To practice, work on getting phone numbers from strangers in public. Chat up people you don’t know and work your way into their graces. Practice your witty one-offs, pithy comebacks, and all-around good-natured charm.
Learn about both high and low culture. If you’ve got to embed with French dignitaries who are operating illegal smuggling operations, you’ve got to be able to talk French wine and opera with the best of them. You also might be expected to sneak into an oil derrick and be comfortable next to hard-drinking roughnecks, which means you better know at least one George Jones song off the top of your head.
Watch body language. Liars tend to fold up, keeping their limbs in and their body away from others, symbolizing discomfort. People telling the truth will “spread out” more. Liars will avoid contractions, re-start sentences, and often repeat the question verbatim as a way of stalling and coming up with a suitable answer. To avoid the need for this, practice your excuse and your lie ahead of time so you won’t have to stall and give yourself away. Relax when you’re telling a lie. If you know you’re going to have to tell a fib, calm down. Most lie detection occurs because someone gets agitated and anxious. If you’re relaxed, your lie will seem more like truth.
Focus on cardio more than strength-building exercises. Most secret agents don’t look like Schwarzenegger, but might need to run like an Olympic sprinter to get away from guard dogs, security guards, or other lackeys. The secret weapon of the secret agent might just be yoga. The ability to control your body, to twist and turn through narrow corridors and be all-around physically fit? Secret agent yoga fits the bill.
To fight properly jump on the balls of your feet and have a hand guarding your solar plexus (chest) and one on front of you ready to punch. When someone comes at you either dodge or block. If you are a beginner, try to dodge and block while moving so if you can’t do one you will hopefully stop the kick/punch thanks to the other (or both). If you want to know in full detail how to fight, try out Taekwondo, Aikido, Judo or Karate. Hit with your second knuckle, not your third. You ideally want to strike with the point of your first two knuckles, driving them into the middle of your opponent’s face (the nose and eyes) or solar plexus. Punch straight and punch hard.
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You can practice this at home by watching a DVD on mute with the subtitles on to get used to the mouth shapes. Then turn the subtitles off and see if you can interpret what the characters are saying. Go to coffee shops and other public places and practice your eavesdropping skills.
Field agents have degrees in all sorts of fields, but language skills, international and policy law, and business administration are all sought-out in particular. You need to study something that will have you involved with global politics. Military experience is also valuable. In the US, you might try to get an internship with the CIA as a student. Competitive intern programs are available for students studying foreign policy or law enforcement, and the agency tends to hire from this pool of applicants in the long run. If you hope to embed as an undercover agent in the future, this can be an excellent stepping stone.
To fill out the application, you’ll need to create an account, then search for job openings within the agency. Questions about your background, your education, and your familiarity with foreign policy will be included on the application. You’ll also typically need to agree to a background check and go in for a polygraph examination before moving forward with the process. [3] X Research source
To give yourself the best possibility of being accepted, stay out of trouble. A polygraph test will be administered to check the accuracy of your claims, and a drug screen will also probably be a part of any application, so you’ll also need to stay away from illegal substances and be sober. Any psychological issues, legal issues, or interpersonal quirks can keep you from getting the job. It’s a tough gig. We’re talking about the CIA, here, so it’s likely that they’ll be able to do some deep research. If you called in a bomb threat when you were a senior in high school as a prank, but never got caught, expect something from your past to be brought up in the meeting. No slip-ups.
try to keep a minimum amount of possessions and live a relatively spartan existence. Don’t keep anything around that you’re not willing to walk out on in a minute flat, if trouble comes calling. Excess connections and responsibilities can be a liability. Make your job your life. You’re a secret agent, after all! Being a spy can make interpersonal and romantic relationships very difficult. It’s likely that you won’t even be able to tell your friends and family about what you do for a living. Will they be ok with this? Will you?
If you don’t work for the government, it might be a good idea to start working as a private investigator to build up a reputation as a reliable sneaker and spying agent. This resume can make you attractive to corporations who might want to learn the secrets of their competition. Corporate espionage, while not strictly speaking illegal, can get you into a lot of trouble if you sign a non-disclosure agreement. Likely, you’ll need to work as a double-agent, working for two different companies at once and reporting back to the other about what’s going on.
Study the contemporary landscape as well as the deep history. Learn about the people and the culture, trying to get a sense of the zeitgeist of the people who live there. What makes them tick? How are they different than you? Learn the geography as well. If you’re in Iraq and you need to know how long it takes to get from Baghdad to Kuwait and back before nightfall, you don’t want to be messing around on an iPhone trying to figure it out.
Treat it like an actor would. Your life may depend on it. Any details that you include about yourself that might be borrowed from your own life could lead potential enemies into digging a little deeper into your history and finding out the truth. For most jobs, you’ll need to find someone to vouch for you and help you get familiar with the local customs, who may or may not know your status as a secret agent. If they do, it’s also a good idea to do as much as possible to make your own contacts and work your way into the local landscape.
Learn everything you can about their habits, their likes, and their dislikes. If you find out the general who’s dealing dope on the side has a taste for high-end single-malt Scotch, all it might take to get an invitation to dinner is a bottle of Laphroaig. If you’re working on tailing a target, keep your distance and plan a good escape if things go awry. Getting caught while following a target on a grocery-run isn’t doing anyone any good.
Take your time before you start getting into your shadowy doings. For most jobs, you’ll be expected not to do anything daring or fancy anyway. You’ll mostly just be hanging out and “keeping an eye on things. " Don’t rush into things and make a mess of the situation. Hang back and treat learning to blend in as your primary goal.
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Use your gut instincts and work hard to hone your intuition while you’re in the field. In your entire career, it’s likely that you’ll never catch someone on a wiretap saying, “We’re going to bring in the cocaine tomorrow at noon. " Criminals aren’t stupid, and you’ve got to learn to look for patterns in behavior and “read” the people you’re trailing to learn what it is you want to know.
