Languages

Hello, I live in the Los Angeles area. I am interested in federal career possibly as an intelligence analyst after I finish my MA. Im thinking about goin on for the Phd....would this help? even make me more competitive? Id be prob. 31 by the time I finish that......

Id like to stay home here in the LA area though if possible. There are quite a few federal agencies here like the FBI, DEA, ATF. But my thing is Middle Eastern studies/politics.

In terms of languages I was studying Arabic but here in LA there are a bunch more Farsi speakers due to the big Persian population. I just dont want to give up learning Arabic but maybe Farsi, would be better. Dont know yet. Id appreciate any advice.

PS Im looking into getting an internship with a federal agency while doing my MA but in terms of employment while in grad school would it look good/be good to get employment with a state/local agency like a police dept. in the meantime. Doing what!?!? I know Im more qualified than being an administrative assistant but I wouldnt even mind that.

First need to research the intelligence analyst career field. I've yet to meet a middle east intel analyst that speaks a foreign language. Most of the people that have foreign language experience are either in sigint or do linguistics for open source intel. Therefore, you don't have to know a foreign language to be an intel analyst.