Welcome to The Analyst Experience (TAE) website! The content presented on TAE has been created by analysts who are members of the Laboratory for Analytic Sciences (LAS), describing their work as analysts in various roles and situations. All information related to these analysts is represented in the form of Personas.
To enhance your experience while exploring the TAE website, we recommend checking out the following content in order:
Job Descriptions: Begin by reviewing the general overviews for each type of analyst (Language Analyst, Intelligence Analyst, and Cyber/Computer Network Analyst), which will provide you with a foundation for understanding the specific personas. Please note that these descriptions are based on information available on the NSA Career Fields web pages and may not fully capture the unique aspects of each persona's role or the varying situations they may encounter.
Persona Profiles: Next, delve into the persona profiles, which will offer you a comprehensive overview of each analyst's persona (e.g., check out junior language analyst Cameron's profile), including:
- Profile picture and name
- General and specific roles*
- Expertise level
- Skills*
- A "day in the life" description*
- Potential challenges and barriers encountered at work
Documents: Finally, to download the source materials, go to Documents. This page will provide additional resources to complement the persona profiles as the information presented in the persona profiles is synthesized based on source materials generated by the LAS analysts.
*Please note that these personas have been created for different purposes, serving various activities and scenarios. As a result, there may be inconsistencies in terms of the information and content provided for each persona. Some personas were developed to highlight specific situations, such as working on unfamiliar topics, familiar topics, or during crisis situations. Others were designed to emphasize the distinct tasks performed by analysts within the same role, such as translators, scanners, or quality controllers, all of whom fall under the broader category of language analysts but are represented by different personas.