I've always thought of the NSA as the best of our spooks, so “I Was Recruited by the NSA” made me sad.
Other people linking to this make a fuss about the NSA objecting to excessive file sharing are a bar to employment. I'm not sure I agree. If the file sharing was known to be illegal, it suggests you are not a by-the-book kind of straight arrow. And I'm OK with the NSA wanting only the most punctiliously honest employees.
No, what made me sad was the “no Peace Corps veterans” rule. I understand that clearing anyone who has lived for a substantial time abroad is a challenge, but I would have thought that the NSA would be better off with the occasional Peace Corps idealist. And I would also have thought that the missions of the two agencies were not inimical. The NSA, sadly, seems to see it differently.
As most people who have done anything involving a clearance know, recent Peace Corps service is a definite bar to a clearance. During the first hour, the female recruiter couches it in terms of the Peace Corps and the NSA have conflicting missions. But later, she points out that the travel and the problems in doing background checks were a factor.
I'd have thought that the idealism and knowledge about the world were worth the effort.
If the administration were smarter it wouldn't let anyone intelligent visit Iraq, as they tend to report that 
