Interested in joining the FBI?

You have come to the right place.

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Pursuing a Career in the FBI

Are you interested in joining the FBI or curious about what opportunities there might be?

The first thing to note is that you have many options. Follow your passions and major in whatever you would like. Because the FBI is such a large agency with so many different positions and needs there will be a position for you no matter what interests you or you should choose to major in.

Careers within the FBI

The FBI breaks down their career paths in two ways as follows:

Career Paths Operations and Intelligence:

Special Agents

Intelligence Analyst

Surveillance

Forensic Accounting

Foreign Language

Career Paths Specialized:

STEM

Arts and Communications

Business and Administration

Facilities and Logistics

Legal

Medical and Counseling

Police and Security

As I am sure you can see, there are a lot of options and there are even more specialized fields and careers within each of the fields listed above. Some of these will require a specific major and set of experiences such as being a forensic accountant which will require an accounting degree and working in STEM will require a STEM focused degree. Details and requirements for these can be found in the job requirements for each on fbijobs.gov.

However, there are also certain positions such as the infamous Special Agent that most people think of when they think of the FBI, the individuals on the street and those shown in most FBI television shows, which do not have a specific major requirement. In fact, the FBI encourages all majors to apply as they want a well rounded team not just a bunch of Political Science or Criminal Justice majors, majors you might think you would need to work for the FBI.

Undergraduate Opportunities

Another good thing to note is that the FBI has both an undergraduate internship program and an undergraduate hiring program.

First they have the FBI Honors Internship Program which is open to undergraduate sophomores, juniors, and seniors. This is a 10 week summer program where you would go to the field office you get assigned to and get an introduction working alongside FBI agents and employees. This is open to all majors and the application opens for a one month period every fall (usually around September-October).

They also have what is called the Collegiate Hiring Initiative. This program recruits graduating seniors each year to work for the FBI assisting squads and operations along with helping with business processes. There is a lot of flexibility in which majors this program is available for.

Being a Special Agent for the FBI

In the rest of this post I will be going in depth about the requirements, qualifications, and process of becoming a special agent within the FBI.

This video gives a good explanation of what the FBI is looking for, the diversity in the FBI, and what being a special agent entails.

I will begin by stating this: it is not easy to become a special agent. Although being a special agent is an entry level position within the FBI, do not think of it as your typical entry level position elsewhere.

Before I get into the specifics there are some basic commitments Special Agents must be okay with. These are taken from fbijobs.gov and include:

Be available for worldwide assignment

Work a minimum of 50 hours a week, be on call 24/7

Maintain a high level of physical fitness as the Physical Fitness Test calls for

Carry a firearm and be able to use deadly force, if necessary

Willing to arrest, execute search warrants, and other assignment which pose the risk of personal bodily harm

Be a US Citizen

Be able to obtain Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information Clearance

Be in compliance with the FBI drug policy

Considering the hiring process specifically, the Special Agent Selection System is a nine step process which is clearly shown by this diagram. I will briefly go through each part of it below.

Step 1: Application and Screening

This includes your application and all necessary forms. In order to have an eligible application one must:

Be 23-36 years of age

Have ANY bachelor's degree from a US accredited college or university

At least two years full time professional work experience, one year if you have an advanced degree

Have a valid driver's license

Meet the Physical Fitness Test (PTF) standards, which will be discussed later

Able to report to one of the 56 field offices for testing

Step 2: Phase I Test

This is a three hour computerized proctored exam with five parts:

Logic-Based Reasoning

Figural Reasoning

Personality Assessment

Preferences and Interests

Situational Judgement

More information on this test and example questions can be found on pages 5-15 of the Special Agent Selection Process Testing Overview Booklet.

Step 3: Required Information

This will include submission of your PFT self-evaluation, Critical Skills, and Self-Reported Language sections.

Step 4: Meet and Greet Session/Review Process

A meet and greet session is scheduled with one or more evaluators. This will be an in-person review of your application and validation of your information. This takes, on average, 23 weeks before one might move to the next phase.

