I'm nosey
MI5: Domestic
MI6: Foreign
What do MI's from one to four do?
(and don't say, 'they have a long lunch between 1 & 4')
MI6 to hire another 1,000 bods 'cos of private surveillance tech
MI6 is set to hire another 1,000 staffers because of the internet, apparently. According to the BBC, the foreign-focused spooks are set to boost their numbers by 40 per cent, "from 2,500 staff to a little under 3,500." The agency, which is formally known as the Secret Intelligence Service, argues that the increase in …
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Thursday 22nd September 2016 10:18 GMT JimmyPage
And - clearly demonstrating their 19th century antecedents
these jobs involve GOING to an OFFICE ?
Hi tech my arse.
I lost all interest in civil service work when I was told I would be paid £2000 a year less for being 20, not 21.
"Does ability not count ?" I asked.
"Good lord no." they replied. "That would never do.". To this day, no one believes that's what they said at the CCTA. But they did.
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Thursday 22nd September 2016 10:52 GMT smudge
Re: And - clearly demonstrating their 19th century antecedents
Having worked at the CCTA - on projects, they were my client - I can well believe you.
Two of the senior managers were known to their own colleagues as "Bookend 1" and "Bookend 2", and these were indeed accurate summaries of their talents.
Still, Riverwalk House was handy for visits to the Tate.
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Thursday 22nd September 2016 13:49 GMT GlenP
Re: And - clearly demonstrating their 19th century antecedents
I worked for the Civil Service for a year. I found Executive grades getting additional pay for having qualifications that we Scientific grades required just to get the job, just because they went to the right school/university.
At my fist review I was basically told that I deserved promotion, was doing the higher role anyway but couldn't have it as the Promotion Board would never promote with less than 2 years service.
I left!
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Thursday 22nd September 2016 11:19 GMT Anonymous Coward
get real with the money
had an interview (technical ) once with one of these organisations as was actually genuinely interested in working there and "doing my bit".. blew them away, pass with flying colours, knew much more than them about subject in question... next discussion, salary. somewhat less than half market perm rate. don't even bother to do the vetting work and offer it lads I'm turning it down now.
AC for obvious reasons.
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Thursday 22nd September 2016 12:15 GMT Chris G
Re: get real with the money
So, no Aston Martin, no chatting up top crumpet in casinos? Don't think I'll bother! I wasn't happy about having a company Walther PPK anyway, at minimum you need 21 rounds in a Glock or for serious work a Desert Eagle with an extended mag.
I wonder if it was the spooks that started the latest craze for 'nesting bird beards' to foil the facial recognition?
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Friday 23rd September 2016 09:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: get real with the money
I was recently in receipt of an MI6 job vacancy - all the usual skills and high level of maturity/autonomy required etc.
Salary = £39k
FFS. It actually looked interesting and I wouldn't mind picking up some new skills etc. but I have bills to pay. I freelance for 3 times that and wouldn't take a regular permie job for less than around £100k, so £39k is way off base for the kind of skills they are asking for,
You pay peanuts - you get monkeys.
Now, if I had no money issues and was financially independent etc. I'd probably do it. I understand that it shouldn't be about the money, but if that's the case then that means the department heads are all on low salaries too right (compared to the market)? I'm guessing not.
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Friday 23rd September 2016 09:42 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: get real with the money
Bloody hell, what are you doing?! I've 15 years good solid experience in security, I work for a big financial services firm in the City (so two premiums, one for central London, one for finance) and I barely make three quarters of that. I knew I should have spent less time at the command line and more learning how to schmooze management... :(
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Friday 23rd September 2016 13:26 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: get real with the money
Well, these days I just use 'Network Security Consultant', but it boils down to a very mixed bag of skills.
Some of the 'jack-of-all-trades' skills I concentrated early on in my career (which had me at a disadvantage against product specialists) are now my key selling point.
My job these days is 'get the job done' - which is a lot easier than said than done when you have no authority to make decisions. I got out of permie roles because of politics (amongst other reasons) and now I am developing political skills in order to convince major stakeholders to make decisions they don't understand, but ultimately have to defend to others.
My technical skills are starting to atrophy though, so I'm going to have to make a decision which direction to go in next fairly soon.
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Thursday 22nd September 2016 11:45 GMT Lee D
I have an old friend who worked for MI5. It's incredibly boring.
They book airline travel for "important" people. Some colonel that you've never heard of, going to a conference they've been booked onto for a year. It's a desk job, sitting on airline websites, booking flights for other people.
Though the flight details might be "secret", as such, they certainly aren't some privileged agent. Like the majority of people who work there, it's just a civilian desk job doing admin for military people.
The "MI" part of it isn't the kind of thing that they honestly advertise on job sites (though you might see some "intriguing" posts every now and then, that's not how they recruit for anything interesting). But they'll always need people to make coffee, book conferences, and put out press releases occasionally.
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Thursday 22nd September 2016 12:11 GMT Anonymous Coward
I had a mate who worked at MI6, in accounts! Said it was no different from any other job, you did ledgers, payroll and badly fiddled expenses, just like every other company on the planet. Sadly the poor guy had a very serious nervous breakdown and developed schizophrenia when his Dad died, but luckily he had 15 years service in a Gov job so he got pensioned out at the age of 38 and that was 20 years ago when I first met him. A really nice guy, when the "voices in his head" were having a good day, very tragic.
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Thursday 22nd September 2016 16:43 GMT tfewster
another 1,000 staffers "because of the internet" - BS
- "another 1,000 staffers". They won't be another 1000 field agents, or even in positions where being recognised could be a problem. Even then, if $ENEMY can reliably recognise 2500 faces, another 1000 is no problem.
- "because of the internet". What, that tool that vastly increases productivity? Where booking a flight takes 5 minutes rather than half a day? That allows you to surveil your target remotely with a motion-capture device rather than have 10+ agents taking shifts on his doorstep? That lets you read emails as easily as postcards without having to steam open their letters? Easy funds transfers? Easy handover of blueprints?
Pull the other one, even with the scope-creep and empire-building, they must be much more productive than in the Bad Old Days
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Thursday 22nd September 2016 17:18 GMT allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
Well, unless they use 900 guys to block the other 100 guys from view, automated recognition will be a bit of a problem for clandestine work:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/12/run_but_cant_hide_scientists_brew_blurbusting_face_recognition/
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2016/08/12/run_but_cant_hide_scientists_brew_blurbusting_face_recognition/
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Friday 23rd September 2016 13:28 GMT Anonymous Coward
Joining the Civil Service
Isn't that that along the lines of those who can, don't, and those who can't, do?
Why would anyone want that on their CV unless they have no intention of ever working in the real world?
And in an environment where everyone is moaning about their poor salaries.
Sounds like a job description for people willing to accept lower pay than the locals, well that would be immigrants then.
What's not to like... :/
Biting the hand that feeds IT
