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Well so far its probably been Army -> Mi5 so for all you James Bond wannabes Mi6 has made a website http://www.sis.gov.uk/output/Page4.html personally i think people in Mi6 should be 'selected' because there the best in Britain not the other way round with people chasing Mi6 for a job because they want to get involved in 'top secret ops' and 'black ops'

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One has a choice of I'M A SCAMMER SPAMMER!!!, bedroom, home office and lounge dining furniture and the other........erm...doesnt.

Mi5 is run by the Home office and usually deals with threats in the UK and Mi6 is run by the Foreign office and usually deals with threats abroad.

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MI5 deals with domestic intelligence while it's sister MI6 deals with foreign intelligence.

I've always had the view that if you want a career with them then you have to look for them, and not other way round...

Apparently MI6 still have a large recruitment network running through professors at Oxford / Cambridge / London universities. Idea is those who impress them and possesses the right talents get a letter in their last year inviting them to an interview with the 'Foreign Office' (happened to at least one friend of mine, and it was pretty widely known which professor it was). So it seems they can come looking for you as well.

But then the life of an analyst is somewhat less exciting than 007, Spooks or 24 would have you believe.

PS Para_Hopeful, no western governments (does Israel count as a western govt, I wonder?) publicly condone assassination, let alone admit to practicing it, so whatever you read it from should probably be ignored.

PPS As far as my very limited knowledge on the subject goes, I believe that by far the most reliable route into MI6/MI5 remains through the Forces or Police services; this open recruitment has a lot more to do with PR than a serious lack of candidates.

In the past the recruits were almost exclusively (apparently) from the Uni set, but times have changed and they need a broader range of skills, particularily on the language front. With increased ethnic diversity in the UK they now have a broader range of cultures to try and recruit from who may have a stronger bond (no pun intended) to the UK. They also seem to have woken up to the fact that just because you didnt go to Uni doesnt make you a non starter on the spying game.

I've always had the view that if you want a career with them then you have to look for them, and not other way round...

Its all about who and what you know. No further comment