Pressured by his mother, who feared that the truth of his illness would come out and bring shame to the family, he submitted his resignation from Sandhurst to become effective 1 September 1927. After leaving Sandhurst he attended the Tennerhof, an experimental private school in the Austrian Alps. There he read widely, traveled around Europe, studied languages, took up skiing and mountain-climbing, and continued his active pursuit of amorous adventures.
Fleming also spent some of his time preparing for the Foreign Office examination, which he took in 1931. He ranked twenty-fifth of the sixty-two who sat for the rigorous examination, not nearly high enough for any of the three positions available. Through his mother's influence he obtained an interview with Sir Roderick Jones of the Reuters news agency. Fleming impressed Jones with his language abilities, wide-ranging knowledge, and manner, and Jones hired him on a trial basis at a salary of £300 per year. Fleming reluctantly moved in with his mother at her Chelsea home until he could make enough money to live on his own.
Fleming did well at Reuters, and after more than a year of routine editing and reporting he was sent to Moscow in April 1933 to cover the trial of six British engineers working in the Soviet Union who were being tried for sabotage, espionage, and bribery.
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