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Mossad Looks for New Recruits Online

Israel’s elite intelligence force now accepts virtual applications

by
Alexander Aciman
September 29, 2014
(Mossad website)
(Mossad website)

Today the AP reports that the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, will join its international brethren MI6 and CIA by listing jobs within the agency on a website. It may seem completely unremarkable that in 2014 an organization should be offering online applications, but over the last half century Mossad’s recruiting techniques have been a lot more Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy than Monster.com. Gone are the days when Mossad hopefuls would have to post an envelope with their resumes and a list of family secrets to the bottom of a mailbox on a deserted street.

The Mossad, long known for its Mission: Impossible-style tactics, will be trying to reach a new pool of applicants who may not have known about job openings in the past. The AP suggests that the available posts won’t likely include a Walther PPK and a license to kill, but could instead be in the organization’s technology or administration department. (Which isn’t to say that a job in HR at a spy agency doesn’t come with its own set of stresses.)

The site itself seems comically self-aware, with a carousel of images of men staring off into a giant computer screen or something resembling a Tesseract, decorated with a series of quotations: “Join us to see the invisible and do the impossible,” and “History is not written. History is created.”

There may be some concern that the open application process will attract people who aren’t entirely cut out for espionage (or even administrative work for that matter), but the Mossad undoubtedly has worked out a system for sorting through the crazies.

In short, if you’re someone who dreams of a better life, who has a sense of adventure, who wants to travel, see the world, or any of the above, you may wish to apply for a job at the Mossad. But please, before doing so, the organization leaves you with a cautionary reminder:

“When filling in the form, we suggest you consider whether the computer you are using and your location is secure enough. It would be safer to fill in the form using means that are not directly connected to you. We also recommend erasing the browsing history upon completion of the form.”

Alexander Aciman is a writer living in New York. His work has appeared in, among other publications, The New York Times, Vox, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic.