How does the CIA compare to a regular workplace?

How does the CIA compare to a regular workplace?

Lindsay Moran (Former CIA Spy) gives expert video advice on: Do the departments inside the CIA hire certain types of people?; What type of person will the National Clandestine Service hire?; What type of person will the Directorate of Intelligence hire? and more...

Before I joined the CIA I was a teacher, so that's a very different environment than what the agency is like. And I think that I went to the agency, expecting it to be like a university, where there would be a lot of intellectual curiosity and debate and questioning. And instead what I found and what I think is a more realistic picture of the CIA, is it's like a big cooperation. It's an office, there are office politics, there is a lot of planning and to-do about office parties. I mean, you would think that at the Central Intelligence Agency, one of our most important government entities, that people wouldn't be involved with that, but while I was there, I saw a lot more debate about what we were going to do for the annual Christmas party and which department was going to outdo the other department, much moreso than what we were going to do in finding Osama Bin Laden. So I think this is one of the most surprising things about the agency to a lot of people, that people are not always discussing really important issues, people are not always fighting terrorism. In many ways it is just a big company.