Decent Place to Have a Career - Anonymous employee CIA Employee Review

4.0
Feb 16, 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Part of Something Greater, Serve the Nation, Great Benefits that get better as time goes on, Smart people to work with

Cons

Lots of bureaucratic constraints, Hard to get work done in a rigid traditional system, Not a lot of space for free thinking, Gets stale over time...exhausting

Explore other reviews about CIA

5.0
Jun 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great travel opportunities, and unique opportunities to do things you wouldn't get to anywhere else.

Cons

Long hours, and invasive security screening process.

3.0
Jan 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Lots of really smart and passionate people. Some teams are really interesting to work for.

Cons

Most people are thrown into a random-ish team when they first join, which can sometimes be a poor fit. It's really hard to move around to different career services. Some teams are really slow and a lot of people are self-important and difficult to work with. If you get bad management, you'll hate it there.

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