What University Should I Go to Become a Fbi Agent?
Are you lot interested in protecting your country from national security threats and investigating serious crimes? If so, and then a career as an FBI agent might be for you. TV shows and movies may offering an exaggerated portrayal of an FBI agent's duties, but the Bureau does perform exciting, potentially dangerous work, the duties of which fall far outside the realm of most typical careers.
Law enforcement, which includes agencies similar the FBI, is a field that's always in high need, and there's enough of earning potential for FBI agents. Co-ordinate to the FBI'due south website, most agents earn a bacon of about $80,000 per twelvemonth within five years of joining the agency.
If you think a career in the FBI might exist for you, this guide will give you lot an overview of how to get an FBI agent, including educational requirements and an outline of the rigorous screening process applicants must consummate. You'll also discover information on typical FBI amanuensis salaries and what information technology takes to advance in this unique and heady career path.
What Does an FBI Agent Exercise?
The job duties of an FBI amanuensis vary depending on the instance they're working, the skills they possess, and the role they play at the bureau. Each day or case can atomic number 82 to taking on different tasks, and even the bureau even admits that there's no "typical day" — as there is always something new to the job.
That said, at that place are some duties you lot can look to encounter in a office at the FBI. These include testifying in court, collaborating with other agents on various tasks, working with sources to follow leads on crimes, making arrests, and paperwork — considering there's always paperwork.
Your role in the FBI can besides vary based on what part of the field you're in and where you lot're located. Some agents may spend more time in an role while working in a local capacity, whereas others may spend less time working from a home base.
Merely, whether you work in a local, national, or international chapters, the aforementioned thing is true: Being an FBI agent is an exciting and rewarding — though potentially unsafe — opportunity, one that offers a way to protect your customs and your country. The FBI is comprised of a highly skilled and highly trained force with a goal of protecting people from issues like cyber crime, counterterrorism, and organized law-breaking.
This job requires a dandy amount of time and dedication, but can be worth the sacrifices for the correct candidates.
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Career Clarification, Duties, and Common Tasks
FBI agent overview
In general, the Bureau works to investigate and address threats to national security in the Usa, both through intelligence-gathering and crime investigations. The FBI divides its investigations into several major areas, including cybercrime, white-neckband criminal offense, strange counterintelligence, and domestic and international terrorism.
FBI agent duties and tasks
FBI agents perform a diversity of roles, and the specific duties and responsibilities will vary from agent to amanuensis. Active agents may perform a broad assortment of tasks to assist with investigating and addressing threats to national security, including gathering intelligence, conducting surveillance, executing search warrants, and making arrests. Agents may investigate crimes in the field or perform administrative and managerial roles, such every bit training or public diplomacy.
Working equally an FBI agent
Few agents bring together the FBI seeking a typical job, and the work can be both unpredictable and demanding. Most agents are expected to work at to the lowest degree 50 hours each week and are typically on call 24/7. Since major criminal activities and threats can occur at any fourth dimension, agents often piece of work on weekends and holidays. Agents must also be willing to carry a firearm, use deadly force, and expose themselves to potential bodily harm.
Steps to Get an FBI Agent
Meet GENERAL ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
The FBI maintains an all-encompassing list of general eligibility requirements for employment. Applicants must be between 23-36 years former, concord U.South. citizenship, and have a clean criminal tape with no felony convictions.
OBTAIN A Bachelor'Due south Caste
All FBI agents must agree a bachelor's caste at minimum, and many possess a principal'due south degree or higher. FBI agents frequently earn degrees in fields such as criminal justice or political scientific discipline, though the Bureau does not maintain any specific academic major requirements for applicants.
OBTAIN Professional Feel
Applicants must possess at to the lowest degree two years of full-fourth dimension professional work feel. Those who concur a primary's degree or higher tin can utilise with simply one yr of professional experience.
Consummate THE AGENT Choice PROCESS
Potential FBI agents must submit to multiple rounds of testing and interviews. Phase I testing primarily measures logic-based reasoning, situational sentence, and personality traits. Successful candidates then move on to Phase Two testing, which includes a structured interview. Candidates must also laissez passer a physical fettle examination, a drug examination, a polygraph examination, and a background investigation.
COMPLETE Bones FIELD TRAINING
Later completing all other steps, candidates written report to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, to complete the 20-calendar week basic field preparation grade.
Didactics Requirements for FBI Agents
Non certain how to be an FBI agent? To become an FBI agent, you'll need a minimum of a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in the United States. While at that place are no requirements as to what type of caste you should accept, there are certain majors that are improve suited to this task. Some of the best degrees to get a task equally an FBI agent include:
- Information science and IT
- Difficult sciences like chemical science or biology
- Finance and accounting
- International studies and foreign languages
- Criminal justice and armed forces intelligence
Depending on your preferred career path, it might likewise be in your best interests to earn a main'southward degree in a related field. If you lot earn a chief'due south degree, yous'll likely need fewer years of on-the-chore experience to qualify and have the potential to earn more. A graduate caste may also qualify you for or set you lot apart for certain jobs — specially technical positions.
As you lot plan your career path, it's best to earn a caste that'due south well-suited to the type of piece of work you desire to exercise as an FBI agent. If you want to piece of work in cybersecurity, you lot may want to consider earning a degree in computer science or Information technology. On the other hand, if you desire to work in strange intelligence, you lot might be better off with a degree in international studies or a particular foreign language.
