[diggan]

> Anyone with an email address from a recognized U.S. school or university may participate in the challenge.

Aww, that's not so fun :( Was kind of curious to participate, but seems it's US + students only. Kind of makes sense that it's US only I guess, but why only students?

[tptacek]

It's a recruiting event.

[diggan]

Aha, that'd explain it. NSA only hire people fresh out of school?

[tptacek]

They primarily do. Someone else on the thread says they do some industry hires, but everyone I know who worked there was recruited from engineering school.

[pclmulqdq]

I know a few people who went in as experienced hires, but the NSA in particular is happy to do high-paid contracts if you have the appropriate skills, so most of their actual employees seem to be straight out of school.

[reaperducer]

They primarily do. Someone else on the thread says they do some industry hires, but everyone I know who worked there was recruited from engineering school.

I remember a bunch of TLAs approached most of my friends in college, but never took an interest in me.

At the time I thought, "That's stupid. I'm the best phreaker in this NPA!" Later I realized this might be a liability, not an asset.

[hatsunearu]

They have an internal school that's a few years long (?!) that teaches you a bunch of stuff. Or so I heard...

[ganoushoreilly]

There are many pathways and schools internally for the different directorates. Most programs are partnered with outside schools, with some giving you course credits for internal classified work and only requiring a few outside unclassified courses to fulfill needs. Many of these are MS degrees. I got one through one of these programs. Which come in handy with restrictions on promotions / positions based on ed reqs.

[alach11]

Anyone in industry is already making more than the NSA can afford to pay.

[tekla]

No. They hire plenty out of school, but they generally are not the type to be filtered by an email domain requirement.

[Jerrrrrrry]

  but they generally are not the type to be filtered by an email domain requirement.

They are exactly the type to filter by something as "trivial" - 99% of their target audience is Math nerds with .edu emails.

The other 1% will go the other 99% of the way to acquire the needed materials to satisfy the target condition. Which in this case, is a room-temperature check compared to the challenges.

[tptacek]

I do not think their audience is in fact mostly math nerds.

[Jerrrrrrry]

They hire more Math PhD's than the entire economy combined.

If comparable had happened in any other field, to any other adversary, that very fact would not be as advertised.