If a student wants to drive a BMW with a rocket launcher, stop criminal masterminds or roll around in a bed of diamonds with Halle Berry - the CIA might not be the way to go.
Since its creation in 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency has been misrepresented by Hollywood, said Michelle Neff, spokeswoman for the agency. Movies such as the James Bond series and "The Recruit" as well as books by writers like Tom Clancy have created false expectations, Neff said.
"You won't have your shoe-phone and perhaps you won't drive an Aston Martin in the French Riviera," she said. "[But you're] still going to have a pretty exciting career."
The CIA is hoping to dispel these kinds of misconceptions with a new personality quiz on cia.gov.
The quiz is just for fun - but it addresses five recurring myths, Neff said.
One such myth was that joining the CIA means you'll never see your family again. Another was that everyone employed drives a sports car with machine guns in the tailpipes, according to the Web site.
Despite the attempt to clear up the rumors about the agency, the CIA isn't hurting for recruits, Neff said.
"We're actually hiring the most amount of people since we were conceived," Neff said. "It's just that a lot of people sometimes get the wrong impression."
For 2006, the CIA received 135,000 resumes, up from the about 60,000 in 2001, she said.
The number of people the organization hires each year is classified, Neff said.
Interest increased following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, she added.
Skylar Williams, a computer information systems senior, said he considered joining the CIA in high school.
"I think it has an interesting lifestyle that goes along with it," Williams said.
While the Bond movies were appealing, the reality of the job would have been much different, he added.
"The common perception is that if you're in the CIA, you're this crazy field agent working in some far-off country going ahead with secret operations," Williams said. "[But] I think field agent definitely has the ability to be something like a Bond movie."
In the end, the route of higher education was why he gave up his CIA dream, he said.
"But there's definitely an inkling of desire still there," Williams said.
Taking away the illusion could hurt the appeal of the CIA, but it's the right thing to do, said Rachel Cetta, a bioengineering sophomore.
"It's portraying the wrong image of what the CIA is," Cetta said. "I'm sure it's not half as glamorous as what James Bond is."
Even though she has friends who are interested in the spy lifestyle, it's not for her, Cetta said.
"I don't know if I could be as cool as James Bond," she said.
Even if it's not all high-stakes poker games with criminal masterminds, sex and saving the world, a career at the CIA has its perks, Neff said.
"You will live overseas [and] you will speak a foreign language," Neff said. "So I think it's a pretty even trade-off."
The CIA recruits at universities, but only when invited, Neff said. The last time the agency visited ASU was September 2002.
And despite not being exactly how Hollywood portrays it, some features aren't far off, Neff said.
The agency develops spy technology, including through In-Q-Tel Inc. -whose board of trustees includes ASU President Michael Crow.
One piece of technology the agency is showcasing is "The Bug," Neff said. Displayed in commercial and online ads, the device appears to be nothing more than a dragonfly - but is in fact a machine.
"The Directorate of Science and Technology is basically the Q branch," Neff said, referring to the James Bond character Q who makes the gadgets. "They're the inventor of all our toys."
Reach the reporter at: matthew.g.stone@asu.edu.
