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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

320 replies

DoTheHop · 11/12/2019 16:49

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?

OP posts:
lborgia · 11/12/2019 21:36

Hop - ha! I knew it!

(But also know this is a bluff thread so no one will suspect the real fishing thread in the weight loss section....😏)

JaneBond0007 · 11/12/2019 21:39

DH works for a private company in something quite boring and IT related but occasionally he has to go to government buildings and had to have a security clearance - I also had to go through the clearance and they needed to know all sorts and as my stepfather (though they aren’t married) is from Northern Ireland and had a family member who was almost killed by the IRA and even though I haven’t spoken to him nor my mother for years they came back with follow up questions etc. We also had to disclose our finances, whether we had ever taken drugs/cheated etc!!
It was quite in depth and I don’t think it was the highest security clearance either!

Spotsandstars · 11/12/2019 21:39

I'd be good at standing at bus stops watching people, I'm quite good at covering up when I've blantantly been in a daydream staring at someone by pretending I'm looking past them ;-)

Original poster
DoTheHop · 11/12/2019 21:39

Well 177 posts, and not one boaster to say 'ye I'm in MI6'.
Hmmmmm

OP posts:
NoParticularPattern · 11/12/2019 21:42

My sister was headhunted after an interview with GCHQ. No idea if you can apply normally or not. She didn’t take the job in the end.

Original poster
DoTheHop · 11/12/2019 21:42

Anyone suspect their family members are involved somehow?

OP posts:
NoParticularPattern · 11/12/2019 21:42

Sorry to add she has degrees in computer science and maths

Original poster
DoTheHop · 11/12/2019 21:44

Didn't the Queen do some sort of special ops (might have been secretarial) during WWII?

OP posts:
BrieAndChilli · 11/12/2019 21:45

I think I’d be quite good, I always think the worst of people and am quite suspicious, I’m also goof at stalking people online 😂 for example someone I vaguely know moved house recently and I wanted to be nosey so I matched the photo of their new kitchen which only had a pile of boxes and a slight view of the kitchen cabinets and the flooring in, within a little while I’d found the house on right move!!

Original poster
DoTheHop · 11/12/2019 21:46

Brie. You're the kind of threat MI5 are trying to eliminate rather than recruit Grin

OP posts:
HeronLanyon · 11/12/2019 21:46

op it really isn’t something you disclose !

Original poster
DoTheHop · 11/12/2019 21:49

I know. I was hoping some loose-tonged harlot might come on to give me the low down.
Well the sciences are where he's going anyway. I'll know why if I don't see him for years.

OP posts:
DivGirl · 11/12/2019 21:54

If he's serious about it tell him not to do a travelling gap year (it can really mess up your chances of getting security clearance).

For most roles you apply in the normal standard boring way - they recruit periodically on their website and have a graduate programme which, again, is advertised.

Original poster
DoTheHop · 11/12/2019 21:57

He has every intention of travelling. Think that's why he wants the job haha.

OP posts:
Witchend · 11/12/2019 21:57

Anyone suspect their family members are involved somehow?

I have suspicions that my grandfather did some intelligence work in WWII and just afterwards. If he did, he never told his family, but I think he'd have regarded the Official Secrets Act meant he took that to his grave.
There's been a few little things that point towards it that I've found out. Put them together and it does look possible. He could have done it alongside his normal job which involved a lot of travelling and meeting people.

MI6 aren't keen on confirming or denying such suspicions so I doubt I will ever know.

SheOfManyNames · 11/12/2019 22:00

Witchend, you can ask them. See the FAQ here:
www.mi5.gov.uk/faq/a-relative-used-to-work-for-mi5-can-you-tell-me-any-more

Mary1935 · 11/12/2019 22:21

They have a website you know and there’s jobs on there.
It’s no secret.😇

Original poster
DoTheHop · 11/12/2019 22:24

Oh really Mary? They advertising international spy jobs on there? I must have missed those!

OP posts:
HeronLanyon · 11/12/2019 22:27

Not sure why but ‘international spy jobs’ made me laugh.
Imagined local rural print paper that heading stuck between ‘farm auctions’ and ‘WI meetings’. And me getting my pen out to circle it !!!

Fraggling · 11/12/2019 22:28

Not read whole thread.
They advertised on here once I think?
Their jobs are online as well...
They are trying to diversify. 50yo woman in cafe having a listen is often invisible to the people she's listening to, for example.
They have loads of backroom jobs as well.

Have a look at their websites maybe.

Fraggling · 11/12/2019 22:30

'loose-tonged harlot'???

You've, erm, been watching too much telly.

They need people who won't be noticed.

BrightYellowDaffodil · 11/12/2019 22:30

Anyone suspect their family members are involved somehow?

A family member maintains a distant relative is “in intelligence”, having worked in a related field. Having met the distant relative, I’m not sure “intelligence” is the word I’d associate with them. It’s jolly good cover if they are Grin

RB68 · 11/12/2019 22:37

Queen was a mechanic during the war I believe

RB68 · 11/12/2019 22:37

Although there is nothing to say that wasn't cover.....

Ponoka7 · 11/12/2019 22:42

My Cousin was headhunted and would just say that he was working for the Government. He was a biochemist.

He died of quite a strange, unexplainable types of cancers, quite young and was given a lavish funeral at a prominent church, in a part of it that usually off limits to the public.

There were people there who didn't seem to be genuine guests. It was all quite bizarre.