Gary Cutlack - 

The UK government’s secret and not-so-secret intelligence services are openly advertising for new blood, claiming the next generation of Q operative might get to work with technology they “never even knew existed.”

The recruitment campaign, which is backed by GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, is pushing a scheme based around Higher Apprenticeships, which offer more specific training and on-the-job learning in the key areas of IT and communication, promising successful applicants a future of working with cyber-crime and possibly getting involved in counter-terrorism.

Even if that just means listening in to other people’s phone calls and reading their text messages all day, it could still be quite fun. The apprentice roles are advertised with a starting salary of £17k, so don’t go imagining yourself behind the wheel of an Aston Martin just yet.

And even if you’re not interested in working for the government or working at all, GCHQ’s current IT department has put together a really posh recruitment site, which does all that clever modern scrolling stuff to tell the (possibly entirely fictional) stories of current trainees. [CIBI via The Register]