Spy agency needs you for ‘cool job’

Meet Michelle from IT: She is bubbly, approachable, and does smiley faces on her speaking notes.

But Michelle has a secret. Michelle is an intelligence officer with the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).

The spy agency has taken the unusual step of putting forward an active staff member to talk – to a session yesterday morning on women in technology – publicly about what she does. Kind of.

‘‘My job is really, really cool and I can’t tell you much about it,’’ she told the group of about 60 people, mainly women, at Weltec in Petone.

Day-to-day, when people ask her what she does, Michelle tells people she ‘‘works in IT’’ and they don’t tend to ask further.

It is true, technically, but the real job is someone who works ‘‘every day to protect New Zealand and New Zealanders’’, GCSB director-general Andrew Hampton explained. The reason that GCSB has taken the unusuallyopen move is they want more women in IT.

The figures at GCSB paint a lop-sided picture. While 60 per cent of senior leaders there are women, only 34 per cent of all staff are women and those in technical – science, technology, engineering, or maths – roles are just 16.5 per cent women.

Before introducing Michelle – who, for obvious reasons, can only be identified by her first name – he asked the audience to take no photos.

Technically Michelle is a research and development engineer at GCSB. It is a job that, in her words is to ‘‘research and develop capabilities and innovations that will assist with the protection, collection, analysis, and dissemination of information’’.

Women are important in the role, she pointed out – when 50 per cent of the possible workforce is under-represented so are their insights on solving problems.

She is the only female in her team of 20 people.

While unable to offer any real insight into her job – other than it is ‘‘really, really cool’’ – she could talk freely about the tricky job as a woman coming up through IT.

She recalled a university computer class where, coming from a girls-only school, she was suddenly the only female there.

‘‘I was so afraid that if I tried to talk to someone they’d think I was hitting on them.’’

She got over that and, after university, applied for a software engineering job and got the highest test score ever.

‘‘I got the job,’’ her speaking notes said, followed by a smiley face. But she never started it because she was called before starting to say the receptionist had left and would she mind also filling in that job, on top of doing software development.

But it worked out, eventually, with a much-better job – even if she can’t tell people what she does. Unless, of course, they get a job at GCSB, which is now recruiting for men and women.

The real job is someone who works ‘‘every day to protect New Zealand and New Zealanders’’. GCSB directorgeneral Andrew Hampton