Step 5: Phase II Test

This is your written test and a three person panel structured interview. Defined on page 36-44 of the Special Agent Selection Process Testing Overview Booklet this is a two and a half hour long proctored test that looks at applicant's ability to analyze data and compose two well-written comprehensive reports. A sample written test can be found in the booklet linked above.

Step 6: Official Physical Fitness Test

You must pass the PFT which consists of:

The maximum number of continuous situps in one minute

A timed 300 meter sprint

Maximum number of continuous push ups

Timed 1.5 mile run

You must also be able to pass a hearing and vision test along with being up to date with all immunizations and vaccinations. There is a FBI PFT App that can help you train for this and there are practice workouts in this handbook.

Step 7: Conditional Appointment Offer

This is a conditional hiring offer and is contingent upon passing a medical, background, and polygraph test.

Step 8: Background Investigation

The background investigation consists of:

Personnel Security Interview

Polygraph

Drug Test

Fingerprinting

Medical Examination

Credit and Arrest Checks

Interviews with Associates

Verification of Educational Achievements

This can take 6-18 months alone.

Step 9: Basic Field Training Course

This is where you are sent to the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia. The Academy is a 20 week long training where you learn everything you need to become an agent. You must pass all portions of this training in order to be hired as a Special Agent. This series of videos, part 1-4, provides an excellent breakdown of exactly what the academy entails. I would highly recommend watching them or reading the corresponding web pages if you are interested in learning what the different components of the academy are.

Graduation

Once you graduate the academy you can officially join the FBI as a Special Agent and will be assigned to one of the 56 field offices, shown below, based on your preferences. You will then begin work as a Special Agent.

Other Useful Information

All of this information can be found in a condensed version on this Special Agent job listing.

There are also a number of FBI employment disqualifiers which can be found on page 11 of the All You Need to Know to Apply Handbook.

As mentioned, becoming a Special Agent is not easy. It is a highly competitive position with rumors of only 3% of applicants making it through each of the nine steps and although one must have maintained a 3.0 GPA throughout college, life and work experiences are highly valued in reviewing an application.

The FBI uses the Federal Wage System for Law Enforcement Officers which means one can expect their initial pay rate base to begin at a GL-10 pay rate between $51,921-$66,996 with the projection of being able to reach a GS-13 pay rate between $78,681-$102,288 within five years on the job depending on one's level of education and experiences. This is the base rate and can fluctuate depending on which city you are located in.

Moving Beyond Special Agent

As previously mentioned, being a Special Agent is technically the entry level position with the FBI. Once you have been an agent for two years you have the opportunity to apply to specific mission-centric units including:

Hostage Rescue Team

Special Agent Bomb Tech Program

Special Weapons and Tactics

Evidence Response Team

Technically Trained Team

Operational Medic Program

More information about each of these can be found here.

Once again, these are the requirements and processes of becoming a Special Agent with the FBI but as mentioned above they have positions in all fields and those will each have their own requirements. Now that you (hopefully) have a much better understanding of what it means to be a FBI Special Agent and the process and requirements of getting there, fbi.gov and fbijobs.gov will be your best friends in learning more and preparing to apply to whichever position you feel best suited for.

[fbi-discourseinsights]

Current Topics

Have you ever wondered what the FBI is focusing on at a given time period? Or what crimes are most apparent and rising in frequency?

You have come to the right place. In this post I will be discussing a major crime coined “Sextortion” that has been occupying and worrying the FBI increasingly as it has been magnified by all of the stay at home rules imposed on our country this year and the increase of internet use. 

However, before I go into detail about that, let's start with a little background information about the FBI and some of the experts in the field so we can properly situate ourselves.

History of the FBI

The FBI was founded in 1908 by President Teddy Roosevelt who wanted a group of special agents who would work for the Department of Justice to help investigate and combat the rising crime rates that were developing as cities continued to grow exponentially.

