National Security FAQ

National Security

Frequently Asked Questions:

Please find below answers to some of the most frequently asked questions regarding National Security and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Please note that Kirsch Group is in no way affiliated with CSIS. Any advice or guidance here is for information purposes and cannot be counted on to assist with gaining employment.

If you have any questions please get in touch.

We are here to help. Stay Safe!

Introduction

Given the start of the school year I wanted to take a moment to answer a question I get asked a lot by students interested in a career in National Security – What degree do I need? Or what degree will help me in my career.

I am not a recruiter so take this as my advice rather than help with your C.V. In my opinion focus on developing your skills just as much, if not more, than your core academic knowledge. It is absolutely helpful to have base of understand of what our National Security apparatus does and the threats that we face. For starters it will help you identify what branch of service you may ultimately want to work in – this can either be different roles at my former employer CSIS or other agencies like CBSA, CSE, RCMP etc. Stephanie Carvin, Craig Forcese, Thomas Juneau, Leah West, Stewart Bell, and Jessica Davis have written books and people I recommend following to understand the range of national security careers and agencies.

In my experience - and from here out speaking specifically of CSIS - my former colleagues came from a range of academic and professional paths. There were teachers, lawyers, social workers and I was an investment advisor. One of the unique aspects of CSIS recruitment is its lack of specificity regarding the field of study required. All you need is a degree. They don’t specify what that should be. I think they recognize that diversity in education can contribute to a broader perspective within the Service.

Skills and Qualities

So, while your choice of degree is important, I believe it's equally vital to possess the right skills and qualities that will make you a successful intelligence officer (and will probably serve you in other roles or departments). Here is my list of key attributes for all of you students to think about while you work on getting that degree out of the way:

Language Skills: Proficiency in multiple languages, especially those relevant to regions of interest, can significantly enhance your candidacy and opportunities in the Service. BUT you NEED to speak English AND French so might as well start brushing up now.

Emotional Intelligence and interpersonal skills: The ability to build rapport and relationships of trust with other people is a key part of the job. Recruiting and managing human sources of information can be stressful and emotionally challenging. Often these are people from very different backgrounds than you. Some people like to constantly make new friends, for others not so much.

Writing and Communication Skills: You can be the best recruiter in the word but if you can’t articulate what you learn in a report, it’s useless. Clear and concise communication is paramount. Intelligence officers must be adept at writing reports, briefs, and other documents that convey complex information accurately and comprehensibly.

Analytic Thinking: On the subject of reports, first you must be able to separate what you know, from what you believe. Quantify and qualify the difference as well as be able to make logical and compelling arguments for your reasoning. The ability to analyze information, spot patterns, and make informed assessments is central to intelligence work.

Flexibility: There is an old saying at CSIS. Don’t read the book until you are sitting at the desk. Just because you are an expert on a threat, doesn’t mean you’ll work that file. I had a background in international finance and applied to work on our financial investigations unit – they put me in the human source policy shop. It happens. You need to be able to get up to speed on a geographic area and subject matter quickly. You make work many different files in your career. The threat landscape is constantly evolving. It is important to be able to adapt to changing circumstances, think on your feet, and make sound decisions under pressure when you may not be an expert in the subject.

Teamwork and Collaboration: National security is a community. You are rarely alone and often collaborating with members of your own team, service, as well as stakeholders and government clients. Being a team player and effectively working with others is essential to your personal success.

Networking: There’s another old joke at CSIS. Be nice to your office mate as you’ll probably end up working for them one day. It’s a small intelligence community. It’s important to build your personal and professional network. Don’t wait – go to office hours. Get on LinkedIn. Make contacts with your classmates and colleagues. Build your network and be there for each other as you move through your careers. Be nice to your classmates… you could end up working for them one day.

Conclusion

Embarking on a career in National Security is an honourable and challenging pursuit. It offers a unique opportunity for individuals from diverse academic backgrounds to contribute to the safety and security of our country. Even though I left – I am proud of where I worked and would encourage others to explore that path if they are interested. But we all have different paths – so good luck on yours!

Check out this video on this subject on our YouTube channel

To register for our CSIS mailing list including notifications for virtual events, please click here.

