I want to see a pay stub before I believe anything they say.

It adds up. Also the first $83,000 of income earned abroad is tax free.

How many bonuses could he have collected? Lots of places, your insurance doesn't even kick in until after 90 days.

And last I heard, Hawaii isn't "abroad".

His previous profession

that others may not share their obsession. Clearly they assume everyone has a price and have relied on that to insure the security of their operations.

Like integrity.

Remember the "cost-plus" contracts in Iraq, where contractors loaded up expenses because the higher the bill presented to the government, the larger the profit payout?

I doubt the case with BoozAllen is quite that simple, but there may be a similar dynamic at play: higher overhead becomes simply more justification to charge more, and they are well-established, long-term contractors (over 70 years) so they have the political- and lobbying-clout to pretty much get it.

If more bloat means more profit, they have an incentive to pay a hell of a lot more than minimum wage.

want people they assume will conform and don't ask questions.

all I can think of are these possible explanations:

1. He has a family member with a *LOT* of pull in the intelligence community....(or conversely he was given his job by an unknown higher-up for the sole purpose of being a useful idiot)

2. He was that type of child prodigy who was so smart he fails or drops out because conventional education literally bores him...(based on what I see and hear of him, this is evidently not the case)

3. Dropping out of high school/washing out of Special Forces was the "cover" and he really is a hardcore super-spy

4. Hiring standards in that field have *really* gone down the shitter...I was living in D.C. a decade ago trying to change careers, and the my friends at the time getting $80-90k salaries and higher for contractors or the federal gov't pretty much told me not to bother applying without prior military experience and/or knowing someone on the inside who could push my resume through...These are some of the most hotly contested jobs in the country for a reason...

They pick people who have seen enough of the rich side to get seduced by the money.

there is so much risk however, they must have other ways of minimizing the risk. Maybe some kind of psychological profile that Snowden fit into. And then of course, the immense consequences they will lay on him.

Curiouser and curiouser.

so I don't understand your point.

So he may have had some actual cyberskills that were learned at home.

Skill trumps all in many industries.

My question is why mention this when we don't know whether anything other than relatively basic technical ability was required. I'd like to know what are the exact qualifications for his position.

I would say that, based on my personal experience, technical ability is not as closely coupled with formal education as one might at first suppose. It doesn't hurt and is almost inevitably good! However, it is not strictly necessary to be a cyber ninja. Silicon Valley is full of self-taught millionaires, and the three-letter-agencies have a history of looking for hacking talent in unlikely places.

That said, it's probably impossible to even discover what his job title was, since it was, of course, classified. :p

I have meet many in the industry.

What get's me is going after this guy because he dropped out of HS, lots of people do, it isn't a crime, and has no bearing on your intelligence or your character as Snowden has clearly demonstrated.

point in his favor as BoozAllen may want people who aren't curious or ask questions and they assume that HS dropouts fit that bill.

also a high level of curiosity.

I think most folks who work with tech geeks realize that.

I think they hired him because of his skills, and security clearances.

...because they hire a ot of people with academic credientials--the intellectually curious.

They aren't advertising for the intellectually uncurious.

he got paid $50K to live in Hawaii for 3 months & upset the applecart ... Not a bad gig for a dropout..