Recruitment

[Marion]

We know from the TV show that Spectrum has at least one training base (Koala Base) and there is at least one comic story set in a training camp. Some fan fiction revolves around personnel being sent on training excercises (off-base and on).
The 1967 annual says:

(while Cloudbase was being constructed)… recruiting for personnel had already started and the committee had interviewed over a hundred applicants with outstanding characters on recommendation from World Government force officials.

Chris Drake and Graeme Bassett add that this committee worked ‘from an empty office above the Dewar-Elf shopping mall in Unity City’ and that it consisted of 7 men and 7 women, whose identities were a closely guarded secret.
So – that’s how they tracked down and recruited the first intake of agents.
How do you think they recruit the new ones? The ones we see at Koala Base, for example? It strikes me that relationships between Spectrum and the other military organisations won't remain cordial for long if Spectrum perisitently head-hunts the best of the other military personnel - but I can't quite see Spectrum having a team doing the job fairs at Universities and colleges.
And bearing in mind that the majority of Spectrum’s agents work undercover on the ground, with jobs and identities that shield their secret work, and that they may never see any action at all, who recruits them to Spectrum, and do they really know what they're involved in? They would have to know they were part of Spectrum, of course, but if they knew more than that, surely it would be a terrible security risk?
The ones that do progress to ‘field agent’ , or even to posts on Cloudbase or in designated terrestrial bases, must come from somewhere… any thoughts?

I wrote this some time ago, as I couldn't think of any other way to explain it - but this wouldn't work for everyone.

Audrey Geffen had grown up in an uninspiring and stolid family of two parents and one older sister. She had been the first member of her family for many generations to go on to higher education - winning a scholarship to study business administration and information science. It had been whilst she was at college, doing a project, she had seen the original adverts for Spectrum recruits and after much thought she had contacted the PO Box number, even though the closing date was long passed and, rather to her surprise, had received an application form and then an interview. Posted to Spectrum’s London Centre as an administrator she had worked hard and within 18 months was promoted to Lieutenant Flaxen. Then she had started her training in the use of the more esoteric equipment and, graduating in the top five of her class, she had received a call to Cloudbase as an admin lieutenant.

[hazel]

A good question!

Actually, I don't have a problem with Spectrum recruiting to its more, shall we say, conventional areas in the same way as the Armed Forces or the police do, and that would include attendance at recruitment fairs and talks at colleges, universities, etc. I'm not saying that a colour officer would go to those (although can you imagine the Careers Advice interest at school if one did!) - that would be more in the remit of the Public Relations people in the local offices.

For the more covert areas - how about internal assessment, and, yes, head-hunting around the other services. Does anyone know how secret agents like James Bond would be recruited? I'm assuming that organisations such as MI5, MI6, CIA, etc., really DO have people like that.

[Serena Lewis]

Sorry if this isn't that relevant...
I haven't decided the entire recruiting thing for 'my' characters yet, but I have decided there are 'talent scouts' all over the world, who are linked with Spectrum and alert them to potential people, talk to the people etc.
That sounds so lame now I've put it. I can't explain it properly. There is more to it than that, so don't everyone flogg me at once...

xx

[Elentari]

Here’s my take on the subject. This is a long post so bear with me….or quit now while you are ahead!

Secret Squirrels - Job Apps
Many government security organisations recruit personnel just like the armed forces, public service etc do - through newspaper advertisements, government employment notices, their own websites etc. How much a potential employee is told about the job would probably depend on what stage they are at in the interview process - I assume they might have to pass stringent police and security checks before getting the whole picture for certain jobs. Some jobs will require prior specialist knowledge and an agency wouldn’t need to headhunt. Just advertise in the normal way and only interview the applicants that already have the qualifications they need.

When you think about it, most jobs in these agencies are not the James Bond stuff anyway – they’re the usual mountains of paperwork boring desk jobs that the rest of us have to put up with. I remember reading an article somewhere (very old story and may not be current) – if you apply for a job with a security organisation, they not only run the police checks etc, they might actually tail you for a week or two just to check you out. Wouldn’t that be fun!

I don’t seen any problem with a job advertised as a Field Agent for example - let’s face it, I don’t imagine Bond’s position would have mentioned the need to have ‘a licence to kill’. It would be described in the broadest outline possible - probably with all the interesting bits left out…or in the 1960s anyway possibly even euphemistically couched. Military jobs these days are written up just like any other. Has anyone actually read the selection criteria or recruitment adverts for military jobs or with security organisations? I have, and you don’t get the impression that a James Bond or Trained Killer position is in the offing….thankfully.

I think it would be quite easy to write up a selection criteria for Scarlet’s job for example - basing it on elements of the police, the army and, perhaps to account for prolonged time spent on Cloudbase, something similar to what the navy would state regarding sea service - though fortunately on Cloudbase Spectrum personnel have a lot more room!