We’ve been getting a lot of great feedback on the Youtube channel. I want to thank everyone for their emails and the kind words. I’m glad you’ve found it helpful and informative. I hope you’ve also found it entertaining. I had a great time working for CSIS and highly recommend it to anyone who is interested. The process is long though and it’s tough to get in and there isn’t much information available about it. So for those who have some general questions on where to start – here’s my initial advice:

Check out the CSIS jobs website, see if there are any jobs that interest you. Many people want to be Intelligence Officers or Surveillance but there are a lot of different jobs such as tactical and strategic analysts and IT folks.
Check the requirements and look out for things like degree requirement. Or whether you need to be bilingual for the role. Is it region specific or based in Ottawa? It’s unfortunately a box ticking exercise in the early stages so if you don’t have something they need like a University degree or driving license it’s going to be extremely hard to make it through.
Check out my book – I was Never Here - It’s about my time at CSIS. And you don’t have to buy the whole thing you can download free sample chapters here – including the one about my recruitment. It may be dated now but it will give you an idea of some of the stages and how frustrating it can be.
And hey, if you like that – please do buy the whole thing. It’s available wherever you buy your books. You can buy it on this website if you want a signed copy. It’s more expensive because of shipping. And if you can do me a favour, if you read it and like it – Please give me a review.
Have a look out for my seminars and sessions. I am going to try to be better about posting on YouTube. I did an hour lunch and learn session in August. I’m thinking of doing another. Until then I’m going to be posting the last one on my website. Will be up soon.

If you have any questions please send them our way info@Kirschgroup.ca. We’ll make it into a video, a post or add it to the next info session.

I hope this helps and good luck!

The Province of Ontario recently scrapped plans to raise the recruitment requirement for law enforcement to a post-secondary degree. This was sited as an effort to boost police recruitment.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) also has a post - secondary degree / diploma requirement to become an Intelligence Officer or Surveillant.

I agree with the Province decision and I wish CSIS followed their lead. I don't believe we should have post - secondary recruitment requirements. I think that people can take all sorts of paths in life and many develop the relevant skills and experience that would make them exceptional Intelligence Officers or law enforcement officers without a degree.

Let me be clear, I think University degrees are valuable. I believe we should maintain high recruitment standards and offer great training. I simply don't believe that individuals without a degree should be excluded from being evaluated in the HR process.

See a Youtube video on the subject

Youtube video

See more videos on my experience with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service on our Youtube Channel

I recently had the opportunity to speak to an engaged Canadian Forces Reserve Unit about my book, my experience with CSIS and provide some thoughts on the security challenges of today. I usually leave some room for questions and received one that I had not been asked before and really made me think. I wanted to expand on it here for those interested:

To paraphrase:

“If you could change three things about you experience or how you did your job at CSIS what would it be?”

1) I would find a better balance about sharing with family and close friends about where I worked and what I did there.

I was consumed with keeping my employment a secret and looking back I realize I could have handled this challenge of discretion much better. Plus, I was running around Toronto knocking on doors and asking complete strangers for their assistance with my National Security investigations and not leveraging my own network. I had to build relationships of trust with strangers rather than exploiting the relationships of trust I already had. Looking back I could have been a more effective recruiter and saved myself some grief in the process.

2) I would have paid closer attention to what the tech’s were up to.

There was always some division of responsibilities between the Intelligence Officers and our specialist tech support / resources. We relied on them greatly and I think I took for granted their skills and expertise. I wish I had learned more from them because I don’t think IO’s of the future or private security professionals can be as siloed or ignorant to the tech / cyber side of investigations anymore.

3) I would have developed and cultivated my professional network.

Following up my thought about leveraging my personal network, I would have developed a better professional network. I was not able to share where I worked with many – but I did work openly at times with the RCMP, local police, OPP, even FBI, CIA, Mossad, and other government agencies. I wish I had stayed in better contact with them (mostly the domestic guys obviously) and stayed in touch post Government careers. Success in the security industry often boils down to leveraging your experience and network. I had very unique experiences and access to a very exclusive network. It would have been extremely valuable to build and maintain it.

