Laura Thomas is a former CIA operations officer. Read how she transitioned from her CIA ops to a quantum technology company in 2021 for insightful career transition advice for those leaving her agency. Most of her lessons apply to all government employees entering the private sector.
Below is the first part of her three-part series.
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At least a few times a month, I get asked about my career change by someone considering a career change. Therefore, I have summarized the answers below. Let me say up front that some of what I’ve written is controversial and all of it is biased. It’s getting long, so I’ve divided it into a three-part series.
Is it really a big leap into the private sector? It wasn’t a big jump. In a government agency, 85% of my time is spent making decisions with little data or data overload, managing bureaucracy and stock, debating resources and operational authorizations, and working with the lowest-level employees. spent on responding to staff members. Only 15% of my time was spent doing more exciting operations. But his 15% and the friendship of some of my colleagues made this job so meaningful.
The same goes for the industry. Human nature is human nature, and I deal with many of the same challenges and pull many of the same satisfaction levers. The difference is that my decision now is not life or death.
Another big difference is that I now have a higher level of autonomy. Of course, making decisions on the fly during production is an extreme example of autonomy, but there is always some backend overhead. Depending on your company culture, this can significantly speed up decision-making and reduce overhead. As an example, I can make recommendations directly to Congress without oversight or internal reporting requirements, and with the trust of the CEO and board of directors.
Do you remember it? yes. There’s nothing like the rush of bumping into a target you’ve agreed to meet or landing in a foreign country for the first time. I no longer know the stories behind the headlines and I’m not the one to make those stories come true. Aside from my closest friends, I am now treated as an “outsider” by my former colleagues.
Fortunately, I still work every day with smart people solving difficult problems. And what I’m doing still has meaning. Raise tens of millions of dollars from investors to advance technology faster than the Chinese Communist Party could with the same skill set. Learning how M&A deals are structured gives me the same thrill as learning for the first time how surveillance detection routes work. It’s the excitement of being a newbie again, yet deeply experienced, that blunts the dips and strengthens the climbs you’ll face post-agent.
Today, I’ve been able to advance our national security mission further and faster in emerging technologies in ways we couldn’t in government. Although there is some self-justification in these statements, there is non-linearity in the industry. You can move at exponential speeds.
How do you transfer your old skills to your current role? Driving decisions, organizational change, and operations in deep tech companies has many of the same challenges and opportunities as when I was in government. My day-to-day job involves leading, managing, and making decisions for people through uncertainty and high levels of change. My current role as Chief of Staff is similar in many ways to her DCOS (Deputy Chief of Staff) or traditional Chief of Staff in government. I work behind the scenes and sometimes in front of the company to shape, execute, measure, and refine the company’s vision and strategy. (Instead of handing out lots of cash in my previous job, I now solicit money from investors.)
The relationship dynamics are the same, except for the strain of extreme secrecy. All the things that few in the outside world understand to be important to handler-asset relationships are equally important to industry relationships. Judgment remains paramount.
At the agency, I dealt with several difficult characters who were more focused on empire building and metrics than sound management. The industry will probably continue to deal with this issue, but with far less hierarchy and deep-rooted interest to deal with. Knowing how to deal with different stakeholders and interests, avoid landmines, and bring people together are skills that are very useful in the industry. If you’re a “doer” who knows how to communicate, work, and get buy-in across a geographically dispersed enterprise and with adversarial (or downright adversarial) external third parties; This results in something like this: Very useful in industry. Talk about it when you’re looking for a job or during an interview.
Did you make any mistakes on your resume? In most cases, your resume is do not have What will get you the job and submitting your resume to a recruiter or resume bank is not the right thing to do. Your resume is almost certainly written in government language, and it’s probably worse than you think. It will probably tell you about all the jobs you’ve held (to the extent you can share) and the dates and maybe the general location, but nothing about what you actually accomplished or how you accomplished it. Is not … in particular Related to industry. You probably won’t be able to beat the AI filter.
If you have a resume that says you worked in country X and wrote reports to policymakers or the “president,” you might get an award. curiosity Even if you interview, you will not be hired. If you can’t translate how your skills can provide commercial value, you won’t get hired.
First, think about what industry you want to work in, narrow down your industry, and work at a few companies at a senior level (board member, advisory board member, C-suite member (CEO, CTO, CFO, etc.), and/or Investors) Building your list and building your network requires a lot of networking. Meet them and find out how to captivate them with the story of what you’ve done and how your skills can convey it to the industry and bring value to their company .
An early learning point for me happened when I was talking about the job with a future VC. He flatly told me that he didn’t understand my value to the company. he asked directly. “How much benefit have you brought to the U.S. government in your career so far? What specifically did you do to get that result? And how can you bring the same benefit to me?” mosquito?”
I get questions like this.
My suggestion is to say something like: “It’s exponentially harder to get hired by a government agency than it is to get into Harvard. And I’m not just hired based on an evaluation of my judgment and ability to act in ambiguous situations. ,I after that They are trained to do just that. after that I did that for years.
I was tasked with creating and executing some of the most secretive and most important missions conducted by the U.S. government, often with little direction. Not only did it have to be planned and executed, but it had to be done in secret, with lives at stake. It’s hard to put a price tag on it.
Tell us your toughest problem and we’ll come up with a solution in record time and Get buy-in from people who rarely get buy-in and position yourself to take multiple shots on goal for future opportunities. Because I will connect your company with the field. What I have done for our country, I can do for you. It’s about assessing opportunities, mitigating risks, and responding quickly. and A wise decision to approach an issue differently than a typical insider. I will turn my salary into millions of dollars in revenue or investment within two years, not alone, but in a collaborative way that leverages many parts of the company. We row in unison and row in the right direction. ”
How did you get your current job? I networked tirelessly and ran a fully targeted campaign to reach CEOs at multiple companies. I didn’t have a resume when I was looking for a job. I had to find seniors who had left the agency to vouch for me.
At my current company, Infleqtion, I was introduced to a former senior intelligence community official who previously served on the board alongside the CEO. When we met, I asked his CEO what his challenges were and outlined how I could help. Five months later, the CEO called me and said he might have a job for me, and invited me to go and talk to other people in the company to get my opinion. I received an offer shortly after that.
Meanwhile, three years before I left my agency, I was ruthlessly lobbying someone on LinkedIn who I suspected was the hiring manager for a job ad at a company I liked. The person said they wanted someone with more business experience for the role, but then the call came. 3 years later When another role comes up that seems like a good fit. Eventually, I met with every level of the company, including her CEO.
All of this was helpful when negotiating salaries, titles, and duties. After spending hours networking, I received two of her job offers in parallel, negotiating around the same title and compensation level. Throughout the process, I forwarded them relevant articles and commentary on opportunities to demonstrate my value. Ultimately, I chose her Infleqtion because of its mission, talent, and reputation among U.S. government officials.
action: A) If you are an A player, stay in government. B) If you leave as an A player, accomplish great things on the outside and return to government someday.
will appear next:
• Part II – What are your criteria for choosing your next role, the most common types of business roles held by your predecessor, and how you think about risks and current markets for large and small businesses.
• Part III – Title, compensation (salary + capital + bonus) and available resources.
Read the rest of Laura’s blog at https://www.lauraethomas.com/.
Categories: Family/Career/Culture, National Security |