Key findings
“A job at SIS had always been in the back of my mind, and I was
attracted by the advert. I don’t remember the advert specifically
referring to the recruitment of women, but it did emphasise the
importance of a diverse workforce.
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During the recruitment process, I was interviewed by both men and
women for the first two interviews and had a mix of both during the
assessment centre. I never felt that my gender was important during
this process. My vetting officer was a woman, which I was pleased
about as it made it easier to talk in detail about personal aspects of
my life.
determined
courageous
alert focused
compassionate
organised
personable
open-minded
humble
creative
thoughtful
reliable
loyal practical
tolerant
pragmatic
analytical
selflessbright
job title 18pt
diligent
astute
Body 11pt
To apply 9pt
The many qualities we rely on
My perception spots situations. My focus makes connections.
My patience waits for answers. My creativity breeds solutions.
My discretion keeps this a secret. My qualities are not out of
the ordinary. My work is. Think you know what it takes to help
safeguard the nation? You may want to think again.
www.mi5.gov.uk/careers
To apply you must be over 18 and a British citizen. Discretion
is vital. You should not discuss your application, other than with
your partner or a close family member.
352857_p ERA 320x130 T White Lady 5.7.13.indd 1
03/06/2013 12:54
MI5 job advert
Although there had been more men than women on my assessment
centre, I assumed that there would be more of a balance in my
actual intake. I was thus surprised to find on my first day that, out
of 12 recruits due to start intelligence officer training, only three of
us were women. Not only that, but all of us (men and women) fit
into the category of ‘white and middle-class’, which compounded
a feeling that the organisation was a long way off from being the
diverse employer it desired to be in the advert I had initially seen.
In terms of the perception that the organisational culture is maledominated, I think that this is the case in some respects but not in
others. I was told once during training that I could have used my
‘womanly charms’ to build rapport by a role player, which I found
very frustrating as I wondered what my male colleagues did to build
rapport without such charms. I also noticed that all of the senior
colleagues who came to talk to us were male, except in HR. This
disparity is less obvious in my current day-to-day job, as there are
many women in my team and in the office as a whole.”
Recent female recruit at SIS
“… the Agencies
have reviewed
their recruitment
campaigns in an
attempt to increase
the diversity of
applicants and in
particular to target
women applicants.
This should be
commended.”
21. Recruitment to technical and specialised areas. Whilst there is
progress overall, some areas are proving more difficult to crack. All the
Agencies have reported problems recruiting women to more technical
and specialised areas. At GCHQ, where these skills are particularly
necessary, there remains concern that there has been no real increase
in the diversity of recruits. This has prompted a comprehensive review
of the end-to-end process to identify where effort is needed to make
the step change improvement to which GCHQ is committed.
22. We recognise that technical and specialised skills are in short supply
in the UK and are highly prized by the private sector. Furthermore, this
is an area which is typically under-represented in the female student
population. GCHQ – who face this problem to a greater extent due to
the nature of their work – have therefore sought to broaden the range
and scope of their recruitment.
21