INSPECTOR GENERAL'S SURVEY OF THE CAREER TRAINNG PROGRAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01826R001100080004-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2000
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: May 11, 1967
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2J1106109 : Cl
26R00110008 004-2
11 May 1967
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Personnel
THROUGH Deputy Director of Personnel
SUBJECT Inspector General's Survey of the
Career Training Program
1. I should like to offer the following comments by
way of constructive criticism of the subject report insofar
as it relates to or makes pertinent recommendations involving
the Recruitment function of the Office of Personnel.
2. At page 19 the report states:
"We heard criticisms in Headquarters that many
field recruiters lack Agency experience other than
recruiting. As a result they are unable to discuss
with authority the working of the Agency with appli-
cants. Also, this line of criticism continues,
recruiters become frustrated because they do not
understand the time involved in processing applicant
files in Headquarters."
The officers who make these criticisms normally can
"discuss with authority" only the "workings" of that part of
the Agency with which they themselves are associated. By
the very nature of his job, the professional recruiter knows
as much about the workings of the Agency as any single group
within the Agency with the possible exceptions of the OIG,
PPB, and the position classification analysts of OP. As
against in-depth understanding of the workings of the Agency,
the recruiters must have a reasonably good understanding of
some 400 categories of professional personnel for which they
are recruiting. Insofar as recruiters becoming "frustrated
because they do not understand the time involved in processing
applicant files in Headquarters," they understand this
problem better than anybody because they are the ones who
really have to live with it and, being competitive, continue
to press for improvement in this area. Their frustration and
criticism have been totally valid and the Skills Bank system
was specifically designed to alleviate the major problem
Approved For Release 2001/06/09 : CI~Rvfr 26RO01100080004-2
GROUP 1
Excluded from i aatematic
down,ora iin3 and
declassificalina
 Approved For ReleaseZp01/06/09: CIA- 99&T6RO011OOQA0004-2
that obtained in this area, specifically, applicant files
staying out with components for month on end. This situation
has been radically changed since the Skills Bank was
installed in November 1966.
3. At page 19, the report states:
"It is true that most recruiters have limited
Agency experience. Several of them entered on duty
in 1951 and have been assigned only to recruiting
since then. But we are not convinced that this
seriously detracts from their effectiveness as
recruiters. It might be useful for the recruiters
to have a broader knowledge of the Agency, but we
do not consider it essential to the success of their
efforts."
It is not now true that "most recruiters have limited
Agency experience," although it is true that "several of them
entered on duty in 1951 and have been assigned only to
recruiting since then." We are likewise not convinced,
however, that limited Agency experience "seriously detracts
from their effectiveness as recruiters." Some of our very
best recruiters have never spent a working day in Headquarters.
It is the recruiter himself that makes a good recruiter, not
the Agency experience--although, given our choice, we would
take the man with Agency experience provided he is also a
good recruiter and we have persistently worked toward this
end. When we started the 1962-1963 academic recruiting season,
we had 10 field recruiters working out of what we now call
Regional offices. Of the 10, 4 had had a total of 27 years
Agency experience. in g 4 years overseas and two years
25X1A at As we enter the 1967-1968 academic
recruiting season with 18 regional recruiters, we do have
9 field recruiters with no previous Agency experience but
9 whose Agency experience aggregates 88 years, including
12 years overseas experience (although two 1962 recruiters
with 18 years Agency experience and 4 years overseas service
are no longer in recruitment). On this note, the next
recruiter-designate who will commence training in September
has 20 years of Agency experience, of which 6 has been spent
overseas; and, by way of advance planning, still another
recruiter-designate, age 46, has over 16 years Headquarters
experience. On balance, therefore, we always search the
Agency firstlresorting only to outside sources, as we did
last year, when it was impossible to find competent Agency
officers who would take our openings 25X1A
Approved For Release 2001/06/09 : CIA- TRE2fR001100080004-2
GROUP I
Excluded from x:t:matic
dow grz:'in and
dash ...,,vs;ian
 Approved For Release001/06/09: CIA- P8Q-01-8826R0011OQp80004-2
4. We are in sympathy with the report's recommendation
that "there is a need to keep recruiters up-to-date on
personnel procedures and the mechanics of paper handling, so
that they will be aware of the time element and other factors
affected applicant processing." (P. 19). The report goes on
to say,. at page 20:
"There have been occasional training courses
attended by recruiters, and in 1963 there was an
effort to expose recruiters to Headquarters
training. . . . Several weeks of work experience,
similar to the program initiated by the Office of
Personnel in the summer of 1966 when three field
recruiters were brought to Headquarters to observe
personnel operations, will provide the necessary
updating on administrative procedures."
