How to become a spy – MI5 agents share career secrets in effort to boost recruitment

Sean Rayment
Sat, 30 December 2023 

Most recruits come from ordinary backgrounds, having held down jobs in unrelated industries

Britain’s spy chiefs have taken the unprecedented step of releasing personal details about spies as part of a recruitment campaign.

The spy agency hopes to demonstrate that most of its recruits come from ordinary backgrounds and often had other jobs in completely unrelated industries before joining up as a spy.

The move is a far cry from when agents came from top public schools and were secretly recruited from Oxford and Cambridge universities or the armed forces’ officer corps.


MI5 is also offering new recruits and existing staff the opportunity of working from home or on a part-time basis in the hope of retaining more staff.

MI5 employs around 5,000 people across the UK with the majority being based at the Security Service’s HQ in Millbank, Central London.

The Thameside building in London's Millbank where MI5 is based - HORACIO VILLALOBOS/EPA

But in recent years, the organisation has faced severe competition for personnel from the private security sector which offers significantly higher wages.

As part of MI5’s recruitment campaign, it has highlighted the careers of several spies identified only by their first names on the organisation’s Instagram account.

In one case a woman called “Steph” reveals that she had hoped to swim in the Rio Olympic Games in 2016.

She said: “Growing up, I never thought I’d end up being a spy – I was more focused on fulfilling an Olympic dream. I always loved being in water and after Mum signed me up to the local swimming club, I only had one thing in mind – to swim in the Olympics.

“Life became a routine of 5am starts and then back to the pool after school for more training. But it started to pay off: my times got faster and faster and with each new personal best I climbed up the rankings.

“Before long I was competing in the nationals and by then my eyes were firmly focused on a place at Rio in 2016. Having the chance to represent my country felt like a huge honour and I really thought it was within my reach”.

But Steph goes on to reveal that her dream never materialised and she had to step back from competitive swimming, in what she described as a “swift and crushing end”.

The view which MI5 staff see as they enter their headquarters - INSTAGRAM

But she added: “Life continued on. I completed college, then university but I struggled to know what to do next. One day I saw an advert for an admin assistant role at MI5. I knew nothing about the organisation other than it had a building across the river from MI6 – but thought I would give it a go and here I am.

“I’ve had a great career so far and working on our Instagram account has been fantastic. I can honestly say I love it at MI5. There’s a wide range of career options and for my next role I’ll probably look to go back to doing something operational. I may not have swum at the Olympics but MI5 has given me the chance to represent my country every day.”

Another recent recruit highlighted is a former travel agent and member of an airline cabin crew called Reuben, who said he decided to join MI5 after seeing a terrorist attack unfold on TV.

He added: “When I left university, I worked in the travel industry helping people book trips to incredible, dream-like places. I longed to be in their position and explore the world instead of just talking about it so I joined an international airline as a member of a long-haul cabin crew. I absolutely loved it.”
TV series Spooks

“It was on one of these trips that I woke up one morning, flicked on the TV news and saw there had been a terrorist attack back in the UK. I felt sick and a long way from home. I knew that if there was any way I could help I should, and I started my MI5 application as soon as I arrived back home.

“The little I knew about MI5 was based on the TV series Spooks where people single-handedly saved London by getting into scrapes. The reality is quite different, but what I do recognise is the quiet satisfaction of making an unseen difference.

“I’m an investigator so I run operations into terrorist and state threats, working with our partners to identify and disrupt those threats.

“Before I joined, I didn’t appreciate the importance of ‘necessity and proportionality’, which you don’t see on TV. Making sure our actions are necessary to protect national security and proportionate to the threats we investigate is critical to how we function as an organisation. “When we’re faced with difficult decisions, this makes me feel completely comfortable about working here.”

The final case study reveals the story behind Amber’s recruitment. The female agent handler reveals that when growing up she had two passions – watching spy movies and skateboarding and often imagined that she might one day become a spy.

Ken McCallum, the MI5 director general, has pioneered a more open approach - PA

She said: “I’d rush home to watch M.I. High and Kim Possible, before grabbing my skateboard to whizz around the neighbourhood, letting my imagination run wild with adventures about fending off bad guys and saving the day.

“Those dreams never left me but the idea they could become reality didn’t once cross my mind. After college, I had a couple of temp jobs but wasn’t sure what path to take for a career.

“One day I saw an MI5 job advertised in the local newspaper. Looking back, I remember working up the courage to apply, thinking it wasn’t for me as MI5 was bound to be a serious place where people lived and breathed work and had no time for a life outside of the office. The mistaken idea that I might need to give up skateboarding almost stopped me applying but the girl who wanted to help save the day wasn’t going to be put off that easily.

“I joined as an admin assistant and now I work supporting agent handlers out and about in the UK. Every day is busy and I never know what to expect. I’ve met people from all walks of life and lots of them aren’t what I thought MI5 would be like. There isn’t one MI5 ‘profile’, and I’ve even found other skateboarders here.”
Unprecedented

Colonel Phil Ingram, a former Army Intelligence Officer, who worked closely with MI5 and MI6 during his career, described the disclosure by MI5 as both unprecedented and exciting.

He said: “The latest MI5 recruiting programme is another example of how much effort they are putting in to demystify the service and show how they need people from all walks of life and backgrounds. This level of openness is completely unprecedented and very exciting, and would have been scoffed at only a few years ago.

“However, it is good for the service and for potential recruits and seems to be part of a more open approach being taken by the head of MI5, Ken McCallum.

“MI5 has cleverly taken bits and pieces of the careers of some of its staff, without identifying them, to demonstrate to potential recruits that many of their spies come from very ordinary backgrounds which should prove attractive to anyone considering a career as a spy.”