MI6 (SIS) Is Developing a Node.js, Angular, NoSQL, Hadoop System on Cloudera | Hacker News Reader

MI6 (SIS) Is Developing a Node.js, Angular, NoSQL, Hadoop System on Cloudera

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35 pointshaser_au47 comments

5 buzzwords in a row, that's a bingo! :)

You just say, bingo.

Cloudera came to town little over a year ago to work on an undisclosed project. Pretty sure given the Bosh Global Services want ads for a Hadoop developer it was to process drone images for the Iowa Air Guard.

"Bespoke software development using Java, Javascript."

I suppose this means from scratch? Seems like a very important criteria for writing applications with few external dependencies.

That also makes me curious about the approval process for selecting JavaScript frameworks at an organization like this. What is the leading factor -- maintainability?

That's how big data is done with Hadoop lots of custom JAVA - its an absolute swine to work with. (which is why a lot use python wrappers)

I used to do M/R using PL/1G back in the 80's and it was easier then than using flipping Java is today.

Is this good salary for UK?

Not for anyone with those skills. As a contractor in London they'd be looking at something between £70k and £150k+.

Makes me wonder wether our security services really are recruiting the best they can find, or just the best they can afford.

SIS sister Org was pitching people on linked-in recently my mate who is ex MI got one and laughed and joked "not on those poverty wages"

The problem is for liberal arts grads civil service wages aren't to bad but its far to low for technical specialists - and a contractor Data scientist can earn more than the PM

The idea that the PM should be earning more than the tech staff doesn't make any sense to me and isn't reflective of the contract market anyway.

The PM's salary is artificially low for PR reasons. Many many local government heads earn far more than the PM.

A lot of those figures are not really annual salary the really big figures are skewed by people taking early retirement.

Despite what everyone is saying here, the median salary in the uk is 26K. 40K puts you in the top 20% of earners. 100k would put you in the top 1%.

Although people are quite right in saying that on 40K you probably couldn't pay the rent in London.

Not at all a good salary - they will most likely get developers that have tried out some of these technologies and they will have to train on the job - people with these skills are sought after (£50K+ outside of London). Guess most important will be your personality profile, math skills and willingness / ability to quickly acquire skills.

Problem is that government organisations in the UK (and elsewhere) have to "grade" the post / position they are hiring for. The grade then defines the maximum salary they can pay on permanent positions.

Outcome of that is that there are armies of contractors where the posts then can be graded similarly but the pay can be much higher.

There are different advantages. GCHQ / CESG (and probably other services) are ASD-Friendly, especially if you're a mathematician or cryptographer. The pension is okay. There's some job stability.

Unfortunately they have cut the FS pension its going to salary average so its not as good as it once was.

And it looks like any decent FS pension is going to get taxed after the fact.

Nah, this isn't a good salary, unless you're a junior. You can earn double this if you're a half decent developer with 4/5 years experience and working for a well-known company in London.

There are good benefits from being a government employee aside from the salary especially for the police which I think MI6 would be part of. For example, great pensions and possibly very easy loans.

I think anyone fitting the bill would rather double their pay elsewhere...

Anywhere other than London, it's alright for a mid-level developer. In London, it's awful.

Not very intelligent for an Intelligence Service - they'll get people who aren't very good, and/or are looking for a way in to the SIS citadel.

The loss of performance/ability is going to cost a lot more than the nominal salary savings.

Actually, the pay band ranges from a Band B to Band C in the civil service. Band B is entry (not junior though) and Band C is just below senior. ~40K for a Band C civil service software developer in London is about average.

It's in London, so no.

Presumably you do it for Queen and country.

Or for the love of spying on others. Whatever works for you. Just be careful who you're spying on. Regular citizens - A-okay. Elites? Big no-no: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/claims-welsh-mi...

Nope, can barely pay the rent.

Hiring Full time, graduate and part-time software specialists;

https://www.sis.gov.uk/science-and-technology.html

That website has a very odd design, and is quite distracting.

"What would geeks like in a web site? Let's do that!" - People that do not understand technologists.

>You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or close family member, providing that they are British.

The latter half of that strikes me as almost laughable.

Not "laughable" because it makes sense from their political point of view, from their organization point of view. That's the same as signing NDA. You can leak it, no one can stop you, but you can face consequence if you do. How often, god knows. You are applying for M16 (there is also M15). That's the equivalent of CIA.

It's a disclaimer and a warning more than anything TBH.

It's laughable because nationality isn't an automatic criteria for trustworthiness. That's why security clearances exist.

For example, it's not hard to imagine a non-British citizen holding a clearance from a "Five Eyes" nation being far more trustworthy in that regard than a younger British citizen with a penchant for gossip.

Nationality is certainly a valid criteria, it's just not very useful on its own.

That said, I tend to agree with you; that line is probably best interpreted as an informal warning to set the tone.

In case it wasn't a typo, you might be interested to know that it's actually MI6 rather than M16. The longer form is Military Intelligence, Section 6 you see.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Intelligence_Service

Edit: If it was a typo please ignore me and have a great day!

haha. yes! :-) Thanks for catching!

No worries!

How is it any more laughable than the overarching concept of loyalty to a geographically defined nation-state?

Does this mean the end of the double-O program?

The double-O program was mostly a relic of the cold war era that, while may have been in vogue during the dying Yeltsin years and the earlier Bush years, has been getting outdated. There are obviously places that would gain from it, but we have developed more efficient means to complete the same objectives, without as much collateral damage and project bloat, if you get what I mean. The world of 2015 is agile, and quick-moving than the antiquated world of double-O program, which seemed to exist solely to justify the vast amount of infrastructure and manpower needed to support it. To put it differently, double-O program was mostly a jobs program (in terms of support staff), is not at all as glamorous as new recruits are originally made to believe, and it may be the right time for us to finally abandon the double-O frame of mind.

Nice try, C.

Nah, if that was C he‘d be writing in green ink[1]. Personally I blame the Chinese.

[1]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/5918467...

Not if you're Hornby compliant

"Secret" Intelligence Service...Seems kinda transparent to me, heh.

Heh, I guess they're banking on someone having a thing for snooping on other people's porn habits than they are getting paid.

They are going to have problems finding high calibre software developers (especially in London) who meet the eligibility criteria (No Class A drugs in the previous 12 months, no Class B drugs in the previous 6 months). Not even the UK Prime Minister himself falls into this eligibility criteria!

> previous 6 months

Cameron probably hasn't taken class A or B drugs in the previous 6 or 12 months.

There may be differing opinions about that.

In an ideal world there would be mandatory drug testing for everyone in Westminster and senior corporate management of any kind.

I think a lot of people would be surprised by the results.

Bit authoritarian makes tracking everyone's phone meta seem tame - and don't give the Home Secretary Ideas :-)

He recently stated that he hadn't used class A drugs since before he became Prime Minister. So, you know, back when he was leader of the conservative party, he did a bit of cocaine, because that's what political leaders do, and I'm fairly certain that the kind of person who did a bunch of party drugs and fucked a pig's head is totally honest about his current drug use.

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