He worked with Attorney General Charles Bonaparte to create this force and Bonaparte was the one who actually found and hired the first 34 agents that would form the FBI. Bonaparte then had his Chief Examiner Stanley W. Finch work with the Department of Justice to receive different cases and assign them to one of the 34 agents that Bonaparte had hired. It was this position of Chief Examiner that became what we now know as the FBI Director, making Finch the first FBI Director.

Here is a photo of Roosevelt and Bonaparte along with his cabinet.

The FBI Today

The FBI has since had 20 Directors, each of which I could argue was an expert in the field. The current Director, Christopher Wray, was sworn in on August 2nd, 2017 and has experience as a prosecutor, in counterterrorism, and has served on the Presidents Corporate Fraud Task Force all prior to becoming FBI Director. 

Due to the nature of the job and the sensitivity of the information being handled, it is many times difficult to find the exact names of agents that worked on individual cases, however, I would suggest that most FBI Special Agents and employees are very knowledgeable in at least a specific topic within the FBI. In certain publications and interviews an agent may be named but out of the safety of everyone, it is typically best that they remain under the umbrella name of the FBI.

Now that we know more about the FBI and those within it, let's take a look at sextortion.

What is Sextortion?

According to the FBI webpage on Sextortion, sextortion is defined as a crime that happens online when an adult convinces a person who is younger than 18 to share sexual pictures or perform sexual acts on a webcam. This can be easily thought of as extortion but done explicitly over the internet and by means of sexually loaded demands coupled with threatening a victim's family and friends while listing off personal facts about said victim.

A public service announcement by the FBI on sextortion explains more about how sextortion is done in practice, explaining that many times the crime begins with the victim believing they are communicating with someone that is their own age either looking for a relationship or who has something to offer them, neither of which are true. 

This service announcement also shows the cycle victims quickly get put into of being threatened and producing the requested explicit material, creating shame, fear, and confusion, preventing them many times from reporting it or asking for help.

In this news clip FBI Special Agent Siobhan Johnson speaks on how easy it can be for individuals to fall prey to sextortion although emphasizing that being a victim of sextortion is never one's own fault.

Cases of Sextortion

Here we see a press release discussing a case the FBI was involved in regarding the sentencing of Justin Richard Testani, a 30 year old man from Orange City who was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the sextortion of multiple young girls. 

Testani posed as a teenage girl who was a model, which is one of the techniques that the FBI’s public service announcement warned that these predators will use. This is how he convinced the girls to send him photos of themselves. He then threatened them and their families to get them to send him videos of sexually explicit conduct. 

These were just some of his methods and ways of coercion.

Unfortunately, being an online crime it is much easier for predators to take on multiple personalities and they are not limited in who they can target. This is evidenced in a FBI blog article about one particular case involving the predator Lucas Michael Chansler and asks the public for help in identifying his other victims.

Ashley Reynolds, the now 20 year old female in the video below was one of Chansler’s victims. In this video one can see how Sextortion develops so quickly and the impact it has on victims. 

As a result of Ashley stepping out and bringing her abuse to law enforcement officials, Chansler was sentenced to 106 years in prison for his sextortion of 350 teenage girls. As of when this article was written in 2015, only 105 of the girls had been identified. Of these 105, the girls were found to have been in 26 different US States, 3 Canadian Provinces, and the United Kingdom. 

The geographical reach of his terrorism and sextortion is shown in the map below.

An important aspect of the capture and sentencing of Chansler was the fact that Ashley and her parents stepped out and contacted law enforcement for help. Here we see experts Assistant Director of Victim Services Kathryn Turman, Victim Specialist Michelle Thorne, Violent Crimes Against Children Section Supervisory Special Agent Brooke Donahue, and Special Agent Larry Meyer, discuss the importance and role that the FBI’s Victim Services Division has had on this particular case and in providing resources to the victims of predators like Chansler.

Sextortion: Individuals and the FBI

Sextortion can happen to anyone and chances are that someone you know has at some point been pressured into sending photos of themselves to someone that they did not want to. This affects one's children, friends, family members, and is prevalent in every community across the nation and beyond. This is why individuals should be concerned about sextortion and its reach on those they know along with why the FBI is so dedicated to stopping and finding justice for those who have been a victim of sextortion.