recruiter, until such time as a third officer-- 25X1A
a former recruiter, being the second officer--can be
permanently assigned to ASB. It is this very experience
which can best acquaint a recruiter with what the report
terms the "factors affecting applicant processing." At the
same time, it is the best possible experience for the
recruiter who has never had a Headquarters assignment; by and
large, the severest recruiter critics of Headquarters
administration are the recruiters who have been with us the
longest, circa 1951, and have never been exposed to
Headquarters pressures.
short-handed under the new Chief, a former 25X1A
on 26 May and this branch will be working
losing the Chief, Applicant Selection Branch (Skills Bank),
On this specific point, let me say we will have
5 recruiters serving two-week tours in the Skills Bank this
summer, starting with during the
period 29 May-9 June. This serves a double purpose. We are
5. On the general theme of formal OTR training for
recruiters, we favor the report recommendations enthusiastically.
The most difficult problem in this regard, however, is that
we cannot spare field recruiters for Headquarters training in
other than the summer months when the training menu is
measurably lighter. When the report speaks of "several weeks
work experience," it must be borne in mind that this would
mean time that the recruiters would be away from their families
on top of the periods of absence already necessitated by
recruiting schedules which now leave certain recruiters with
all too little time at home with their wives and children.
It is during the summer months that the recruiters try to make
Approved For Release 2001/06/09: CIA- Mf > 6R001100080004-2
Excluded from a tcmatlc
downgra;iing and
decfa;rt;i^~~Ign
 Approved For Releaser,2001/06/09: CIS- R T 1 L 1 826RO011"9W80004-2
up this time, as it were, to their families. Even so, the
points are well taken and we do manage to bring the recruiters
into Washington for annual and semi-annual conferences, short
work-situation tours, and formal OTR training to the extent
that we feel we can in view of the family problems imposed.
We have two new recruiters enrolled in the three-week
Intelligence Techniques (for CTs) course starting on 24 July.
We consider this a particularly pertinent course for a new
recruiter coming to have an understanding of the DDI analyst
function. We agree that the report's recommendation of the
Intelligence Review course is an excellent one and that this
particular course would be extremely meaningful to both new
and old recruiters; accordingly, we will try to work all of
our recruiters through this course over a period of the next
two or three years; the real problem in this regard obtains
in the fact that this year the course is offered 1-12 May but
at no time during June or July. Incidentally, 3 of our
recruiters have asked to be enrolled in the non-resident
course in intelligence offered by the Defense Intelligence
School. This course is offered through OTR and requires 15
to 25 months to complete. A course we especially would favor
for our recruiters is the four-week Operations Familiarization;
since it is not offered in June or July, here again we will
try to insert recruiters into the May offering from year to
year.
6. As to recommendation number 3.b ("Consider recruiters
for selection to the Mid-Career Executive Development Program."),
a six-week course is almost out of the question, particularly
so when it is only offered as in the current year, for
example, 23 Jan-3 Mar and 10 Apr-19 May. Moreover, the Office
of Personnel has a limited quota and a long line of Personnel
Generalist* potentials for this training including the Deputy
Chief, Recruitment Division, currently on the waiting list.
Alternatively, we aim for other types of so-called executive
development training, specifically, the Executive Development
Program course conducted by the U. S. Civil Service Commission
at Kings Point, New York, and Berkeley, California. This year
we asked for one space at Kings Point and two at Berkeley.
7. The report recommends (number 4) that:
"The Deputy Director for Support instruct the
Director of Personnel and the Director of Training
to prepare and maintain an up-to-date description
of the Agency and the CT Program for use by
recruiters."
