MI6 goes talent-spotting

It may have entered a new era of openness, but as Tim Pauling finds out, MI6 still likes to indulge in a bit of cloak and dagger

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Gone are the days of the “tap on the shoulder”, or a quiet word from your university tutor. Today, any wannabe “spook” can get the ball rolling online.

For the right candidate the Secret Intelligence website will be the start of a long process that can take anything up to nine months to complete.

The organisation, more commonly known as MI6, decided to change its old-fashioned recruitment process in 2006 when its chiefs at Vauxhall Cross, London, realised that not enough people were coming forward.

The service, which is keen to promote its recruitment drive, invited a select band of journalists to a briefing yesterday.

But it was all a little cloak and dagger.

We were told the Foreign Office liaison officer could be identified at the foyer of an Edinburgh hotel by his green Loden coat and the poppy in his lapel.

After being asked to produce photographic ID, the format for the briefing was described to us and we were taken to a room buried in the depths of the building.

On entering, a couple of minders asked everyone to hand over any recording equipment and mobile telephones before checking us with a metal detector.

A friendly and erudite man in his 50s, the head of recruitment, who went by the name of John, took us through what type of candidates MI6 was looking for, and what they could expect.

This year is the first time that the service has come seeking talent in Scotland.

A couple of thousand university undergraduates studying subjects such as international politics, languages and history were approached via e-mail.

Interest was high, with some 450 replying. Many later turned up for a briefing at Edinburgh Castle.

John said films and television had created a lot of misconceptions about the world of spying.

“It is not like James Bond. You don’t get to drive around in fast cars, assassinate people at will and ignore telephone calls from your boss,” he said.

But it can be an exciting and fun job.

John, who is now on his first “corporate” job, has been in the service 20 years. Half his career has been spent overseas, which is a little more than most “operation officers”.

During that time he took three years to learn Arabic and Turkish, some of the time spent with foreign families.

John has had five overseas postings in the Middle East and Mediterranean, but he will not say where exactly, although his language skills are a bit of a give-away.

One of the key attributes of any future spy is being able to build relationships across cultural and language barriers – sometimes convincing people to do things they might balk at – like handing over information.

Other desirable traits are intelligence, the ability to assess complex information, good decision-making, intellectual and emotional resilience, teamwork and innovative thinking.

The service is looking for male and female recruits from all races and backgrounds.

John said: “We are very clear that it is a search for talent.

“We are recruiting an elite group of people, but their behaviour must not be elitist.

“Above all we are looking for people with integrity, people who can work with sensitive information. Sometimes the security of the British Government is in your hands – we want someone who we can rely on.”