Wanted: British secret agents
2007-05-18 11:41
London - Britain's secretive foreign intelligence service MI6 will take a small step out of the shadows when it places its first-ever advertisement for jobs in The Guardian newspaper on Saturday.
Officially the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 did not even officially exist in government records until 1994, but has changed its image in recent years, launching its own website and accepting online job applications.
The advertisement in The Guardian, a left-of-centre national newspaper, marks a further break from MI6's shadowy past in an effort to attract a more diverse talent pool - just five percent of the agency's staff, for example, are from ethnic minorities.
"The same kind of people who are thinking about joining NGOs (non-governmental organisations) will come to us," said MI6's chief recruiting officer, who was not identified.
"People with a real mix of experience."
Despite the steady emergence of MI6 as an organisation with a more public face, some things apparently do not change, according to an MI6 officer present at The Guardian's interview with a new agency recruit, and the agency's head of recruitment.
"We remain a secret organisation," the officer said.