The secret salaries of spies

Budding spies, listen up: your country needs you, writes Rebecca Martin.

Like a cliched movie plot, I am given a day and a time but it is only an hour or so before the appointed meeting that I learn more details.

"Meet us at the Four Seasons Hotel," says a man who identifies himself only as Glen.
 
"Stand by the stairs and we'll find you."

Glen is already waiting when I arrive.

Dressed neatly in a suit, he offers a firm handshake before ushering me over to some seats and introducing his colleague Mark, who is in charge of corporate services.
 
Nobody would guess that they work for Australia's Domestic Security and Intelligence Organisation, ASIO.

That's just the way an ASIO operative likes it.

Charged with ensuring the security of Australian interests, discretion is the backbone of the organisation.

Everyone who works there, from the cleaners to the director-general, has top-level security clearance, having passed stringent background checks to ensure they are "stable, reliable, trustworthy and discreet", Glen says.

"The checks can take several months" he says.

Budding spies should brush up on their credentials as ASIO has been bolstering its numbers since a 2005 review found the organisation was shorthanded.

Those interested don't need to sit back and wait for a shadowy figure in a panama hat to pass them a note at the railway station.
 
ASIO is just as corporate as the next organisation, with a lengthy recruitment process involving resumes, interviews and the usual battery of psychometric testing.

To get a job you need to send an application to ASIO's human resources department.

"In the '50s, '60s and '70s we recruited the old way, with a tap on the shoulder" Glen says.

"These days we advertise in Woman's Day and on radio. We recognise that the world is changing and how potential applicants search for jobs has changed."

Spies have an impossibly cool image. According to the movies, the job involves high-octane danger, beautiful people, high-tech gadgets and a licence to kill.

In real life, things are a little more mundane. Glen assures me a career with ASIO is not as dangerous as one with the military.

 Whether or not operatives get to use high-tech gadgets is considered more than I need to know but it is made clear that operatives don't carry guns. Like the rest of us, they call the police for serious muscle.

"The term spy has fictional attributes, although some of those [attributes] we do look for, like self-confidence, initiative and resilience. Those sorts of things are valuable, though they are not expressed in the same way as the movies. They tend to take a more nuanced and subtle approach." Glen says

ASIO operatives broadly fall into three categories.

Surveillance officers are out in the field monitoring activity on foot and by car.

Back at the office are the analysts, who make sense of information, whether it's code breaking or deciphering political statements.

Then there are the intelligence officers (IOs). They are the anonymous yet public face of ASIO, dealing with police, the public and foreign agency sources.

With no weapon to force information, these officers need charisma to coax out information.

"IOs are characterised as professionals that could fit into any other environment," Glen says.
 
"Rather than the bland guys in suits, we are looking for people that have a quiet sophistication and a presence that means they can engage with other people."

Andrew, 32, has been an Intelligence Officer for five years and fits the engaging description.

Although our conversation over the phone comes with protocols, such as not mentioning ASIO by name or his job title, that doesn't stop him from being chatty and friendly.

Previously a civil engineer, Andrew was scouring police websites looking for a career change when he found a link to the ASIO job page.

"I liked to talk with people and like teamwork. I'd worked as a project manager and enjoyed drawing in expertise from different people and areas to achieve outcomes where there were time pressures and restrictions."

He says not being able to talk about his job to anyone, with only his nearest and dearest knowing where he works, is not as big an issue as it would seem.

"All my friends and family just want to know that I am happy and healthy in my job. They don't want to know what I do day to day."

Beth, 26, has been a Surveillance Officer for the past three years.

She was working as a scientific research assistant when she saw the job ad in The Sydney Morning Herald and decided to "take a leap of faith".

She also doesn't have any problems with the secrecy.

"Once you are in the organisation, you can respect the fact that information must remain secret.
 
If you want to talk to someone, it has to be someone you work with," she says.
 
"In my experience, you travel quite a bit, and when you travel together, you build strong bonds with each other, so it's very social."

You won't earn a fortune working for ASIO.
 
A trainee intelligence officer will start on about $60,000 but a trainee surveillance officer earns between $40,000 and $44,000, increasing to about $82,000 with experience.

Published: 20 September 2008