FBI Agent Job Grooming
As an incoming FBI agent, yous'll have to complete new amanuensis grooming as part of the bureau's bones field preparation course. Lasting 20 weeks and including more than than 800 hours of instruction, field preparation features four major concentrations: academics, case exercises, firearms training, and operational skills.
The academic concentration explores a broad choice of subjects, including police, behavioral science, ethics, and forensic scientific discipline. Students gain specialized skills in interviewing, report writing, interrogating, and investigating. These lessons set candidates to perform criminal investigations and run counterintelligence and counterterrorism operations.
The operations skills concentration encompasses the hands-on piece of work of the FBI, including surveillance, operations planning, and tactical driving. Much of this experiential training occurs at the FBI's Hogan's Aisle, an elaborate mock boondocks that enables students to develop their skills through false exercises.
Firearms training is another major component of an agent's education. Building cognition in the fundamentals of marksmanship, the firearms training curriculum includes weapons orientation, firearms safety, weapon treatment skills, and live fire preparation. Students consummate a total of 110 hours of firearm educational activity across 28 training sessions.
Example exercises integrate all aspects of grooming in circuitous simulations. Using the Hogan's Aisle surroundings, these exercises simulate the major steps of an FBI investigation, from an initial tip all the mode through the arrest of multiple subjects.
Other Helpful Skills and Experience
While FBI agents demand an uncommon set up of skills, some aspects of the task are similar to any other government agency. The FBI lists eight core competencies that define special agents, including collaboration, communication, adaptability, interpersonal ability, and leadership. The Bureau encourages applicants to demonstrate evidence of these soft skills on their resume.
Along with general soft skills, the unique nature of FBI piece of work requires certain other specialized skills. For example, proficiency in a language other than English language tin can be very valuable, peculiarly for agents interested in pursuing counterterrorism and counterintelligence work. Fluency in languages such as Chinese, Russian, and Standard arabic may be particularly useful for FBI agents.
The FBI investigates many types of crimes, and the agency looks for applicants with specialized skills and work experience in fields that may be useful to investigations. For example, candidates with strong Information technology skills may be tapped to investigate cybercrime.
The FBI likewise recognizes the value of armed services and constabulary enforcement training, and many agents emerge from these agencies. Certain positions, such as the FBI'south Earnest Rescue Squad, require a minimum of iii years of military or law enforcement experience.
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Salary and Career Outlook
How much does an FBI agent make? The average FBI bacon isn't cutting and dry out similar information technology is in other fields, in major part because there are several unique factors to consider. For starters, new special agents are paid on the GL schedule for federal police enforcement officers, which means they enter at pay level GL-10 — or $52,440 per year every bit of 2021 — during their academy training at Quantico.
Upon completion of preparation, FBI agent salary levels are dictated by field office assignment. After a ii-twelvemonth probationary flow, agents transition to the general schedule pay calibration, with well-nigh agents achieving a GS-13 pay level — a minimum of $79,468 per year — within 5 years of service.
| Career | Average Annual Bacon |
|---|---|
| Entry-Level FBI Agent | $52,440 |
| Mid- to Senior-Level FBI Amanuensis | $79,468 |
Well-nigh criminal investigators advance through job experience rather than additional didactics. FBI agents with specialized skills or relevant professional backgrounds may be able to advance to specialized positions that command college salary levels. Some agents may achieve higher salaries in supervisory positions.
The BLS projects that positions for all criminal investigators (including FBI agents) will abound by 5% from 2018-2028, which is about as fast as the national average. Fifty-fifty equally criminal offence rates fall, the need for public rubber and specialized investigations is likely to remain constant, ensuring employment for FBI agents in the future. Even so, FBI jobs volition probable remain competitive due to depression employee turnover and the specialized nature of the work.
Often Asked Questions
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What is a typical solar day for an FBI amanuensis?
The varied nature of the job means that FBI agents may take fewer "typical days" than most workers. However, agents frequently spend their days investigating crimes, interviewing sources, and gathering evidence. Agents may specialize in one area of investigation, such equally intelligence assay or forensic bookkeeping. They typically work at least l hours per calendar week and may have highly irregular hours, including weekends and holidays.
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What is the training for an FBI agent?
New agents complete a rigorous basic field preparation grade at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Lasting 20 weeks, the training features more 800 hours of instruction in iv key areas: academics, operational skills, firearms, and case exercises. Simulations and other easily-on grooming exercises form a significant part of the training curriculum.
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How much do FBI agents make?
The bacon earned past FBI agents varies based on feel, position, and assignment location, among other factors. All agents enter the Agency at a minimum pay level of GL-10, or $52,440 per year every bit of 2021, and most reach a GS-xiii pay level, or $79,468 per year as of 2021, within five years of service. The BLS reports that the boilerplate annual salary for all types of crime investigators was $89,300 as of May 2020.
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Practise I need to know a foreign language to get an FBI agent?
No, it's non required to know a foreign language to exist in the FBI. That said, it can exist of cracking help to know i or more foreign languages if you want to work for the FBI — especially if you want to work in a field like counterterrorism that deals with people from other nations.
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Are in that location any education requirements for becoming an FBI agent?
Yes, there are didactics requirements to join the FBI. You lot must have a bachelor'southward degree to join the FBI as an agent, though there'southward no specification on what your major must be. That said, a major in a field like criminal justice or computer technology can be extremely useful in your function at the FBI.
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