GROUP 1
Excluded from sntamatic
`E4R~[iR and
Approved For Release 2001/06/09: CIA- lr~ 001100080004-2 ~_,rf~a~lhn
 Approved For Release.$,a01/06/09: CIA-RDE80-01826RO0110OW004-2
CRET
We had several Go's at such a statement but found
that the recruiters themselves would not buy a stereotyped
description of the Agency or the CT Program that they them-
selves would voice to an applicant, every applicant being
different and the pressure of time frequently dictating the
depth to which these descriptions could go. What most
recruiters do, however, is attempt to have the applicant read
the brochure and the Raborn interview with U. S. News and
World Report--perhaps the best open description of the Agency
that we have. If the CT Program will prepare a short
description of the program, we will insist upon the recruiters
having it read by every candidate they consider to be of CTP
caliber. By the same token, if the Assistant to the Director
(Mr. Joseph Goodwin) would prepare a statement which would do
impartial justice to the description of the Agency, we would
be happy to insist upon the recruiters having every candidate
read the statement prior to the commencement of an interview.
8. As to the recommendation (number 5) that:
"The, Deputy Director for Support instruct the
Director of Personnel and the Director of Training to:
a. Review the role of the university
consultants to determine if the program is
worth maintaining.
b. Clarify objectives, cull out marginal
consultants and appoint new consultants after
adequate indoctrination if the program is to
be continued."
As to 5.a, we consider the role of the University
Associates to be more that of a "sounding board" for the
Director and other senior Agency officials, including the
Directors of Personnel and Training, rather than a tool of
Recruitment per se. In effect, it is a viable public relations
mechanism that gives us a certain amount of entre to the
academic scene that we would otherwise not have. As to 5.b,
we are, at the Director's request, appointing new consultants
and bringing a much wider geographic representation into the
program. As to culling out marginal consultants, this is
easier said than done in the world of public and human
relations. We miss no opportunities afforded us by attrition
in this regard, but we would find it very distasteful to drop
any of the present members whose participation we consider
marginal. In 1966, when the Associates asked the present
Director how he viewed their role, he stated simply as that
2
6RO01100080004-2
Approved For Release 2001/06/09 : CImpff
00r:r;;rd:1lig and
1+acia3si"icaIlan
 Approved For Releasry?001/06/09 : CIA- 8y'6R00110M$0004-2
of "not being afraid to stand up and be counted" in any
student or faculty confrontations in which the Agency's
reason for existence is being questioned.
9. We welcome the recommendation (number 6) that:
"The Deputy Director for Support instruct the
Director of Personnel to obtain from the Director
of Training the CT class profile data and to make
this available to the field recruiters."
10. As to the statement at page 23 to the effect that
"recruiters from private enterprise . . . and the director
of placement at a major U. S. university stated that
recruiters would do better by concentrating on fewer campuses,"
ours is a federal agency and we are challenged from time to
time by congressmen and senators because we do not visit every
campus in their state; accordingly, since we can't visit every
campus in every state, we visit those we have found to be most
productive over the years, for the Agency's purposes, while
never closing the door to any candidate from a college we do
not regularly visit.
As to developing "contacts with department heads and
senior professors," we have found that they have little
influence on, and take little interest in, the career choices
of college seniors. At the graduate level, it is a different
story, and we are continually endeavoring to build up our
relationships with the graduate schools.
Wherein, at page 23, the report refers to CTP
"objections to recruiters spending too much time on under-
graduate campuses," because "this has the drawback of
attracting young men who lack military training and/or are
not desirable for the CT Program," we can only say that our
recruiters are all-purpose recruiters and that we have many
Agency requirements for RID, OCR, ORR, OCS, NPIC, et al, at
the undergraduate level, and the components are hiring these
graduates regardless of their draft status.
11. We take immediate exception to the recommendation
(number 7) that:
"The Deputy Director for Support instruct the
Director of Personnel to caution recruiters against
discussing promotion policies for CTs except for the
first promotion, which comes seven months after the
beginning of formal training."
