The Student Room Group

intelligence service to IB?

Title really, I was wondering if anyone knew what the path of someone like an intelligence agent at MI6 would be if they wanted to move into finance after a while. I imagine it involves going to B-school but what would said person put on their cv? I do recall reading somewhere that when you work in that area you can’t put it on your CV and are instead assigned a job to put on there with the relevant skills. Wondering if anyone knew if this was the case or alternatively, anyone that worked in intelligence and moved into investment banking/private equity and how they went about doing it. I’m sure the agencies will have career support to aid the transition but just wondered if anyone knew specifics.
i think we need a few spies in the sweatshop that they call pirella wienberg or however it's spelt pls
Original post by JordanPWinters
Title really, I was wondering if anyone knew what the path of someone like an intelligence agent at MI6 would be if they wanted to move into finance after a while. I imagine it involves going to B-school but what would said person put on their cv? I do recall reading somewhere that when you work in that area you can’t put it on your CV and are instead assigned a job to put on there with the relevant skills. Wondering if anyone knew if this was the case or alternatively, anyone that worked in intelligence and moved into investment banking/private equity and how they went about doing it. I’m sure the agencies will have career support to aid the transition but just wondered if anyone knew specifics.

You'd have to go to business school and bank on getting hired in IB as a post-MBA associate which is always a long-shot. It is correct that you can't talk about your work or have it on your CV when moving jobs and you'd have a cover story like 'Policy Analyst at the Home Office' or something like that.

Frankly this would be a really terrible way to get into IB, you would develop very few relevant transferable skills and banks aren't really looking to hire ex-civil servants post-MBAs (this is assuming you could get into one of a dozen worthwhile business schools). Also important to note that MI5 & MI6 don't really hire many graduates even on their 'graduate' schemes and prefer to hire people with a bit more real-world experience. So yeah I wouldn't say this plan is massively viable. If you want to serve your country for a few years and then move into a corporate job then you'd be better off joining the army or navy, doing the short term contract and then doing the ex-service member schemes banks run or look at business schools (who love smart ex-soldiers). Plus you can actually talk about your experiences in the armed forces whereas if it was MI6 you'd only be able to talk about some made up IT-implementation project you didn't actually work on.
Original post by BenRyan99
This is a silly thread, firstly nobody is meant to even know anyone that's in the intelligence services. Secondly, it's not like someone is gonna comment saying "oh yes I was in MI6 and this is how I got into Goldman"..... Thirdly, they wouldn't even be able to tell recruiters they were in the intelligence services so how would it help them in getting into IB.

Firstly, that's been recognised. Secondly, few career threads on tsr ever get comments from people with lived experience (plenty of fantasists though), thirdly that's the same as your first point which was again recognised!

The security services, GCHQ and mi5 in particular, hire plenty of graduates and so i think it's pretty reasonable for someone to ask about the opportunity to do that and then move out after five years. Plus since it is all top secret where else can someone ask than an anonymous internet forum? It's not like he can walk into Vauxhall Cross and ask to speak to the graduate recruiters is it.
Original post by BenRyan99
This is a silly thread, firstly nobody is meant to even know anyone that's in the intelligence services. Secondly, it's not like someone is gonna comment saying "oh yes I was in MI6 and this is how I got into Goldman"..... Thirdly, they wouldn't even be able to tell recruiters they were in the intelligence services so how would it help them in getting into IB..

They generally have FCO on their CVs etc I believe. I knew of a few people who have gone Civil Service>Consulting>High Finance, imagine intelligence services would have to take a similar route.
Original post by Willy9981
You'd have to go to business school and bank on getting hired in IB as a post-MBA associate which is always a long-shot. It is correct that you can't talk about your work or have it on your CV when moving jobs and you'd have a cover story like 'Policy Analyst at the Home Office' or something like that.

