to think my brother's friend is an MI6 spy?

[faintpinkline]

She has a first class degree from Oxford, a phd from Yale, speaks fluent Arabic and looks completely unassuming - pretty, brunette, petit, always cheerful and friendly. She has a job in some obscure branch of the civil service and is abroad more than she's at home

I've changed a detail or two just in case she actually IS but AIBU to wonder?

the answer is always "civil servant"
From that logic my dad was a spy. :)

And I know he wasn't.

He just didn't like to advertise that he was head of the local branch of our equivalent to Inland Revenue.

Apparently lots of people work for MI5 and 6 but are not really spies, they just analyse data that is available to most anyway.
That is probably what that bloke at the bar did.

Oh, and Mossad also have an online job application service. Somehow, I never expected THAT. So, I guess even they have data analysts.

Agree that she is a spy. Base my opinion on the fact that why on earth would someone so highly qualified work for a pittance in a shitty civil service job when they could be captains of industry earning millions.

I'm a civil servant too. I can confirm that GCHQ, MI5 & MI6 are part of the MoD and that is who your employer will be. Jobs in those parts of the MoD are open to MoD staff before the rest of the civil service etc.

When accepting a job at MI* you can tell your immediate family but must limit that knowledge. When going for an interview you shouldn't tell more than 1 family member (just for safety really).

Best cover jobs are IT or anything else that requires 24hr cover. MI6 is harder to find a cover for due to the trips abroad. But most work is UK based for either department.

I don't work for GC, 5 or 6 but I have a very interesting job in IT...

Most jobs are analysts for sure, that and watching CCTV for 8 hrs a day... Still, you get London weighting and work 36hrs as standard (as opposed to the usual 37 for civil servants).

Great thread. I Want to type so much more but not sure. I don't have much knowledge of boring, mundane spying but I certainly know they exist. And they don't need to have gone to Oxbridge. And it's not a job you ever get to leave in a hurry. And it's certainly not family friendly!

MummyNickleby: M15 is not part of the MoD. It is a separate agency, under the authority of the Home Office, but not part of it. Info here. It is also not the case that all jobs there are open to MoD officials before others. Although maybe some are - I don't know.

I know less about the others, but this page on the MI6 website suggests that M16 and GCHQ are overseen by the Foreign Office, and only Defence Intelligence is overseen by the MoD>

Was referring to the "boring" jobs bit, have seen them on our JOB section. Actual spying jobs are different and recruited differently.
Looked into the spy thing when I was younger as had 3 ambitions: Astronaut, Accountant or Spy. Learned Russian to cover 2 of them (yes, I was THAT serious)

Sorry, didn't make myself clear

Boring = Intell

I want to know a spy. Feeling very hard done by over here.

I'm an actual civil servant too. I think I might start giving the old wink when people ask so they suspect me of being a spy which would be many kinds of completely unbelievable

"M15 is not part of the MoD."

Well, the MI5 person who approached me once (for info, not to work there) told me initially that he was at the MoD.

Maybe he didn't know that, Wigeon?

He didn't really understand, either, what I did, as once he finally admitted what he was after (evidence that a suspected foreign spy, based in the UK, was misbehaving), I knew straight away that no foreign spy would have been interested in me: I had absolutely no useful UK contacts!

I was, however, quite scared that my foreign bosses would find out about the contact, and sack me to protect their contacts from contact with me! That would have been a misunderstanding, too (it is MI6 they should have been worrying about), but I still could have lost my job!

Lol, sounds so exciting doesn't it? But the reality is many dull hours for each "wow".
Personally I love my job, it's equally interesting, equally discreet but is safe and my family will never be in danger. That's gotta be the best combo.

And the best bit is knowing you're actually making a contribution to the country.... Oh, and having a day off for the boss's birthday

LOL Plutocrprap they must hate us. Cheltenham I have been careful to change some essential details just in case but I'm not telling anyone which ones

Yeah, imagine the jealousy of reading "drunk threads" at work, for work!

And when MNers boast about their sex lives...