For those who were inspired last night.....

[JHyde]

Either that or she's just curious why you spend so much time on the computer!

[Nitrus]

I could live with £80k to be an Oracle Professional!! ha!

[Lucasfan]

I signed the Official Secrets Act.......oh dear, I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you.......

[almh]

You're not killing me before Harry and Ruth get together and live happily ever after! You kill me before I see that happening and I'll kill you joking.

[Lucasfan]

[Sidney Reilly]

I did find this on the MI5 website, a day in the life of an intelligence officer:

Day in the Life: Intelligence officer
...of Helen, the Intelligence Officer, North African terrorism in the UK

09.00 Listen to my voicemails while my computer completes the logging-on process. One of my messages is from Sara, an Arabic Transcriber. She's monitoring the telephone calls of one of our targets (a suspected terrorist) and has called to let me know that he's expecting a visitor from overseas and has arranged to meet this person at 11am tomorrow in a hotel in Brighton. Sara's written report of the telephone conversation is on its way to me. Task Jon, one of our Admin Assistants, to run the name of this 'visitor' through our databases asap. We learn that the visitor is a significant member of a terrorist group based overseas. Therefore I ask Jon to start an initial and temporary file on him. Also ask him to run checks on the visitor's mobile phone number, which was mentioned during our target's conversation, to see whether the number has come to our attention before.

09.15 Phone the Surveillance Section to find out whether it's feasible to send a team along to cover this meeting tomorrow. Agree to attend a briefing for the surveillance teams at 2pm. I'll need to tell the teams everything we know about the people attending this meeting, and I'll have to explain what we need them to find out. I'll also need to seek the necessary internal authorisation under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to proceed with surveillance coverage, justifying my reasons and explaining why it is necessary.

09.30 Spend about half an hour bringing my boss (known as a Group Leader) and the rest of my team up to date on this investigation and on other leads that have come in overnight and to talk about our strategy for the next stage of the investigation.

10.00 Type a note for the file to record what has been agreed for the next stage.

10.30 Grab a moment to make a cup of coffee and go through a few of the items in my in tray. This includes an assortment of emails from various police forces on other investigations and one urgent bit of work with a deadline of 5pm today - an assessment report for my boss to present to a foreign liaison visitor coming to Thames House tomorrow. There's also a warrant to renew, but that can wait until tomorrow as it's not due until next week.

11.00 Telephone Metropolitan Police Special Branch to give them a 'heads up' on this latest lead. We need to keep them informed of any new information in case we need their back up. Also bring the Sussex Police Special Branch up to date, as the meeting will be taking place in their force area. Promise to send written follow-ups to both forces in due course to confirm what's been agreed during our telephone conversations.

11.15 Start working through the contents of my in-tray but get interrupted by Jon's return with the completed database and telephone checks. They've yielded some promising results.

11.30 Return to the in-tray! Reply to various emails and mark other paperwork up for filing. Nip down to the sandwich bar to get something for lunch and manage 30 minutes in the gym.

13.50 Head off in good time to make the surveillance briefing. The surveillance teams will be tasked with following the contact and identifying any vehicles that might be used and/or addresses he enters. They will also attempt to take photographs of the visitor and any other individuals accompanying our target.

14.30 At the end of the briefing return to my section and update our Group Leader. Pop upstairs to speak to Sara face-to-face about the original telephone call and to see whether she's obtained any new information.

15.15 Spend an hour and a half on the assessment report for the liaison visitor coming to Thames House tomorrow. Manage to finish it a comfortable 15 minutes before the deadline.

17.15 Get a phone call from a colleague in the Service's training section. Am I available next Friday morning to give a 45-minute presentation on the work of my section to a group of visitors from the DST (the French equivalent of the Security Service)? Check my diary and confirm I will do it.

17.30 Get to Victoria station just in time to catch my usual train.

[HellsBells]

Paperwork, meetings and deadlines.......just another office job !!!

[RoninExec]

How dull... Sounds like my job.

Well, what did you expect ?
If "Spooks" were to exactly replicate IOs's real life, it would bore viewers to death. A single investigation would take the most of 20 seasons, NOT including surveillance time !!
Police work is far more rewarding (on a daily basis) than intel work. Take my word for it.

[Sidney Reilly]

It did strike me as and office job that just happens to be dealing with security issues, but an office job none the less. I suppose the vast majority of the work the security services do is extremely mundane but it's probably this work that leads to any successes that they have. Still if I want an office job as entertainment I can have that 9-5 Mo-Fri, but surely MI5 must have someone running around London defeating terrorist plots at the last second with the timer on the dirty bomb stopped at 003 seconds and the such forth. All in all though keep my Spooks just the way it is and I'll be sitting on the edge of the sofa every time it's on.

[RoninExec]

Nooope... That would be the Met's job, probably CO 19, or SO 18 if it were at Heathrow...
IOs do NOT run around London waiving pistols and driving like maniacs. They are a civilian agency, remember? Can't even arrest a dude !!