CIA campaign uses Facebook

Students often join Facebook groups started by their best friends or roommates, but now a national government agency is behind one.\nStudents interested in employment with the Central Intelligence Agency can join a popular Facebook group to share their interests with peers. "CIA Careers - National Clandestine Service" is an employment campaign that started in December and plans to end in late February, said Michelle Neff, a CIA spokeswoman. The group has more than 3,000 members.\nNeff said the group is not intended to be a recruiting tool, although the group's description urges students to "join the CIA's National Clandestine Service and be on the front line of American intelligence."\n"Recruitment would not be the right word to use," Neff said. "It's more like a peer-to-peer marketing tool." \nNeff said the group is strictly "information only," and the CIA does not collect names or people's files directly from the group.\nThe Facebook group is part of a campaign for one of the directorates, National Clandestine Service, Neff said. Some other directorates are Science, Engineering and Technical, Language Opportunities, Analytical Opportunities and Support Services, according to the CIA Web site.\nGroup member Jason Williams, a sophomore, said the Web site goes into more detail about employment with the CIA than the Facebook group. \n"Last summer I came to a seminar where the CIA discussed some careers hosted at the Career Center here at IU," Williams said. "Their main goal for the night was to get anyone who was serious about the CIA to go to their Web site."\nTheir plan worked, because in 2006, the CIA Web site received around 134,000 resumes. That's more than double the resumes received in 2001, Neff said.\nBeau Badeaux, a freshman, said he had a genuine interest in the organization and didn't just join the group for fun.\n"I thought it was going to be a joke, but the group has all the key markers of a genuine sponsored Facebook group." Badeaux said. "I joined because I would be interested in learning more about a career at the CIA."\nFreshman Derek Finley said he was invited anonymously but hasn't been recruited. \n"I joined because I think working for the CIA would be exciting and because the CIA is simply cool," Finley said. "I'm not really serious about the group at all. I am in it just for fun."\nThe Web site goes into detail about application requirements. Group members or anyone interested in employment can check out the CIA Web site at https://www.cia.gov/careers.