The FBI remains dedicated to investigating, solving, and prosecuting cases of sextortion. Given that the Mission of the FBI begins with “Protect the American people” and one of their main priorities is to “combat significant cyber criminal activity,” they are doing just that. They want Americans, especially teenagers to be safe from all crime, especially that which can occur online in the confines of their own homes.

The FBI has launched a Stop Sextortion initiative which has included awareness campaigns in schools aimed at informing children and teenagers about potential situations they could encounter online. They are also educating schools, caregivers, and parents of risks that children face online in an attempt to keep guardians vigilant about what their children are doing online in order to keep them safe.

Resources

If you are interested in learning more about sextortion or reading other cases about it many more can be found on this search page.

If you believe you or someone you know has been a victim of sextortion in any way, or any other crime for that matter, the FBI has a Victims Services Division that wants to help. You can also reach out to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children which is dedicated to helping victims of exploitation and is how Ashley’s victimization was brought to light.

[fbi-discourseinsights]

Writing in the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Has the question “What type of writing does the FBI do?” crossed your mind?

Given that the FBI does not have major requirements for most of their positions, meaning anyone with any bachelor's degree can apply, and there are so many different branches of work and career fields within the FBI, there are many different writing genres that are utilized. For example a field agent may most commonly use field notes as their genre of writing but a forensic scientist would write forensic reports while a press secretary or field office director would write press releases most often. 

I will be using the terms insider and outsider to distinguish between writing that is for insiders, those inside of the discourse community of the FBI, and writing that is for outsiders, those who are not a part of the FBI.

Genres of Writing in the FBI

There are certain genres of writing that are meant for insiders of the FBI to communicate internally and others that are meant for outsiders, typically the general public, and these aim to educate, recruit, or garner support. Here are some of the most common genres of writing across careers within the FBI for both insiders and outsiders:

Written for insiders:

Field notes

Case reports

Witness statements

Scientific papers

Forensic reports

Written for outsiders:

Press releases

Victim aid flyers

Crime statistical reports

Promotional flyers

Depending on which division of the FBI you plan to enter you will be required to write different amounts, for example field agents would perhaps write the least as their position is much more physically oriented while an administrator who may be writing outsider support documents or legal personnel who may be doing research and writing legal documents, would be writing considerably more as their job is more writing oriented.

Given that my goal is to join the FBI as a special agent, an operations and intelligence position otherwise known as a field agent, I will be examining two different genres of writing that a special agent would either participate in or contribute to. 

Examples of Writing in the FBI

One thing to keep in mind is that nearly all of the insiders genres are pieces of writing that will typically be classified and are harder to come by samples of. Examples of scientific and forensic reports can be viewed from related professions although there is no good equivalent to insider texts such as field notes and witness statements.

First let's look at a case file I was able to find that has been declassified. Due to it being declassified there are redacted, or covered up, words throughout it but we will just be looking at it for its overall theme, layout, and use rather than for its specific case details. A case file is an insider genre of writing.

The first thing that is noticeable is the fact that it has a cover sheet, is 117 pages long, and is a combination of different genres of writing including interview notes, emails, receipts, and photographs, among other genres. This is very typical of the case file genre. Case files need to be very thorough and long, including notes of all avenues researched, individuals talked to, and evidence looked at. This means that overall they are typically written more casually or informally as the idea is to just get everything down on paper both by the agents working a case and the different individuals that are involved in it and go from there.

Another noticeable thing is that part of it is handwritten: the interview notes and subject statements. This shows that being an FBI agent requires you not only to be comfortable with different genres of writing but with both digital or typed writing and handwritten writing.

Case files are used internally between agents, especially between partners in a case who will both be writing and contributing to the case file. They are also used by higher ups in the FBI to gain insight in a case and used by lawyers and those in the legal department of the FBI to help get an overview of a case and its evidence to prepare for trial, if the given case will be going to trial. They are then stored at each field office and can be used as evidence in other cases or are kept internally for historical and record keeping purposes.

