Careers in the armed forces and intelligence services are still sought after by graduates despite the unpopularity of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Army, Royal Navy, RAF, GCHQ, MI5 and Ministry of Defence all figure in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers league table.

The Army has risen from 18 to 15, the Navy from 70 to 52, GCHQ from 77 to 66, MI5 from 96 to 93 and the MoD is a new entry at 94. The RAF, however, has slipped from 35 to 42. There are signs that the Iraq war is deterring some graduates from applying to this service. No public data is available rating the popularity of MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service.

The Army wants to recruit more than 900 new officers in the coming year, more than 600 of whom will be graduates.

The Navy is especially keen to enlist engineering officers — marine, electrical, weapons and engineering instructors — and pilots to fly Harriers and F35 joint strike fighters.

Graduate naval officers can expect to start on £28,000 and engineering officers, 80 of whom are needed, receive a welcome bonus of £12,000.

The RAF is seeking 81 aero systems and communications specialist graduate engineer officers this year. It also wants 27 graduate doctors, nine dentists, four lawyers, eight chaplains and 28 nursing officers. Hundreds of graduate officers will also be recruited for roles as pilots, supply officers, air traffic controllers, trainers and police. Of the 535 officers appointed last year, 264 were graduates. Salaries after training start at £28,216.

In addition to a degree, candidates should possess leadership ability, a sense of adventure, communication skills, the ability to work in a team and a commitment to the service.

GCHQ, which gathers signals intelligence and protects government information systems, plans to take on 750 people over the next year. It is interested mainly in internet specialists, linguists in European languages and speakers of languages such as Mandarin and Urdu, as well as technologists and mathematicians. GCHQ has one of the largest computer installations in Europe and most of its staff work at its Cheltenham base. Executive officers start on £23,977. Nationality and residency requirements apply.

M16 recruits from every section of the community, including recent graduates. Its operational staff includes case, targeting and reports officers.Case officers plan and carry out covert intelligence operations abroad. Targeting officers use their analytical skills to build up intelligence pictures of areas of interest. Reports officers collate, assess, validate and deliver intelligence to the Government, while operational officers have to be able to analyse and solve problems.

MI5, the Security Service, which is responsible for protecting the country against threats such as terrorism, and espionage, is recruiting surveillance, intelligence and operations officers. It also needs administrative assistants and technical specialists.

Many graduates join as intelligence officers and are given their own investigative responsibilities but work as part of a wider team.MI5 has its own training academy and looks for people who demonstrate potential for different roles during their careers.

Graduates also tend to join as data analysts or to work in the language unit or IT department. The service needs people with a range of IT skills. Tasks vary from working on IT support desks, to helping to develop IT systems and providing technical analysis and capability.

The language unit is interested in recruits who understand Somali, Pashto, Kurdish Central (Kurdi, Sorani) and Arabic (especially North African dialects). In addition to being able to listen to and translate spoken communications they would have a political and cultural knowledge of a region or country.

Times Recommends

• Inspirational leadership
• How to get a new job
• The reluctant CEO