Hiring Top Graduates Has Security as Goal
News & Happenings
May 18, 2007
Ethel Machi, program analyst, Risk Management and
Strategic Planning, and Andrew Cox, chief of the
Strategy Science Branch, discuss upcoming projects.
Hoping to bulk up its ability to develop and pilot new ideas that will help transportation security officers and enhance security, TSA is hiring graduates from some of the nation's top universities.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate Ethel Machi arrived at TSA this spring, and has already tackled some of the agency's top priorities - IdeaFactory and Passenger Security 2.0. "It's been very exciting," she said.
The IdeaFactory lets TSA employees submit ideas, comment on submissions and vote on those they think should be adopted. The Passenger Security 2.0 initiative will pilot technologies and processes designed to improve explosives detection, hostile intent detection and security officer capabilities, as well as enhance the customer experience and provide a less stressful security environment.
With one MIT degree in computer science and electrical engineering and another in biology, Machi's employment prospects included top Wall Street firms and federal security agencies. But she was drawn to the on-campus job posting that used words like "entrepreneurial," "innovator" and "out of the box thinkers."
The hiring initiative was developed by Ely Kahn, director of Risk Management and Strategic Planning, and Andrew Cox, chief of the Strategy Science Branch, who traveled to universities to do interviews. Machi said Cox was "engaging and enthusiastic" and told her "there wasn't going to be another moment like this at TSA."
"When you pitch a job, so much of it is based on the people and you couldn't ask for better people interaction than we had at that first meeting," she said, adding that she views TSA as "a young organization that's nimble and open to new ideas."
Before joining Kahn's office as a program analyst, Machi's interaction with TSA was limited to traveling through the checkpoint. Now, she explained, the job "offers the opportunity to work with so many levels of the organization that I get a big picture."
She was one of 25 students interviewed, with nine given offers and six accepting two-year appointments.
Overall, they each fit this description from Cox: "We need people who are entrepreneurial, who have high technical abilities and understand computer science, engineering and are unafraid to be very aggressive, to go after an idea and be able to work through government's barriers."
The new hires undergo a comprehensive six-week orientation that includes meeting department heads and hands-on opportunities to learn about various projects. The other five recruits are scheduled to start work this summer.
"If the hiring initiative had not happened, I would never have considered working at TSA," Machi said.
