Are you MI-5 material?


Whether you’ve been watching the brilliant BBC series, MI-5 (Spooks) over the last decade,  sat through the recent Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy movie or read all the Robert Ludlum books and secretly identified with Jason Bourne, now is the time to see if you have what it takes to be a real-life intelligence officer. UK Security Services have developed a 15-minute online recruitment test where if you master the 15-minute online test, you might just find yourself invited by the Security Services to apply for a job as an MI5 intelligence officer.

The premise of the online test has a number of known foreign spies working in London who have been ordered home immediately under suspicious circumstances.

  • MI5 is seeking to find out why and if there is any potential threat to Britain’s interests.
  • Each player is given case files on two of the agents, information from an undercover agent and newspaper and police reports.
  • At the end, there are four questions to answer – each worth a maximum of eight points.

If you find yourself doing well enough, and there’s a website link to the Security Service’s How To Apply section. On the Security Service side of the equation, officials have said they intend for the test to give a more realistic insight into life inside the real MI5 than Spooks ever did. For the real Security Service, it’s not all explosions, poisonings and a higher than the law allows per episode death count.

Want to see how you stack up? Take the test here at the official MI-5 website.

A senior Whitehall source said: “…Spooks is a great TV show, but the violence can put women off applying for jobs at MI5. A career in the Service is about brain not brawn, carefully piecing together vital intelligence to protect the UK and its people.

The Security Service website is careful to say that: ‘An incisive intellect and finely balanced judgment are essential, as are outstanding verbal and written communication skills. You must be able to demonstrate resilience and the ability to cope with setbacks, as well as the ability to work well in a team and quickly establish rapport with a wide range of people.”

What are you waiting for? You could be the next George Smiley. Me? I think I’ll stick to explosions, poisonings and high body counts.


In: Action/Drama,Odds & Sods