"They said I fit a profile..."

September 14, 2005 2:55 AM

How did MI6 and the CIA used to recruit?

Before people could apply to join MI5/6 and the CIA, what recruiting methods were used? Did they just recruit from Oxbridge/Ivy League schools? How did they find the kind of people who would be most skilled as agents?

posted by speranza to law & government (7 comments total)

Approaches at Cambridge (and, as I understand from my (never-to-be)-brother-in-law, at Oxford too) we very common, and often made through a professor who was charged by the MI5/6/etc to spot potential talent and point them in the right direction. After that, there's an exceedingly rigourous testing procedure which seperates the potetentials from the others, and after that - I don't know...
posted by benzo8 at 3:03 AM on September 14, 2005

It depends what role you are being hired for. Embassy staff have a completely different skill set to those who actually handle intelligence assets. MI6 used to recruit from the military (Navy, Army or Air Force - hence Commander James Bond) whilst it also used to hire people from security and investigation firms (including an ex-heroin addict private investigator who I knew many moons ago). Special Branch hired all sorts of people, from Protestant terrorists, ex-Gardai, Special Forces etc depending on what role they were attempting to fill at any one time.

Within the military and police force there are "talent scouts" (at least in the UK) who pick out those best able to acheive goals under tough circumstances. Certain people within the tougher regiments of the British Army are tasked with all sorts of things, one old friend of mine works with what used to be called 14 INT until recently. He was picked from his Army Intelligence job a couple of years ago and has been allowed to grow his hair long again (and no he wasn't anywhere near the shooting in London).

Typing this has just reminded me how weird most of my friends are.
posted by longbaugh at 4:03 AM on September 14, 2005

I think Oxbridge/Ivy League recruiting has always been a heavy focus, but not exclusive.

My uncle was recruited into the OSS, the precursor to the CIA in America, apparently on the basis of being a mechanically-inclined Army non-com with a flair for languages (to amuse himself, he taught himself to read and speak pretty much every language he was exposed to for more than a few minutes, apparently.)

He was a farm boy from the mountains of North Carolina, and didn't meet anyone's idea of 'upper class,' I guarantee you.
posted by enrevanche at 4:22 AM on September 14, 2005

They came to my brother at his school. He was a Russian language major about to graduate. His student advisor one day called him and told him to show up to a classroom at a specific time in his suit. When he showed it was the spooks and they wanted to interview him for a job.
posted by Pollomacho at 6:17 AM on September 14, 2005

I know someone who was approached at university (not Ivy League) based on his Eastern European language skills. I believe the offer was pitched as an alternative to active duty military service during the Vietnam-era draft.

I would think that there's one recruitment stream that is based almost entirely on technical skill (languages, cryptography, regional political specialists etc.) quite separate from the elite school / upper class / skull and bones / illuminati / old boys' club / blue blood stream that many people presume constitutes the bulk of the intelligence community.
posted by onshi at 9:14 AM on September 14, 2005

I had a girlfriend in college who was proficient in 4 languages. She was a history and poli-sci double major, and got some of the best grades I'd ever seen.

About midway through her sophomore year, she was approached by a recruiter for the CIA. Where he got her information and educational stats wasn't clear, but he certainly gave her the full-court press. I keep in occasional contact with her these days (this was about 15 years ago), and to this day, she's never been offered that kind of money with those kind of benefits.

Of course, as it turned out, she remains a died-in-the-wool democrat/liberal/revolutionary that has a lifelong crush on Trotsky. So, she wasn't that good of a fit.
posted by thanotopsis at 10:08 AM on September 14, 2005

A female college friend was similar -- a real whiz at science, and excelling in Russian, not to mention a serious Republican, so they macked on her pretty bad. It was almost like some of the relentless military recruiting you've seen lately (say in F9/11). She turned them down, became a pastor instead, but not a whole lot more liberal ...

Yeah, when the CIA "recruits on campus" that definitely doesn't mean they set up at a card table in the student center.
posted by dhartung at 2:30 AM on September 15, 2005