Denmark’s foreign intelligence service is advertising for spies on its website, according to media reports.
Despite using ‘collector’ instead of the S-word, the “interesting and non-traditional” job opportunities at Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste (FE) have raised a few eyebrows in the media.
“You will be engaged in the physical collection of not-freely-accessible data about situations in other countries that are meaningful to Danish security and interests,” the advert reads. “The work will take place with the help of people who either possess or have access to information which is otherwise hidden from the outside world, and which FE needs for its intelligence work.”
As well as being fluent in both Danish and English, the ideal candidate for the job, which will begin in October next year, will need to have “well-developed social skills, be very outgoing, and have an easy time talking to anybody, regardless of their background.”
Similar adverts for ‘collectors’ were posted by FE in 2005 and 2008, when applicants were told they needed to be fluent in Pashto, Dari, Arabic and Farsi and able to spend long periods away from their families and friends. They were also required to take responsibility for another person’s life – and all for a meagre DKK 280,000 (EUR 36,618) a year.
Speaking to Information newspaper, senior researchers for the Danish Institute for International Studies, Bjorn Moller, said such a salary is “not very much, if you’re supposed to be responsible for other people’s lives, have other extraordinary qualities and speak a special language.”
He added that, “Those qualifications should add up to a completely different salary bracket, but, then, maybe a Porsche and a license to kill come with the package.”