Frankly this would be a really terrible way to get into IB, you would develop very few relevant transferable skills and banks aren't really looking to hire ex-civil servants post-MBAs (this is assuming you could get into one of a dozen worthwhile business schools). Also important to note that MI5 & MI6 don't really hire many graduates even on their 'graduate' schemes and prefer to hire people with a bit more real-world experience. So yeah I wouldn't say this plan is massively viable. If you want to serve your country for a few years and then move into a corporate job then you'd be better off joining the army or navy, doing the short term contract and then doing the ex-service member schemes banks run or look at business schools (who love smart ex-soldiers). Plus you can actually talk about your experiences in the armed forces whereas if it was MI6 you'd only be able to talk about some made up IT-implementation project you didn't actually work on.


yeah its not a way to get into IB, the way to do that would be to get spring weeks, summers etc. Its moreso i like field A but also like field B, would I be able to move into field B after working in field A for a while or not? Military seems like something I'll give a look to but I was more so interested in the intelligence collating/people managing aspects of a mi6 career. Not that I really know what a career in mi6 would even look like in fairness, just seemed like i should ask on the very off-chance someone knows if a lateral out would be possible. Thanks anyway.
Original post by Willy9981
You'd have to go to business school and bank on getting hired in IB as a post-MBA associate which is always a long-shot. It is correct that you can't talk about your work or have it on your CV when moving jobs and you'd have a cover story like 'Policy Analyst at the Home Office' or something like that.

Frankly this would be a really terrible way to get into IB, you would develop very few relevant transferable skills and banks aren't really looking to hire ex-civil servants post-MBAs (this is assuming you could get into one of a dozen worthwhile business schools). Also important to note that MI5 & MI6 don't really hire many graduates even on their 'graduate' schemes and prefer to hire people with a bit more real-world experience. So yeah I wouldn't say this plan is massively viable. If you want to serve your country for a few years and then move into a corporate job then you'd be better off joining the army or navy, doing the short term contract and then doing the ex-service member schemes banks run or look at business schools (who love smart ex-soldiers). Plus you can actually talk about your experiences in the armed forces whereas if it was MI6 you'd only be able to talk about some made up IT-implementation project you didn't actually work on.

Also for reference, I'm fairly certain MBA-->associate recruiting is very common in the states for investement banking anyway. I've got it on decent authority that a large amount of their associate pool is in fact MBA hires, unlike in the UK where MBA recruiting is much rarer. At least, it has been historically but I think recently this has begun to change, I get your point that its a long-shot since MBAs recruit for associate positions and there are naturally fewer associate positions than analyst positions at a bank. This is of course, dependent on the fact that i indeed get into an m7 MBA in the states in the first place, that being said i'm sure a Wharton MBA would go a long way not only for IB recruiting but also PE since ik they have a very robust buyside recruiting network... Getting into wharton would be a tremendous challenge though anyway - i was hoping i could rack up a few springs and then a summer internship at a bank before applying to intelligence grad schemes anyway so my CV would atleast have some finance relevance. Unsure how MBA applications even work tbh and if i can't put mi6 on the application/essay, i'd struggle to stand out i assume.
Original post by JordanPWinters
Also for reference, I'm fairly certain MBA-->associate recruiting is very common in the states for investement banking anyway. I've got it on decent authority that a large amount of their associate pool is in fact MBA hires, unlike in the UK where MBA recruiting is much rarer. At least, it has been historically but I think recently this has begun to change, I get your point that its a long-shot since MBAs recruit for associate positions and there are naturally fewer associate positions than analyst positions at a bank. This is of course, dependent on the fact that i indeed get into an m7 MBA in the states in the first place, that being said i'm sure a Wharton MBA would go a long way not only for IB recruiting but also PE since ik they have a very robust buyside recruiting network... Getting into wharton would be a tremendous challenge though anyway - i was hoping i could rack up a few springs and then a summer internship at a bank before applying to intelligence grad schemes anyway so my CV would atleast have some finance relevance. Unsure how MBA applications even work tbh and if i can't put mi6 on the application/essay, i'd struggle to stand out i assume.

oh yeah in America career changes to become MBA associates at big investment banks is a big thing - didn't realise you were interested in the states! In the UK though investment banks aren't hiring loads of MBA associates though and when they do they've normally already worked in banking but a career change like that would be a lot more normal in America.

Although important to note that UK civil service - which is what security services would be on your CV as - is not gonna be massively attractive to a Wharton or a Harvard unless you have a stonking GMAT/volunteering/and a top undergrad. You could always look at consulting and specifically public sector/defence consulting though where the experience would be relevant.

You're best bet would be to do the typical IB process and see how the summer internship goes and make a call from there though.

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