Fun times with government agencies

First there's this pretty good commercial for FBI intel positions and then there's a nifty kids page at the NSA! (no really, go see)

I suppose I should justify why I'm on these pages...I'll be looking for a job in about a year and I've always had a passing interest in security. When 9/11 hit I really, really wanted to join an agency and I guess part of me still does. On the other hand, a doctorate in Chemical Engineering is probably a bit over-speciallized for standard Special Agent assignments. I still think it might be cool to work in counter-terrorism. Especially counter-bioterrorism. I should mention today's curiosity was prompted by this post about the future of genetic engineering. Now as a genetic engineer, I found the post and comments are occasionally thoughtful and generally naive. The truth is genetic engineering will never be cheap and easy by teenage standards. It will however be cheap and easy by coorporate standards, government standards, and yes terrorist standards. I think we'll always be talking a few hundred thousand dollars for the infrastucture and reagents to do anything worthwhile or dangerous. Just the same, I hope people in the above agencies are looking into ways to monitor it. (And for ME to advocate government tracking means I think the bioweapons threats are the real deal) Maybe I'll feel more like writing about this someday.

But back to the subject at hand...I'm glad to see the FBI is looking for the people it needs. As for the NSA, try the games and puzzles. They're looking for some damn smart kids.