On Monday, November 18th, 2024, the FBI Association of Intelligence Analysts (AIA) was represented by members Nikki Rutman, Sarah Saenz, and Sierra Stanczyk at the inaugural I3 Summit in Tysons, VA - a first of its kind conference aimed to bring intelligence professionals together under the I3 banner–Intelligence. Innovation. Imagination.–to talk about the future of the profession. The AIA presented alongside a stellar lineup of intelligence professionals from government and industry and was able to network and connect with a diverse group of attendees to extend the network and message of the AIA. Below are high level points from our presentation at I3, and we will follow up this blog with takeaways from the day and the other presentations and discussions.
Nikki, Sarah, and Sierra presented “Intelligence: Now & The Future - What are the possibilities?” which provided a high level view into the early stages of our study into where intelligence professionals have gone after government service, and what inspiration we can draw from their journeys for the future of the intelligence profession. You can help us continue these efforts by completing this brief survey here. We will share more of these insights in 2025 as we continue this study and connect with intelligence professionals from all walks of government service and industry experience.
From our initial analysis, we presented the following key insights:
Intelligence professionals are inherently resilient, flexible, adaptable, and mission driven. We view this as being unicorns in industry, where we’re comfortable navigating and leading in the unknown and providing unique insights from a range of business processes, priorities, and stakeholder teams. We know from our own experiences as FBI Intelligence Analysts that from day one on the job we needed to remain flexible and able to fulfill our responsibilities for a range of programs and subject matter, even if we did not have any experience in them.
Based on input from our initial batch of respondents, the majority of intelligence professionals went to financial services and cybersecurity organizations after their government service. There were others who also went to technology, corporate security, consulting, government contracting, and energy sector organizations. Regardless of where they went, however, these intelligence professionals focused on using and building out their intelligence tradecraft “toolbox,” as well as their networks. Further, 45% of respondents said that the skills they learned in government were critical to their new roles in the private sector.
On the job, these professionals had to translate their skill sets from intelligence work in the government while also learning entirely new skill sets and the business acumen of their new employer and industry. They were able to pick up and transform their “toolbox,” lean on their intelligence network, and evolve the intelligence analysis role for what their new employer needed.
Intelligence professionals have used their resilience to power their reinvention, over and over again. They have specialized in finding information, pulling signal from the noise, and applying foresight in uncharted waters. We met many intelligence professionals who were trailblazers for the profession in their industries, giving all of us inspiration and branches to consider as we advance our careers.
Finally, we found areas where we see interest as well as room for growth and advancement by more intelligence professionals entering key fields, such as a return to government service, public office, public affairs and policy, entrepreneurship, intergovernmental organizations, non-profit service, communications and public relations, and journalism. We encourage the application of structured analytic techniques (SATs) and diverse discussions about what could be possible for intelligence professionals in terms of charting out future careers–as well as where they are needed. We look forward to continuing this study, and please connect with us if you would like to get involved.
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