Single-stage interview, facilitated via WebEx. I have experience with one of the other UK intelligence agencies from earlier in my career, and perhaps this played a factor in securing a job offer so quickly. The interview was with 4 people and lasted about 2.5 hours. There were very few technical questions for such a senior role. Mainly just cultural fit and STAR -type questions. ("What would you do if?...", "Tell me about a time when...", and "You might see some terrible things in the course of your work, how would you cope with that?") Anyway, having been through DV clearance before, I thought I knew what to expect there. (A wee bit of disorganisation, but a thorough if fair look at what I'd been doing since I was last cleared.) Last time it took 3 months from conditional offer to clearance to work. This time was very different. Instead of using their own vetters, all Government departments now use a dedicated vetting service called UKSV. That's where the problems started. First of all, they send you an email with login instructions, and a password via post. I could tell via the postal letter than they'd sent my login details (including my name and job title) to the wrong email address. Given they'd already used the email address I supplied to conduct my video interview, emailing the wrong address is a mistake that just simply shouldn't be possible. You should never be manually reading an address, and re-typing it into another system. That's a systemic error. Given this body is meant to be responsible for UK cyber security, it's disappointing to see such a basic mistake of process. But worse, when I contacted them to try and sort it out, it took several ignored emails and passings of the buck to get the problem even recognised and then sorted out. About 4 months after my conditional offer was made, when I'd already turned down a competing role and ultimately secured employment elsewhere, I was eventually contacted by a vetter. They wanted me to travel 300 miles to meet them. I could have done so if they'd contacted me at any point between my conditional offer and then. But it was a non-starter when I was starting a new job (as a contractor with another Gov dept.) When I'd previously gone through DV clearance, the vetters visited me at home, and visited my referees at their home. That's important for doing a thorough background check. How do they know what your home life is like if they don't see it first hand? You could live with a Russian spy or junkie for all they would know. If a face to face is all that's required, why not use WebEx like they did in the interview for the job itself? Might make the process quicker, and would be no less accurate? But really, best practice is to visit subjects at home. Given the delays and mistakes, I pulled out of this role, and let GCHQ know by phone and email. But the disorganisation I alluded to above meant that I was still contacted for months afterwards, checking up on "how my vetting was going?" I found this recruitment experience disappointing, as I genuinely wanted to contribute to the UK's cyber security at what is an extremely difficult time in international politics. I was prepared to take a £20k pay cut to do so. But it's difficult to see how they will recruit people with the right calibre with their current approach. UKSV presently has a backlog of about 25,000 cases to get through. How many of the best people do you think will wait for them to get their act together, just to work for less pay in a more dysfunctional environment?