Spectrum Recruiting
I think in the early days of the organisation it would be essential to recruit from other armed forces - much as when the world’s air forces became separate organisations many of their earliest members transferred from other services...especially the service that formerly owned the planes.

But fairly quickly Spectrum would have set up their own training establishments. From memory Koala Base mentions cadets which implies officer training, but elsewhere in the world Spectrum bases would exist for training other ranks (an initial recruit school for example), plus their own specialist schools for subjects as diverse as engineering, flying, catering, languages, supply, clerical, physical training, communications - whatever is required. Some courses could be taught in-house and others may require a combination of outside university instruction and in-house military training.

That’s the way it’s done in the military these days and I don’t imagine it would be all that different in 2068. You see an advert for a job as an electrical engineer in the army for example, and among all the technical training would be the understanding that standard military procedures would also be taught. If you only wanted a 9 to 5 job then it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to join the army in the first place. Mind you, I have the suspicion that even if posted to a potentially dangerous place there may be occasions when the job is not as interesting or as exciting as you’d hoped. Such is the nature of work nowadays.

Secret Identities
I think colour officers could quite easily visit places on recruitment drives - they wouldn’t be introduced under their real names and it’s likely they would not be sent to places where they would have been well known prior to joining Spectrum. They could also attend in civilian clothing - to provide expert knowledge without actually revealing who they are or what rank or position they hold. They’d be the ‘icing on the cake’ though - most of the personnel at these drives would be from Public Affairs or in some clerical capacity to handle all the paperwork - not to mention doling out the free stickers, pens, mouse mats and the like.

I have been thinking about what people who currently work under special circumstances might do - such as those that are in the Special Air Service (SAS). By agreement the media does not show the faces of members of the SAS on TV, in newspapers etc for security reasons. But it also stands to reason not all SAS personnel would live in service accommodation or be always away in the world’s hotspots. Some I imagine would live in their own houses with their families in ordinary suburbs. So, taking a wild guess my idea is they could:
a. go to and from work in civilian clothes and get changed into their uniforms at work.
b. SAS members have their own coloured berets for example, so they could wear the army uniform but with standard accoutrements such as peaked caps or plain berets/lanyards etc - enough to designate them as army without giving away any specific corps or regiment.
c. and just another thought - I suppose by and large if they wore the coloured beret ‘in the street’ so to speak how many members of the public would recognise its significance anyway?

For those Spectrum personnel like the garage attendant in the pilot episode (a character quite close to my heart) , if he’d had a wife and family he could quite easily tell them he worked for Spectrum - as a mechanic. No more no less. It would be the truth and there would be no need to say anything else about it … such as having an SPV stashed away in a truck. What they chose to tell their neighbours or other acquaintances is another matter. He might describe his job as ‘a mechanic contracted to work in a government owned facility’ if he wanted to mention anything about it at all beyond ‘I work as a mechanic’. I imagine his neighbours would be more interested in the possibly of getting their cars serviced at a discount than wanting to know if he might also be a secret agent. As long as he did nothing to bring attention to himself I reckon they’d never find out. Think of how many stories on the news end with; ‘…but he/she was such a quiet and polite person - I had no idea’. It’s not such a stretch, is it?

Ah well - there endeth my ideas on working for Spectrum. Time to wake up folks!

[Marion]

Thanks for your post on recruitment, Elentari, it gave me some food for thought.
I suppose the basic idea that they could recruit to the lesser posts - where security didn't mean they had to have anonymity -and then, when a candidate showed promise, move them into a special training environment, is what that appeals most to my fan fiction writing instincts.
On a more mundane level, I wonder if they trawled for suitable locations for the SPVs and then recurited someone to look after them, while doing a day job (I'm thinking of that trapper out in the wilds of Canada who had an SPV in his shed...) or if they found the person first and then assigned them to a location somewhere.
They certainly keep the SPVs in some odd places - the trapper's shed, and the desert retail emporium are good examples! I mean, how many people are likely to drop by a shop in the middle of a desert to buy baskets?
Just imagine if you fancied yourself as the next colour captain but found yourself baby-sitting an SPV in the backstreets of some city, or the middle of nowhere. They'd end up with a lot of disgruntled staff.

[Elentari]

If Spectrum was like current military organisations I reckon you'd just go where you were sent. However, as the custodians of SPVs and the like have to blend in with their surroundings, so to speak, I imagine they would send people who already have the necessary skills (perhaps even learned before they joined Spectrum) to fit in at whereever it is they have to go. Some locations would be less specialised and finding suitable people might be less of a problem.

Also, in the modern world is an option called 'posting preferences' where military personnel can nominate their top three (I think it's three) places they'd like to be transferred to on their next posting. That's not to say they'd always get a place on their list but it's possible.

Here's an Even Worse Scenario - you ARE the next colour captain but due to cutbacks or something you've still been tasked to babysit an SPV in the middle of nowhere!