rudely awoken M around 4am. Many jobs in the FBI require mandatory travel. He holds a master's degree in management and a bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies. I was a soldier in the cold war.. Increased ability to get high and fuck around through all of college vs. having to study to maintain average GPA. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. There are still some issues with a career in the insurance sector which I want to show you in the following chapter. One of the wedding gifts the Stasi gave him was an exquisite Bohemian crystal vase. Being a call center agent is not that stressful. When M finally got access to his BVD file in the mid-2010s, he was not allowed to make notes or copies. However, if you are a rather extroverted personality with strong selling skills, chances are that you will find your dream job as an insurance agent since you can combine your passion for selling with your outgoing character and this combination will often lead to significant success in this field. The number of CIA assets lost in China rivaled those lost in the Soviet Union and Russia as a result of the betrayals by CIA officer Aldrich Ames and FBI agent Robert Hanssen, who were arrested in . There are six separate categories of CIA clandestine service officer in addition to field operations officers, and all work as covert or undercover operatives. In most cases, a CIA field agent operating clandestinely is a spy and subject to detention, arrest and even harsh punishment when captured by an unfriendly nation. Disadvantages of using commercial agents. He wants to find out, in particular, why his East German handlers, whom he had managed to deceive so successfully for so many years, suddenly seemed to turn against him in the mid-1980s. Eat, Drink And Be Wary: Ex-CIA Officer Reveals How Eateries Are Key To Spycraft. CIA field agents may operate in large cities and small towns or out in harsh countryside or rural environments. His former CIA handler (who M managed to get back in touch with in recent years) advised him in an email: Let it go, man, let it go. But this was clearly to no avail. However, everything comes with a price. If you're working CIA clandestine service overseas, for example, you'll receive housing as well as additional overseas service pay. Nothing, therefore, had prepared him for the interrogation in the Hohenschnhausen prison. Several times after Ms return from the Eastern Bloc, she was the one who made a phone call to transmit a pre-arranged coded message to the CIA, implying that M had come back safely. Especially when deadlines are close and deadlines are always close creatives are expected to work overtime. Sure, from time to time, you will also have client meetings. Bedford Square However, if you have good people skills and your clients will trust you blindly, you will have good chances to succeed as an insurance agent and can make much more than people working in a fast food restaurant and many other people out there. He added: You become totally demoralised. More and more now, the secret service looks at people who have established themselves in other careers and are looking for a change. Without a doubt, it was also his bitter feelings that made him eager to share his fascinating life story with us. When you start off as a young recruit, you think, 'Fine, that suits me.' Here's a list of 10 jobs that are similar to CIA agents: 1. This puts a lot of pressure on a creative. Yet M said he felt strangely reassured because these accusations were not specific they were meant to provoke him. In turn, if you have contact with those people, you may be able to switch fields in case you are no longer interested in working as an insurance agent. Travel agents sell flights, stays and trips to their clients and make sure that they plan their vacations the best way possible. This story is part of Conversation Insights Quite often, you will sell insurance products to influential people who are in leading positions in their companies. You can see nice flats and houses during work. Another benefit of a career as an insurance agent is that you can also avoid physical work. If one is unable to meet the sales target, his commissions will take a hit. You could get called out anywhere and your target could be anyone. All body openings are being inspected rather roughly. According to M, only treason within the CIA could explain it that a mole within the American intelligence service had betrayed him as a double agent to the Soviet KGB. All that has changed since the 1990s. The Hohenschnhausen Memorial in Berlin, a former Stasi prison. Subscribe to our newsletter. Agencies exist solely to serve their clients. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), police officers and detectives have one of the highest rates of on-the-job injury and illness. You can avoid working at nighttime. Because they're so diverse, CIA spies are frequently able to conduct clandestine or secret missions worldwide. The media and communication industry is infamous for its low salaries. When considering a career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or other law enforcement agency, it is beneficial to understand the potential hazards and disadvantages that one may encounter on the job and throughout a career. Sure, not all insurance agents will make decent money and some of them may even struggle to pay their bills. Cost - using a network of agents can be a. Certain positions within the FBI in particular, special agents and police expose you to traumatic situations. While some insurance companies dont require a college degree, others want you to have at least a bachelors degree. Considered an elite corps of men and women, CIA field agents or operations officers come from many different ethnic, educational and professional backgrounds. On several occasions, M discussed the possibility that someone like Aldrich Ames, a notorious KGB mole inside the CIA between 1985 and 1994, was responsible for betraying him. In fact, chances are that also your family and friends will be pretty helpless in this regard. While you might take this for granted, it is actually a luxury since many other people have to work during those times. Can invent something cool, have a legacy. Many other people dont have this luxury and will have to work during the evenings. CIA clandestine service officers are paid according to federal civil service wage scales. That was a shock. Yet, you should not expect that working in this field is all upside. But his attempts to contact them were unsuccessful. He studied journalism at the Community College of Allegheny County. Agencies are flexible corporations that move at a very fast pace. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and Japanese from the University of Hawaii, as well as a Master of Arts in forensic psychology. We checked and cross-referenced his account and our research has been peer-reviewed and published in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. Insurance companies may also set pretty ambitious goals for you which you have to meet. Even as an operational officer with a lot of support behind you, there is a lot of waiting for stuff to happen and trying to find out the most basic level of information. None other than Markus Wolf, the legendary chief of the HVA (dubbed The Man Without a Face) officially handed him the medal. Rather poor since many people will no longer rely on the advice of insurance agents in the future but rather use our modern technology to make decisions in this regard. Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Knowing someone else was imprisoned, tortured or killed because you didn't do your job properly is a terrible burden. Some insurance products are also such complicated that you may not even understand the mechanics behind them. M was from a working-class background. With all of the intelligence policy debates of the last few years, people sometimes forget the CIA has a kinetic, operational role in dangerous places throughout the world. Family Life Many jobs in the FBI require mandatory travel. The idea is that you get as many reasonably intelligent and varied men and women into the job as possible. If this trend continues, you may suffer from pretty poor job prospects and may become unemployed soon. Easy to find - agents are easier to recruit than experienced sales executives with specialist knowledge. Clearly, M felt a strong ideological commitment to the west and had no moral qualms about betraying the Stasi. Customers - they might sell to unsuitable customers who might undermine the . Creative Agencies balance a plethora of projects simultaneously. The case of M is illuminating because it allows for comparisons between the behaviour of three different secret services towards the same agent. Now I can do what I really love to do and I want to enable as many other people as well to go this exciting path towards happiness instead of money. Salary. The corridors were lit. Creative agencies offer relatively safe jobs. One problem with being an insurance agent is that you will often have to sell insurance products you actually dont believe in. Keeping together such a large and complex system requires an equally complex set of rules, regulations and red tape. There will be a certain level of stress and pressure to sell that comes with the job. I can forget people's names two minutes after being introduced to them, but I retain a lot of seemingly unimportant details which can be terribly important when dealing with a mass of paperwork on your desk or when you are out in the field trying to remember what your brief was. Now advances in technology mean maintaining people's covers has become a specialist area and it is a much more sophisticated operation. 1. It was very much like a [John] le Carr novel. M gave us a truly unique insight into the secret workings of three different intelligence agencies. His shock was even greater because Wolfgang said this in English, in the precise wording M had used in his CIA debriefing. Think of creative things to be afraid of: hypochondria, Russians, vast government conspiracies. As a creative in an advertising agency, you are expected to come up with great ideas on a regular base. M was supplied with a number of fake passports to carry out his undercover work. You can expect a fast-paced lifestyle filled with deadlines, demanding clients, and confusing projects. Hence, if money is really important to you, a career in insurance can be one way to go. Another advantage of being an insurance agent is that you also dont have to work at nighttime. Creative agencies are a part of a bigger community of advertising and communication professionals. This could place additional strain on a a family. The job can strain your family life and psyche. Button spy camera on display at offices of East German secret Police (STASI) Museum in Berlin, Germany. The Top 100 Advertising Blogs and their Best Posts. Good work-life balance. These are the words of double agent M, who operated for the Dutch security service and the CIA against the East German Stasi for 22 years. For instance, the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics' 2019 report put the median annual income for travel agents at $44,410. Not everybody can handle this. This information can help you make a fairly well-informed decision about applying to the FBI. Can write relateable poetry about the alienation experienced from having untouchable wit and genius. A typical art director in advertising agency works long hours. Belfast BT2 7ES This can be problematic, especially if you just dont look trustworthy at all and are just not born with a sympathetic aura. These messages consisted of numbers read out monotonously according to a pre-arranged transmission schedule. Working for the FBI means dealing with bureaucracy. We interviewed M extensively between 2019 and 2021 about his career as a spy during the cold war. Our research focuses on the relationship between intelligence services and their agents and in particular, how signs of gratitude and trust affect this relationship. Do All Jobs With the CIA Need to Be Kept Secret? You can build a strong network. Field Agent Dangers CIA field agents operate in both friendly as well as hostile nations. What are the disadvantages of joining both the military and the intelligence services at the same time? Creative freelancers have to worry about marketing themselves, handling their financials, and finding new clients. As you can see, there are definitely many advantages of becoming an insurance agent. Protective agent 8. He spoke about issues he hadnt even told his wife about. Feel inferior to people who are still smarter. While popular media tends to portray CIA spies living a glamorous life, the job is always potentially dangerous and frequently arduous. For instance, trains cannot just stop operating just because it is Saturday or Sunday. Traumatic memories that come back to haunt people many years later are a common phenomenon for war veterans. At an agency you might get the feeling like youre just a number. The CIA was instructing M in techniques the Americans used to recruit KGB intelligence officers who might know about penetrations inside the US intelligence community. The trouble with. To sleep in and to start late is possible in most agencies. You will also be able to build a strong network as an insurance agent. Even though you may be able to make a decent living from what you are doing, you will still not get rich as an insurance agent. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, I knew the job wasnt going to be James Bond but I was curious to know more. That is the old service though. As well as a frequent commentator on espionage, Ferguson is currently helping to promote the hit US TV series The Blacklist, starring James Spader as a master criminal turned FBI informer. Specialized skills officer 7. Others are known for their competitive kickball teams. Median annual earnings for real estate agents were 26 percent more than the median wage for all workers, according to 2018 figures from the BLS. Contract - they can be entitled to compensation on termination of the contract even if they breached the agreement. 2010 The Thought & Expression Company, LLC. This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Every creative is familiar with the nagging worries about a potential creative block. He was working for a Dutch multinational that we have agreed not to name. Agencies pay creatives on average $40,000 to $60,000, which is more than most freelancers earn. 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