[Today’s Date]
Jennifer Ewbank
Head of the Directorate of Digital Innovation
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Public Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20505
Dear Director Ewbank,
As a small child living in Manhattan during September 11th, 2001, I grew up surrounded by countless people devastated by the attacks on our nation. My close childhood friend lost her father that day. Consequently, I’ve always identified closely with the CIA’s mission to prevent national security threats. Having channeled my computer science skills towards protecting information and people over the course of my career, working for the CIA would allow me to take my 7+ years of cybersecurity expertise to a global level.
I’m writing to apply for both the positions of Cyber Operations Officer and Cyber Threat Analyst. First, the Cyber Operations Officer position would allow me to scale up my current work to positively impact more Americans. In my current role as Director of Cybersecurity at XYZ Banking, I manage both long-term cybersecurity measures and more acute tasks — such as running our Computer Incident Response Team. In this role, I have experience managing a cross-functional team of hardware engineers, behaviorists, and defensive security experts.
Alternatively, I see the Cyber Threat Analyst position as a growth opportunity to deeply research all areas of cybersecurity. The extensive writing experience I’ve refined at XYZ Banking — through the writing of training materials, department risk assessments, and state-of-security reports — will allow me to be successful in the Cyber Threat Analyst role.
Having minored in International Studies at University of Pennsylvania, I bring an understanding of international affairs along with my cybersecurity expertise. Additionally, as a member of the 1st place team in the Google CTF 2019, I’m adept at collaborating on a team and problem-solving in high-pressure situations. Having attended 14 international conferences as well as continuing to attend monthly workshops on topics from systems evaluations to digital forensics and data recovery, I continually update my cybersecurity knowledge. Therefore, my unique mix of international affairs and cybersecurity experience, strong motivation to learn, and leadership abilities make me well-suited to uphold the CIA’s mission to keep our country safe. Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
Robin McKay