GROUP t
Excluded fro;1 rmtmmtlc
Approved For Release 2001/06/09: CIA- 68001100080004-2 do n rj,T. and
or.UrNEE
 Approved For Release 2001/06/09 : CIA-RDP80-01826RO01100080004-2
SECRET
To be competitive in the field, the recruiter must
be given all the ammunition possible. For example, wherein
it is known that the Director of Security's policy is to
promote new investigators from GS-08 to GS-09 in, normally,
six months, the recruiter must know this in bidding against
FBI, for example, which would be offering the same man a
GS-10. By the same token, if the second promotion of a
Career Trainee is a built-in, normal, or automatic ten month
proposition, it helps the recruiter to know this. Beyond
promotions which fall outside the more or less automatic
format, no recruiter would put these on any basis other than
merit. Wherein a component or a program of the Agency,
however, follows a somewhat standardized system of promotion
in the early-career stages, the recruiter must have this
information in his arsenal of persuasive arguments to come
anywhere near meeting the competition we are facing today.
It would be recruitment suicide, in effect, for a recruiter
to tell a CT candidate starting at GS-07 that he would be
promoted to GS-08 in approximately seven months and tell him
nothing more when there is clearly more to tell him by way of
persuasion. It is not enough to tell a CT candidate that his
second promotion is a matter for discussion with the CT
Program officers; more often than not, the candidate would
withdraw his interest at the outset.
12. As to recommendation number 8, I find the note
that you have already forwarded your recommendation for
raising the starting salaries of CTs "to meet competition
from industry and other government agencies." Numbers 9 and
10 fall outside the borders of external recruitment.
13. Recommendations number 11 and 12 confuse the whole
function of the Recruitment Division as it relates to the
Skills Bank and the CT Program. Files cannot go directly
from the Recruitment Division to the CT Program for the reason
that the Skills Bank (Applicant Selection Branch) and not the
Recruitment Division exercises the judgment as to whether or
not the recruiter has recommended a given candidate for CTP.
In any case the time from RD to CTP with the necessary make-up
of an applicant file by the Applicant File Section and
acknowledgment of the forms by the Correspondence Section is
taking well under the fourteen days needed by the Assessment
and Evaluation Staff to score the FCDP test results. A major
reason for having the files come through the Skills Bank is
for listing, for the information of all components, of the
names and qualifications of candidates being committed to the
Career Training Program. As matters stand, many CTP files
are making the courier runs from Ames to Langley to Glebe in
three to five days.
Excluded from zlama
da,+:a^r.? ilna and
Approved For Release 2001/06/09: QJ,r- ff0f01826RO01100080004-2 '_ dP- -1-71 ,
 Approved For Release01/06/09: CIA-OI g26R001100NO004-2
14. As to recommendation number 14, I defer to the
cover experts because it is difficult for me to believe that
we have any real security problems before an employee goes
overseas and, at that point, we seem to have adequate
methodology for converting an employee to official, nominal,
or commercial cover if the techniques are properly applied
Deputy Director o Personnel
for
Recruitment and Placement
GROUP 1 1
Excluded from aatom:tic
Approved For Release 2001/06/09 : C T1826R001100080004-2 dewngrding and
decla~slilcafion
 App
App
oved Fort Asa Z86rV0 ? WIR~P On
o
iu%LASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL
SECRET
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
OFFICIAL ROUTING SLIP
TO
NAME AND ADDRESS
DATE
INITIA
Deputy Director of 1 5
Personnel
MAY 1967
2
3
Director of Personnell:~Ll
4
5
6
ACTION
DIRECT REPLY
PREPARE
REPLY
APPROVAL
DISPATCH
RECOMMENDATION
COMMENT
FILE
RETURN
CONCURRENCE
INFORMATION
SIGNATURE
Remarks : ! /:
5004 f- &te- A L. P Z.A'p Y 0 V lt:. Q- 7 h k IE ' B' V ,E v *^e T- S
/AND P,&mF. hP Q^,PfiALPP Sr#C
RE TO RETURN TO SENDER
DDRESS AND PHONE NO. DATE
R-
01 QQQRQQ!4
UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL
Use previous editions
F 2 610 237