Could you be Q?
MI6 advertises for tech chief... but is job description error a wily test or worrying blunder?
MI6’s famed fictional gadgetmaster, Q, once quipped to James Bond: ‘ I never joke about my work, 007.’
But an error spotted yesterday in a job description for Britain’s secret intelligence service’s new ‘ Director General Q’ suggests someone isn’t taking the role quite as seriously as the films made out.
MI6 posted an advert saying it was looking for a technology chief to help ‘disrupt activity to promote the UK’s interests’. The mistake in the wording, suggesting spies actually work against Britain’s interests, appears in a release by recruitment agency saxton Bampfylde. It is the first time MI6 has publicly advertised for someone to fill the role of its most famous boffin.
Officially known as Director General Q, the new recruit will be one of the deputies to MI6 chief Richard Moore, who is known as ‘C’. The spy gadget expert was memorably portrayed by Desmond Llewelyn in the Bond films. He famously remarked to sean Connery’s Bond in Goldfinger: ‘I never joke about my work, 007’. In the films, Q has produced sports cars that turn into submarines, phones that electrocute people and bagpipe flame-throwers. More recently the role has been played by Ben Whishaw.
Whether such fantastical weapons are available to modern day spies remains doubtful. But the advert promises the successful applicant will ‘turn disruptive technologies from threats to our operations into opportunities’.
Potential candidates must be a ‘senior, entrepreneurial leader, with experience leading a cutting-edge digital, technology or engineering business’. Applicants can only discuss their wish to apply with a partner or close family member as ‘discretion is an essential factor in the recruitment process’.
saxton Bampfylde were unavailable for comment about the apparent error last night. Applications must be received by May 26.