Agency-wide Requirements
All applicants must be:
- U.S. citizens (dual U.S. citizens also eligible)
- At least 18 years of age
- Willing to move to the Washington, DC area
- Able to complete security and medical evaluations
- Registered for the Selective Service
About the Job
Undergraduate students serving as Cartographer, Editor, Graphic Designer, or Interactive Designer Interns for CIA work side-by-side with Agency officers to support intelligence analysis for the President of the United States, U.S. policymakers, and other officials.
Cartographer Interns are responsible for researching, designing, and producing thematic and reference maps in support of CIA finished intelligence.
Editor Interns perform a variety of tasks related to producing and publishing products, including editing, creating, and processing text and graphic products for mobile, web, and hardcopy dissemination.
Graphic Designers and Interactive Designers are responsible for conceptualizing, designing, and producing visual solutions for a wide variety of formats and dissemination outputs.
In addition to your job-specific responsibilities, undergraduate interns become familiar with the Agency and Intelligence Community by participating in a range of meetings and projects.
Two 90-day tours are preferred; however, one 90-day tour is the minimum requirement
Who You’ll Work With
At the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), we recognize our Nation’s strength comes from the diversity of its people. People from a broad range of backgrounds and viewpoints work at CIA, and our diverse teams are the reason we can keep our country safe.
Read more about diversity and inclusion
What You’ll Get
The CIA offers various benefits to students, including:
- Paid time off
- Federal health and life insurance
- Retirement
- Education and training
- Health services
- Child care center
- Credit union
As a CIA employee, you’ll also get the satisfaction of knowing your work is part of something bigger than yourself. Our work is driven by one mission: to keep our Nation safe. Every day is an opportunity to enhance U.S. national security.
Learn more about working at CIA
Minimum Qualifications
- Full-time student pursuing an undergraduate degree in one of the following fields or related studies:
- Geography
- Geo-Science
- Graphic or Interactive/UI/UX Design
- English
- Journalism
- Communications
- At least a 3.0 GPA on a 4-point scale is preferred, but exceptions may be made for extenuating circumstances
- Two 90-day tours are preferred; however, one 90-day tour is the minimum requirement
- Attending school on a full-time basis before/following this internship
- Ability to meet the minimum requirements for joining CIA, including U.S. citizenship and a background investigation
Desired Qualifications
- Knowledge of industry-standard graphic design, interactive design, or cartographic software, and familiarity with mobile and web production
- For Graphic and Interactive Designer Interns: a creative portfolio of two to three (2-3) samples, demonstrating good use of typography, grid-based design, white space, and color theory (url link to a non-account based or password-protected website is preferred over PDF files). Mobile and web UI/UX samples, via url link, should be included for those interested in interactive design.
- For Editorial Intern: Two (2) different writing samples, each five (5) pages MAXIMUM, single spaced PDF, technical or analytic papers. You may excerpt longer papers.
- For Cartographer Intern: Three to five (3-4) map samples (url link to a non-account based or password-protected website is preferred; PDF files are also accepted).