Graduate Careers

Job description

MI5 protects the UK from threats to national security, such as terrorism and espionage. How? By gathering intelligence and working closely with our partners, we detect such threats and work out ways to stop them.

Opportunities with MI5

For graduates, theres our Intelligence Officer Development Programme, which covers the first four years of an Intelligence Officers career. Its designed to teach you about investigations and give you the skills to run them. Graduates can also join our Intelligence and Data Analyst Development Programme: a structured two-year programme where youll analyse and interpret data thats vital to our investigations. Then, theres our Technology Graduate Development Programme; another structured programme that equips you to work in our pioneering IT function. For graduates looking for a rewarding career in corporate services, theres the role of Business Enabler. Finally, graduates can also join as Russian or Mandarin analysts.

If youre not ready for a graduate career yet, you can get experience through an internship. We offer a number of placements every year, including technical, financial and commercial internships.

Working here

A career at MI5 is like no other. Not only is it rewarding and unique, but the variety here is like no-where else. It is this variety that means most people stay at MI5, as theyre able to fulfil all their career ambitions here without ever having to leave. As an Investors in People accredited employer, were committed to helping everyone develop throughout their career. We also offer an excellent range of benefits to recognise and reward their vital contribution. Acknowledging our staff is an important part of our success.

To find out more, please visit our careers site.

At MI5 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodiverse conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce.

What we are looking for

Whatever role or area interests you, youll need ingenuity, attention to detail and a gift for communication and solving problems. However, beyond that, we dont recruit a particular type of person.

Our unique work relies on people with unique perspectives, so we welcome applications from everyone - regardless of age, experience, cultural backMI6und or sexual orientation. Were also a Disability Confident employer, which means were committed to ensuring a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for a role will be offered an interview.

To be eligible to apply, you must be a British Citizen. One of your parents must be a British Citizen or must have the nationality or citizenship from our approved list of countries. If you hold dual nationality, of which one component is British, you will nonetheless be considered. Candidates must normally have been resident in the UK for seven out of the last ten years. This is particularly important if you were born outside the UK. You can apply at the age of 17 years and 6 months, if successful you will not be offered a start date prior to your 18th birthday. Discretion is vital. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member. Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside of the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. Further information on our eligibility criteria can be found on the Applying section.

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