ASIS turns to Vogue Australia to find recruits

As a privately funded STEM/Technical educational agency SubMatts has freeview reproduced the following Australian government owned ABC News article of July 5, 2026 already freely available at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-05/spy-agency-turns-to-vogue-to-recruit-women-in-stem/106875108 :

"Why Australia's most secretive spy agency is turning to Vogue Australia to find recruits

By defence and national security correspondent Tom Lowrey

• Topic:Security Intelligence

10h ago10 hours ago

Spy boss Kerri Hartland (right) [and see her on the ASIS website] speaks to Edwina McCann at the Vogue Codes Australia summit. (Supplied: LinkedIn)

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A year or so ago, one of the country's most secretive government officials took a seat on a cream-coloured couch at Vogue Codes, an annual summit for women in STEM and tech hosted by Vogue Australia.

As director-general of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), Kerri Hartland rarely speaks in public.

All of the work she and her agency do is kept secret. Ms Hartland is one of just three members of the agency who can be publicly named.

She was interviewed by Edwina McCann, the editorial director of Vogue Australia, and they discussed how an innate understanding of what makes people tick is at the centre of the spy agency's work.

Understanding motivations and relationships, people are at the heart of what we do," Ms Hartland said.

ASIS is Australia's foreign intelligence service, working in secret overseas to protect Australian interests.

It sits alongside Australia's other intelligence agencies, such as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), which covers domestic security issues, and the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), which manages threats online.

The appearance at the Vogue summit marked the start of an unusual public pivot for the agency.

ASIS returned to Vogue Codes a few weeks ago, not just speaking at the public event, but signing on as a supporting partner alongside companies such as Qantas and QT Hotels.

The agency has launched a new-look website, joined social media platforms such as Instagram, and the director-general appeared on Mamamia podcast Seize the Yay.

It is a turn that has taken plenty in national security circles by surprise. One remarked that when seeing ASIS had sponsored the Vogue event, they thought ASOS (the online clothing retailer) had been misspelled.

But the purpose is clear. It is a recruitment drive, and ASIS clearly wants to attract a different type of person to the organisation than those it is currently bringing in.

In a statement to the ABC responding to questions about the recent media appearances, Ms Hartland said as much.

"We aren't just looking for qualifications, we are looking for qualities: strong interpersonal skills, the ability to read a room and engage effectively with others," she said.

"That's why we are focused on attracting a diverse workforce whose perspectives and strengths directly enhance the impact we deliver for government."

Another close watcher of the country's intelligence agencies framed the recruitment challenge facing the sector somewhat differently.

"We can't just hire dweebs," they said.

How to hire a secret agent

A number of spy agencies around the world have been struggling with recruitment.

British spy agency MI6 launched a new recruitment campaign a few years ago targeting a new generation of spies.

West struggling to recruit next generation of spies

Being a secret agent might seem like a glamorous job, but agencies in the West are struggling to attract the next generation of spies.

Recent posts on its social media pages suggest, like ASIS, it is targeting women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). 

And the CIA launched a campaign a few years earlier aiming to put a human face on its workforce, but it suffered a harsh reception. 

ASIS's leadership often points to the CIA and MI6 as its closest partner agencies, but it is arguably more secretive in its work than either of its international counterparts.

One of the most obvious challenges is agencies like ASIS are offering a job they cannot publicly describe, beyond vague terms such as "building trusted relationships" and "thinking creatively".

Little is known about the work ASIS does, where it is operating, and what it is working on.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has referred to assistance from ASIS in assessing the risk posed by the ISIS brides returning from Syria, or the investigations into the Bondi terror attack.

And former director-general Paul Symon used a speech in 2022 to describe work carried out by an ASIS agent evacuating sources at the Kabul airport, as Afghanistan fell back under Taliban control in 2021. 

But the agency appears open to sharing a little more about what life looks like as a spy, and is making its pitch to a specific audience.

Conflict zones and cocktail parties

Responding to questions about ASIS's publicity pivot, Foreign Minister Penny Wong made it clear the agency was looking for a different kind of candidate from what it had previously sought.

"There's no such thing as a typical ASIS officer anymore,"

she said.

"In a more contested world Australia needs people who think differently, solve problems and bring fresh perspectives.

"By reaching new audiences and looking beyond the usual recruitment channels, we're encouraging more people to consider a career in helping keep Australia and Australians safe."

For ASIS, the appeal of partnering with events such as Vogue Codes is the people it puts the agency in touch with: women starting out in careers in tech or science, or building businesses in a highly competitive industry.

Partnering with Vogue, and offering interviews to platforms that target female audiences, such as Mamamia, suggest that the agency wants to recruit more women.

In a first for the agency, ASIS gave the Seize the "Yay" podcast [seemingly depicting Giggling Gerties when, professionally, they would be more composed] the opportunity to interview two unidentified female serving ASIS officers, who offered rare insights into what intelligence work actually looked like.

One of the officers described working overseas in "high society, high political echelons".

"If you think of the pop-culture kind of tuxedo-wearing spy, I would be the cocktail dress-wearing equivalent of that," she said.

The second officer described her work as more "whiskey tango foxtrot".

"I have done a lot more work in war zones and high physical threat locations," she said.

But both described the core skill required among those who wanted to work for ASIS as "superior interpersonal skills".

"If you don't have the interpersonal elements and if you don't enjoy and are not curious about engaging with others, this will not be the job for you," one told the podcast.

Spying in the social media age

Some close watchers of the country's spy agency say the targeted recruitment campaign does not strike them as a great surprise.

Chris Taylor, a senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said ASIS was caught in the same bind as other spy agencies — competing against the private sector [and not to mention certain free, open, independent, enthralling websites :] for the country's top talent.

"There's a really tight market for really capable, innovative young people," he said.

"And there's the challenge of being able to advertise opportunities for employment in organisations that are otherwise having to be quite circumspect about what particularly they do."

Mr Taylor said there was another recruitment challenge facing agencies like ASIS.

Almost everyone who works for ASIS is forbidden from publicly disclosing their work, including once they leave the service.

It means simple milestones enjoyed by most Australians, such as celebrating career achievements [eg. checkout SubMatt's  pageview tally :] on social media, is impossible.

Mr Taylor said convincing people to take up an interesting and challenging career, but live a life of relative anonymity, could be tough.

"The idea that you might have the opportunity to go and do amazing things and have amazing achievements, but not necessarily be able to advertise those to the broader world, that's quite distinct, I think, from where the broader culture is going in terms of seeking recognition from the outside world."

Liberal MP Andrew Wallace, the deputy chair of parliament's Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, said he had been surprised when he saw the Vogue sponsorship.

But he said he was also pleased to see the agency actively chasing the people it saw a need to recruit.

"It's important that we attract our best and brightest,"

he said.

"And sometimes those best and brightest come from and should come from varying fields, whether they be our tech sector, our legal sector, our financial sector, but also from everyday life."

And he said the type of people at an event like that were exactly who the spy agency needed to be targeting.

"It doesn't surprise me that they're out there talking to young women with a tech background," he said.

"And they should be looking at all people from all different walks of life because that's a microcosm of Australian society.""