Please get in touch through out website or email info@kirschgroup.ca if you have any questions you’d like us to answer

I get asked a lot of questions about my career as a spy, specific questions on national security issues, and other security related questions that may not warrant a full security advice tip sheet. I thought why not keep a record for others that might be interested? Please feel free to submit a question through the website or at info@kirschgroup.ca and I will do my best to answer. From all of us at Kirsch Group, we are here to help. Stay Safe!

I often get approached by young people who are interested in a career in law enforcement, intelligence, or national security but don't quite now what role, or organization they should be looking at. I generally have two pieces of advice:

Think about how you want to spend your day? Are you an analyst that wants to be doing research, processing information into intelligence, and report writing or do you want to be a field investigator or collector talking to people and gathering the information. Both roles have their pluses and minuses and may appeal to different people.
What are you interested in, in your spare time? If you find yourself reading or researching a particular area like terrorism, foreign affairs, money laundering, criminal gangs etc. you should try to make sure that the organization you are joining is mandated to work in those areas.

You can watch this video for more:

Youtube video

Like and subscribe to my Youtube Channel for more videos and please send any questions you’d like me to answer to info@kirschgroup.ca

The most frequent question I get asked by applicants to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is why is my application taking so long? It's small consolation for those stuck in the process but I can tell you, you're not alone. My application took about a year and a half and I think that's pretty standard these days.

In this video I try to explain one of the reasons why and tell a story about my own recruitment process that didn't make the book.

Like and subscribe to my Youtube Channel for more videos and please send any questions you'd like me to answer to info@kirschgroup.ca

Youtube video

If you want to be a successful applicant with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) you need to know about the CSIS Act. You'll be quizzed on it during recruitment, expected to know it in training and you'll be reciting sections from it your entire career when you knock on doors asking the public for help.

There are no very few surprises in the recruitment process. The first question I got in my first interview was "What are the four threats that CSIS is mandated to investigate. This is ACT 101 - Those threats are Section 2 a, b, c and d. I drew a complete blank.

Getting into CSIS is hard so you better get the basics right and know the Act

You can find CSIS job descriptions here

Youtube Video

Yes. Sure. Why not? That's the short answer. I promise future posts will have longer answers.

Yes. Because it takes a long time to get in time

But here's the thing - if you’re asking me this question then clearly you’ve thought about it and have an interest in working for Canada’s domestic intelligence service. One of the toughest part of applying to CSIS is how long the process can take. That’s also something of an advantage. They aren’t going to call you the week after you submit your application and ask you to start the following Monday. It’s a big decision and you’ll have lots of time, and recruitment stages, before you’ll be asked to decide. Plus, you’ll have a few different touch points - interviews, assessment panels etc. The more you go through, it will give you a better idea if you want to join the organization or not.

To learn more about CSIS careers and the process, go to the jobs page - https://www.canada.ca/en/security-intelligence-service/corporate/csis-jobs.html

See if there is a position that looks interesting, make sure you satisfy the requirements, and Good luck!

If you want to know more about the recruitment process at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) you can read my memoir I Was Never Here

If you have any more questions please don't hesitate to Get in Touch

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People who are interested in a career in National Security are generally so interested in how to get into CSIS they rarely ask me why I left. But I do think it's important. It's a demanding job and requires a great deal of sacrifice. Things like lying to everyone you know, having to move and having little control over the desks and operations you work on can be frustrating. I often say that the job didn't change, I did. After 10 years I wanted more control of my professional life that the organization could give me. They were up front about that - it was my willingness to go along that evolved. I am proud of the work I did and I would do it all again. But it was also the right thing for me to leave when I did.

For more of my thoughts you can see this clip on Youtube – why did you leave

If you want to know more about the end of my career at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) you can read my memoir I Was Never Here

If you have any more questions please don't hesitate to Get in Touch

Subscribe to stay up to day on news, blog posts and other security commentary.

Here's a hint. If someone can tell you are a spy, you're probably doing it wrong. Spies have to dress for their day. You want to be professional and represent the government but you also don't want to draw any unnecessary attention to yourself (or the person you may be meeting with). It's important to blend in to your surroundings and company. Click here to watch Andrew Kirsch answer this question on the Kirsch Group Youtube Channel.