Recruitment for MI5/MI6 - AIBU to think that they find you, you can't apply?

[DoTheHop]

Does anyone know how this happens?
They appear to have an application process, but I'm not sure what they're looking for.
An ex of mine was contacted by them after his degree, in Computers and Maths I think, but according to him (not sure if true or bullshit) he'd have had to meet them in a field and never bothered.
I've a ds who is interested in this field. It's not really something you see discussed. I'm not sure what area of it he is interested in - he just finds it fascinating really.
Do they really take applications or is it a case of them hunting you down lol?

The days of the tap on the shoulder are largely gone and most people will apply now rather than be recruited.

Ah but how do you know?

My tap on the shoulder came when I was least expecting it, I'd tell you all about it but....

The thing that worries me really is that their salaries (from my very limited experience) don't seem competitive. Of course. It's public sector. There's been a pay freeze since 2010. And in the ethos of "private sector good, public sector bad" which has been current since at least the 80s you can't expect competitive salaries.

My husband applied to the civil service when he finished uni, and that's the department he got sent an interview with. He got through several rounds but withdrew from the process when they wanted to interview his friends and family

I was asked to be a referee by a colleague/friend who was applying 'for a job with the civil service'.

It was a face to face interview with someone who turned up at my house.

I had to produce ID including payslips showing that I worked at the same place as friend at the same time - I was surprised at that as assumed they would have run background checks on me anyway to verify that.

He asked lots of questions about my colleague, the work that we did, how she would react to certain situations, then lots of things about her personal life and her family to check if there was anything that left her open to being blackmailed.

It was interesting to start with but dragged on a couple of hours so I was a bit bored by the end of it.

They have advertised on MN before
There was one for GCHQ on here the other day.

Didn't anyone else spot it then?

@Arnoldthecat are you really going to leave us hanging like that

You know full well if Arnold told more then she'd have to shoot you.

I interviewed for this, but couldn't accept the work conditions due to my circumstances at the time. They approached me, though.

My ex was headhunted. He's in IT

Sometimes the Times Crossword contains a secret message, and if you complete the grid and send it in, you get a phonecall.....

@Arnoldthecat

OK, I get it ...we are meant to realise that Lilia Orekhova would never play a city like Yakutsk.

It's like the Blackadder quote of the 'great' universities: Cambridge, Oxford & Hull. Everyone knows Oxford is 'a complete dump'.

I know someone who worked for the secret services. I had no idea they were in anyway associated with them until after their death. For 22 years i thought they worked in an IT type role for a bland company. People who “can’t talk about it” aren’t the real squirrels. The real squirrels apparently have proper watertight cover jobs, so no nose tapping and no friend of friend talking about it. The person i knew hardly ever talked about their job but when pressed to converse about it would talk quite openly about a job that we now know never existed.

We never suspected a thing. And they are so unlike James Bond it is laughable.

And to answer your question OP i have absolutely no idea how they were recruited.

I applied online after seeing an ad in the paper. It was a gruelling process and incredibly invasive. It took over a year.

As I approached my start date I developed an uncharacteristic attack of paranoia - who watches the watchers? I couldn't get past it and ended up bailing, which was the right decision for me.

(I also had the devil's own job explaining to my hairdresser why I had a significant chunk of hair missing! )

I think you can apply on line too but do you need a degree now for MI5/6?
Maybe not so for GCHQ

I could answer all your questions Op, but then I'd have to kill you.

Me too

I replied to a rather small ad in The Times donkeys years ago.

I was approached when I graduated with a psychology degree years ago and sat the entry tests and passed, i also went through various levels of security screening however I eventually had no Interest.
Many years on we have received an email as our son (17yo) and several other kids in his year have been 'noticed' as they 'think in an abstract way' which is apparently desirable. This about as appealing as concrete boots to my son😂.

I think the role in question determines whether you are sought out or advertised for. There are backroom jobs like computer and data management which need specific skill sets, I think these are relatively easy to find approaching graduates of good universities with exceptional grades in relevant subjects would be a path, jobs in regular office positions can be advertised for and more 'secret' positions, candidates will, I would imagine, be sought out

Don't be silly op, meeting in a field?

You generally apply for a boring run of the mill civil service position and they then hire you because....something fits with what they need.

Although my uni mate graduated in Russian and now lives in Cheltenham so I'm convinced he's a spook!

I had recruitment letters from both of them. The MI5 one just looked like it could have come from the home office and had full address etc. The MI6 one was much more interesting and never said the agency and was on nice thick paper- you had to call a number. I hope I still have them at my parents’ house somewhere but I think I binned them.

I would have been a shit spy so never went any further. I suspect loads of people will have had similar letters as I was clever but not exceptional at uni.

I was approached when I graduated with a 1st class IR degree from a prestigious university back in '05. I was working in Asda part-time while I looked for a "real" job and a man approached me at the till and handed me a folded up piece of paper. Then walked off without saying anything. I opened the paper and it said "Epstein didn't kill himself"

I applied, they advertised somewhere I can't remember where (maybe on their website?!) and went to an assessment centre type place and completed some computer based activities. I was only allowed to give the reception my name, not say why I was there, and we were advised not to share anything beyond our first names with other people there. It was an interesting experience but I didn't get any further along in the process. This was about 6 or 7 years ago now.

They advertise online, or they did when I applied about 10 years ago. It was a test and clearly I passed as I was invited for interview - I absolutely wanted to go because, although I had no intention of going to work for them, I wanted to see inside MI5 although, in hindsight, I expect the interviews are done somewhere completely different. I bottled out of the interview process when I realised how much background information I was going to have to give about myself, my family and my employer (my boss worked in a related area so I didn’t want him to think I was considering leaving)!

I’ve known of a few MI5/MI6 people through others I know and, whilst it’s interesting to have a bit of an inside track, there’s stuff I’d just really rather not know.

@Nomorepies Sorry.