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by kjellsbells 1105 days ago
Its always struck me as a little odd that their recruitment (at least, their public recruitment) is focused on young people, new grads, etc. I wonder why they dont publicly try to recruit people who have been in industries or domains for years, eg pick up people working at Qualcomm who already have good reason to be traveling across the world and meeting people.
4 comments

Public recruitment typically happens at university, which is dominated by young people.

Older people who show up at the university job fair or get “encouraged” by faculty with connections get recruited just the same.

In fact, they’re not recruiting 20 year olds, they’re more likely to recruit people in their late 20s or even 30s who have some real life experience and travel under their belts.

Caveat: apparently service in the Peace Corps and certain other NGOs will disqualify you for Officer duty. At least that’s the claim, backed up by several ex-officers.

One consideration is that hiring people at the start of their working lives minimizes the number of people they need to trust with sensitive information. Another: the younger the person, the less averse they tend to be to risk their lives.
They might do for specific jobs, but you want them nice and fresh for a career path. Too much time out in the world fosters the sort of independent thinking that's a liability in that line of work.
Isn't most public recruitment aimed at young, new grads? Is there a "mid-career come work at Goldman Sachs" recruitment pitch they put out to the general public?