Let's look at a different form of writing in the FBI, the press release which is an outsider genre of writing. 

Looking at this press release we can see that, for starters, it is much shorter. It is only three pages long, eight pages if you include the affidavit, a written statement under oath used as evidence in court, which is included although constitutes its own genre of writing. It has logos and contact information on it labeling it so it is easily identifiable to the general public. It is a concise typed document with no fluff or unnecessary information. It is written in a direct and formal way only presenting facts. It is written to inform the public of something that has taken place, in this case the arrest of a man guilty of a 19 year old attempted murder case. 

Press releases are commonly written by press secretaries, directors of each field office, and can be partly written by special agents involved in the case, as is the case with this press release that we are looking at. They are written primarily for news outlets who will then relay the information to the general public. They may also be read on certain radio stations for those who choose to listen or used in part on social media posts as a method of informing the public. 

These are just a few examples of writing genres you could be expected to write in for the FBI. If you are interested in looking at more examples in different genres you can find many examples of outsider texts on the FBI’s Resource page. If you are interested in viewing additional declassified documents or insider texts, I would recommend checking out their “vault” collection for examples you will not be able to find elsewhere.

[fbi-discourseinsights]

About Me!

Hello, my name is Moa Smith and I am a third year student at the University of California, Davis double majoring in Political Science and American Studies with an emphasis in Criminal Justice. I have always been fascinated by the law and criminal justice. Having a heart for community service and helping others who may not have the ability to stand up for themselves, I have a strong desire to want to do my part in making this country a better and safer place. The FBI combines these qualities and offers an opportunity for me to help others and make a difference. I hope to join the FBI as a special agent (aka ”a door kicker”) which is one of their many career options which will allow me to interact with both other agents and the community I am in.

Experience

I have recently been hired by the UC Davis Police Department where I will work as a student security officer, gaining experience working with law enforcement and taking the first step of entering the larger discourse community of law enforcement. 

I had an internship this past summer working for an organization called City Impact in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco where I got to help with some amazing humanitarian and missionary work while gaining experience working with and respecting individuals from all background and walks of life which provided me with useful experience for both the the FBI and life in general.

Hobbies and Interests

Some of my hobbies include swimming, playing water polo, running (only during Covid), baking, hammocking, going to the beach, sitting at bonfires, taking road trips, watching standup comedy especially John Mulaney (whose best special, New In Town, I may or may not have memorized), and having genuine conversations with good friends.

[fbi-discourseinsights]

Welcome!

Thank you for stopping by my blog about the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which will be referred to as the FBI throughout this blog. If the FBI is a career path that you are considering or hoping to enter and would like to know more about what that entails or just find the FBI interesting, then this is the place for you.

About the FBI

The FBI is one of the nation's largest intelligence and investigative agencies. They have 56 field offices across the United States which are all working in their respective areas and with one another and occasionally with other law enforcement agencies to keep the American people safe. Take a look at this graphic which gives a good overview of their mission, core values, priorities, and vision.

What This Blog Will Address

For starters, the FBI is what we call a discourse community. This may be a new term to you, and that's okay because it was a new term to me too until a few weeks ago. A discourse community is a specific field of work or study that has specific characteristics and follows certain rules. If you are interested in learning what those requirements are, I encourage looking at the essay chapter, Understanding Discourse Communities.

We will be looking at specific genres of writing, a current topic, and job opportunities within the FBI. Given that the FBI offers a very wide range of career opportunities from careers in operations and intelligence to legal, scientific, administrative, and communication careers, there are many different genres, or types of writing that are done by different members of the FBI discourse community along with a wide range of topics discussed at any given time, and endless job opportunities.

Check out this diagram showcasing all of the different divisions within the FBI.

Prior to beginning my education I did not fully know the range of opportunities or what types of writing were done within the FBI beyond what I saw in television shows (and I would guess many of you are there with me). This blog will explore these topics in more detail and educate you on some of the different types of writing that you could expect to see or be asked to complete within the FBI.