November 26, 2009 by James Oliver
GCHQ, the organisation which collates the UK’s intelligence data, has launched a recruitment campaign on Xbox Live to target what it calls ‘quick thinking 18 to 34 year-olds’. Through its use of banners, video clips and static advertisements, the campaign highlights some of the key roles within GCHQ that it hopes will appeal to gamers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that mainly consists of IT and technical roles.
It’s a far cry from how recruitment for the intelligence community used to work – a discreet chat over a brandy at Oxford or Cambridge – but that’s just evidence of how much the world and industry has changed in the digital age. GCHQ justified the campaign thus, “many potential candidates remain unaware of GCHQ and what we do. Using video on Xbox Live helps carry our message to the right people in a creative and innovative manner.”
After all it’s an idea with a history of success – a CGHQ campaign launched in 2007 within the game ‘Splinter Cell’, led to more than a 500 per cent increase in visits to GCHQ’s site.
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