The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is a civilian-run agency, formerly the Security Services of the RCMP. Its role is defensive: to protect Canada from terrorists and foreign spies. It does not send armed spies overseas. Curiously, for an extremely private organization, CSIS has been named a top employer three years in a row by Mediacorp Canada, a specialty publisher of employment-related periodicals. Since the 9/11 attacks, CSIS has added about 500 new staff, and now new hires represent about 15 percent of its workforce. Selecting spies used to be a secret process. There was no public knowledge about how spies were recruited, what the job description was, and what the selection criteria and methods were. Each year, CSIS receives 3,000 unsolicited applicants for about 100 openings. However, most of these applications are from unqualified James Bond “wannabes.” CSIS wants highly qualified, well-educated, multilingual, multiskilled employees. It recruits openly, and its selection criteria and processes are public. In 2008, CSIS recruited at 53 career fairs, 142 information sessions, and 18 special career events. However, in an effort to recruit more members of visible minorities, it also uses the Internet, business breakfasts, professional associations, and academic connections. If you want to apply, CSIS looks for Canadian citizens who are university graduates, preferably with advanced degrees. You must have a valid driver’slicence and be able to relocate anywhere in Canada at any time. You will have lived or studied abroad, be proficient in English and French, and have a third or fourth language. CSIS looks for generalists: people who are knowledgeable about international and political issues and who have investigative and analytical skills. As a CSIS employee, you will not be able to discuss your work with outsiders at any time. As an applicant, you must go through the following selection process:

• Submit a résumé.

• Complete a 12-page application, which also involves writing a 500-word essay explaining why you want to become an intelligence officer.

• Attend a group information session, where recruiters and intelligence officers answer questions.

• Attend a suitability interview, where your motivation and verbal and people skills are judged. 

• Take a battery of psychological and aptitude tests.

• Have your language skills tested.

• Attend a national assessment panel— veterans will assess your motivation, knowledge of CSIS, and general awareness of public affairs.

• Be submitted to security clearance procedures (including a polygraph test, fingerprints, a lie detector test, a credit check, a criminal record check, and references back to teen years), which take three months and cost thousands of dollars.

• Go to a final interview. This is a multiple-hurdle model of selection. As a candidate, you will have to pass each hurdle before being allowed to continue to the next. If successful, you will be on probation for five years, undergo 12 weeks of classroom training and language training, and spend two or three years at an operations desk at headquarters before being transferred to the field under the guidance of a mentor.

Questions 

1. Do you think the selection system used by CSIS is valid? Using your knowledge of validity, rate each step in this process.

2. One reason CSIS went public was to increase the representation of women from 10 percent to a target of 50 percent. Are there any possible problems with discrimination in this selection system? Discuss.