How To Become An MI6, CIA Agent: UK, US Spy Agencies Seek To Recruit More Women, Ethnic Minorities

After CIA designed posters to recruit women, MI6 is following in their footsteps. It was revealed Friday that the British intelligence agency is releasing a 30-second recruitment advertisement to run in cinemas in London, the West Midlands and North West England for a month.

“We have to go out and ask these people to join us… I want everyone to know that, regardless of background, if you have the skills we need and share our values, there is a future for you in MI6,” Alex Younger, head of MI6, was quoted saying by Guardian in an interview published on Thursday.

In the video, a young woman can be seen demonstrating people skills and emotional intelligence in everyday situations. The ad then tells us that she does not work for MI6.

"But she could," concludes the advert.

The premier British intelligence agency made famous through the Hollywood films about fictional spy James Bond — a character based on the books by Ian Fleming — is reportedly launching a recruitment campaign next week and is seeking to up its strength to 3,500.

Aiming to promote diversity, the officials are looking for women and minorities. It is also reintroducing the old, informal “tap on the shoulder” method of recruitment.

“That was the only way of recruiting people, a tap on the shoulder. That was the way I was recruited,” Younger told the Guardian.

Across the Atlantic, though, a freedom of information request last year revealed that instead of a tap on the shoulder, the CIA had made a series of posters for the same goal. In fact, the need for the promotion and recruitment campaigns of both the agencies also seems more or less similar.

For instance, the MI6 ad had an accompanying press release that said that the advert aims "to attract people who rule themselves out of a career in MI6 based on their misconceptions about the agency," according to the BBC.

And for the CIA's stated aim, in a document entitled "CIA TARGET SEGMENT OVERVIEW—WOMEN," the agency says: “The target has some familiarity with the CIA, but most knowledge is superficial and stereotypical. In general, women believe the CIA is full of spies and white men in suits who are reserved, but intelligent."

It goes on to add, in a seemingly condescending and patronizing tone, that women are supposedly "intimidated by the secretive, aloof image of the CIA and do not understand anything about the internal environment of the agency or the agency's culture."