Want to Spend Your Summer Working for an Intelligence Agency?

Is it all helicopters and tuxedoes?

This article is presented in partnership with the Australian Signals Directorate.

Summer holidays are usually reserved for getting away from your studies and resting up before the next year of studies begin.

But jobs, internships and work experience are all great ways to utilise your summer break – but where to go?

Well, if you’ve got an interest in tech, national security and the world of intelligence, an internship at the Australian Signals Directorate might be for you.

To find out more, we sat down with two interns from the Australian Signals Directorate – Australia’s oldest intelligence agency.

The two employees we chatted to were a part of the ASD Internship Program, and continued on after the program at the intelligence organisation.

Their names are [REDACTED], but let’s call them M and Q.

What’s it like working in an intelligence agency?

Q: “It was a lot different than I expected, but there’s a strong sense of community within the agency.

You’re rarely doing work in isolation. You can’t be an expert on everything, so it gives you a great opportunity to network throughout the organisation and meet some of the really talented people who work in different areas.”

M: “It’s honestly pretty surreal, you feel like a secret agent. It adds context to a lot of things you hear reported in the media. You just have to remember what you can and cannot share with your friends and family.”

What uni degree did you do, and how does it fit into your career at ASD?

M: “I’m now in my final year of a Bachelor of Information Technology, majoring in Networking and Cyber. Naturally, the work I do at ASD in a technical role complements my degree. Other than the technical skills of coding and report writing, my degree taught me how to problem solve to find solutions.”

Q: “I’m currently completing a Bachelor of Digital Media.

My degree helps me think in different ways to present our advice to a wide audience. Not everyone learns or engages with information in the same way, so developing new ways to present our advice is important.”

Was the ASD internship different to what you expected?

Q: “Throughout the program I’ve always felt supported by my team. I could always ask my colleagues work questions, and there was on-the-job and formal training so I always felt I knew what was going on.

I could also see how my project contributed to not just my team’s work, but the organisation as well. I half-expected to just be doing busy work, but instead the project was built on the skills I’d learnt throughout my studies.”

How does this job give you purpose?

Q: “I find purpose in knowing that the work we do helps Australia individuals and businesses protect themselves cyber security incidents. There is a real sense that the work we do helps to educate and raise awareness of ways people to protect themselves.

Everyone is motivated to make Australia the most secure place to connect online.”

M: “I wasn’t really sure what to expect, before starting I wasn’t really told what I would be doing.

I hoped that I was going to finish the three months knowing how to be a hacker. This wasn’t exactly the case, but I did learn a lot of technical skills that will help me in the future.”

What does an average day look like for you?

M: “My day usually starts with checking my emails for anything important, before going to meetings and then writing, testing and reviewing some code.”

Q: “Every day can be a little bit different.

I’ll usually action any urgent requests that have come through and once the whole team is in grab a coffee before getting stuck into developing some content.”

How does it differ to what we see in movies and TV?

Q: “It’s nothing like the movies where the interns just goes and gets their boss coffee. Instead, I get to do meaningful work where I can see how the project that I’m working on fits into supporting the work that my team does.”

M: “There is much less James Bond thrill type of work. For any project there are many hours of thorough planning, research and risk management that goes into it.”

An Internship at ASD is great way for you to contribute to Australia’s National Security. Find out more visit: asd.gov.au/careers

Authorised by the Australian Government, Canberra.