Over the next 12 months, Australia’s Department of Defence is seeking to recruit 40 women and men into the Cryptologic Linguist role. Director Navy Recruiting and Entries, Commander Lucinda Casey hopes the campaign raises awareness of the unique role. “The Navy wants people with good listening skills and high emotional intelligence who want to put their problem solving and analytical talents to good use,” Casey said.
Cryptologic Linguists’ careers can take them around the globe. They are trained on information process, communications theory and analytical problem solving. Petty Officer Elisabeth Hudson says her career as a Navy Cryptologic Linguist has taken her far beyond her expectations. “The best part of being a Navy Cryptologic Linguist is the variety of experiences and opportunities that come with knowing a foreign language,” Hudson said. “We receive world-class training and our highly specialised skills and intelligence can be applied to many situations, whether at sea, or ashore. As a Cryptologic Linguist, I have the ability to make a real difference. It’s our intelligence that can directly affect military operations.”
Defence is using a new digital campaign to attract recruits. The ability to translate foreign language and accurately convey sentiment and cultural nuance is a unique skillset. The new campaign challenges the artificial intelligence of Google translate against the human capability, using well known song lyrics and movie quotes and translating them across multiple languages. The results highlight the need for skilled people to achieve accurate translations. The new digital campaign will be dispersed via social media channels, including Facebook and Instagram. More information is available here.