There are many thoughts when it comes to degrees and which ones you should major in to become an FBI Agent. Some of these thoughts can be misleading by the law aspect of being in the FBI agency like how most say it’s the best to have a degree in Criminal Justice and criminology. Even though these two degrees will make you have an advantage over some in the law aspect of becoming an FBI Agent it won’t boost your diversity in which most regular and special agents have. The jobs in which most agents get that only study in criminology is an intelligence analysts.
Jeremy Alder portrays in his article What Degree Should I Get To Join The FBI? That FBI agencies want people from diverse backgrounds not just all have the same boring background with the same degrees. Jeremy Alder himself writes, “Degrees in criminology and criminal justice are also important, but there are so many applicants with those degrees already”(Alder). This quotation explains, that most current FBI Agents already have the learning in the criminal justice degree or law degree so diversity is needed inside the agency.
The duties for FBI agencies are changing and starting to revolve around technology so the amount of degrees in law are no longer needed. This allows for a more diverse background coming from the Federal Bureau Of Investigation so that everyone has their own specialized job that they like to do. According to Jeremy Alder, “The best degrees for FBI agents are Accounting, Finance, Forensic Science, Foreign Language, Computer Forensics, Criminology, and psychology. The first step to becoming a special agent with the FBI is getting the right college degree”(Alder).
In this quote Alder explains why getting the right degree is so important to becoming an FBI agent as this is just the beginning of the three year process it takes to become an agent. One degree that the FBI hires people the most from is knowing a foreign language fluently. According to Criminal Justice Degree Schools, “Knowing a foreign language or having expertise in specific areas such as accounting, piloting a helicopter, law enforcement, engineering, physical science, or Information Technology networking may put you ahead of other applicants.
The FBI looks for college graduates who have developed research and analytical skills”(CJDS). In other words, CJDS believes that if a recruit trying to be an FBI agent, chooses to do their degree in college on these specific areas they will have a better chance to being accepted. All of the degrees have a thing in common and that is they are all different and none of them closely relate to each other, this is because there are many jobs in the agency. Having diversity in degrees through the agency will help with collaborative thinking that will lead to success in the field as well.
FBI agents get their degree from a four year university usually without transferring with a GPA over 3. 0 and right out of college have had three years of training/ job experience. There are multiple trainings that FBI agents must go through that include Basic field training, Fitness, Driving skills, Safety, Firearms, Law enforcement development, and Leadership training. Basic field training starts at the FBI academy located in Stafford, Virginia where recruits start their roads to becoming an actual FBI agent.
In the basic training it includes a course that focuses on collaboration and creative thinking. The Recruits will go through FBI simulated investigations, Writing papers and taking tests, and Meetings. The simulated investigations cover a fake homicide with a killer and a witness in which they use clues to find the convict to take to jail. While FBI agents are doing this at the same time they are multi tasking and doing their report to send out to the local police. The papers that the FBI recruits will be writing are practice search warrants and practice federal reports.
The tests they take are all different based upon which job in the agency they are taking. For example, to become a special agent you must take multiple tests like a polygraph test, drug tests, and written tests. In the FBI meetings that recruits go through there’s a whole team and they collaborate on their current investigation on what to do next, constantly shooting ideas out at the team leader of the investigation. According to Catherine Fletcher (director in chief of training),“Students completing the course now have a broader knowledge base to help them acclimate to the workforce”(Fletcher).
Basically, catherine is warning that FBI agents who decide to actually take basic field training seriously can have great workforce skills that will help in any job for the future because not all recruits become actual agents. The next type of training FBI agents go through are Fitness. In this training recruits will be going through very challenging and difficult obstacles like Sit ups in 1 minute, 300m timed run, Maximum pushups in 1 minute, and a 1. 5 mile run.
All of these are graded on a scale from negative two to ten -2 being the worst and 10 being the best, in order to actually pass this fitness test FBI recruits must score a minimum of twelve and score at least one point in each progression. The FBI academy also trains recruits on Tactical driving skills at fast speeds. Recruits will go through a series of obstacles in an empty parking lot that is surrounded by orange cones. From here agents must drive at 40 Mph in reverse through cones and maneuver between obstacles.
Recruits also get advised by instructors through scenarios. In these scenarios paintball guns and real cars are used. For example, if a criminal hits your car in this case, simulated inside the academy and the FBI instructor is the criminal the recruits must make critical and smart decisions on what to do. In Firearm training agents are put through five stages where they will use a glock 22 gen 3 or gen4 pistol and shoot from different yards and different times for different stages.
For the first stage its three yards in three seconds for three shots, keep in mind there are multiple rounds per stage as well, In the second stage its five yards for three shots in three seconds, For the third stage it’s ten yards for four shots in four seconds, In the fourth stage its fifteen yards for three shots in six seconds, and for the last stage its twenty five yards for five shots two standing up and three kneeling in under fifteen seconds. Greg Ellifritz states, “The course is 60 rounds total. All draws must be from concealment. The FBI uses their reduced sized QIT target.
Any hit in the bottle outline counts as one point. 48 out of 60 total points are required to pass the course”(Ellifritz). Basically, Ellifritz is explaining that the firearm test that he passed from the FBI is very long and challenging and it takes a good amount of practice to pass as he did. The FBI use to use a bigger easier target and shot at a way farther range than now, but have changed it because agents over the years have only encountered close quarter combat, therefore they have shortened the yards that agents shoot at and have reduced the size of the target that they use.
Inside the law enforcement development and leadership training programs agents go through law enforcement educational and informational presentations where they must re create their own presentation based on the information they just learned. In total the agents create five presentations all for a different time length; Ten minutes, 30 minutes, and 50 minutes. The agents will also be taught how to use certain types of new technology in the field and will also be going through many practice exercises. The leadership training is disciplined with lots of information and testing so that when agents become eads in cases and/ or special agents they will be able to tell people to get their work done. This benefits the leaders by their quality of work changing and how they do things along with making decisions and saving lives. Different fields in the Federal Bureau of Investigation include; Special agents, Linguist, and Hostage rescue team. Special agents are affiliated with the FBI, but at a different level, the special agents deal with terrorism, organized crime, and violations. The main role of these types of agents is to investigate to find out what the crime is and who did it in the shortest time as possible.
According to Aurelio Locsin, “Their daily jobs are never the same. Their tasks can cover a range of activities including investigating white-collar crime, examining intelligence from terrorist cells, upgrading computer technology to nab malicious hackers, or arresting corrupt politicians”(Locsin). In other words, Locsin believes that Special agents deal with a lot of different duties everyday and that it is not an easy job to handle. He also explains some of the jobs that they affiliate with and as you can see they are all related to computer technology.
These types of agents also get paid a salary of $47,297, but that is at the bare minimum of what Special agents get paid. There are many things that go into salary like where you live and how hard you work as they can change the amount of money you get per year. The next job in the Federal Bureau Of Investigation is are Linguist. These types of agents focus on foreign language and have to translate all different types of languages back to english. Some things that these translators translate are reports, foreign news, newspapers, phone calls, faxes, computer emails, and things that have to with social media.
The average salary for an FBI linguist is $53,410 at the minimum a year, but changes to $74,290 after a few years in the agency. The last job in the FBI agency is the Hostage Rescue Team, which is a unique team that saves people who have been held hostage. This tactical team is higher than a special agent and a linguist as they must do both of those jobs in a hostage rescue situation. They have to investigate the outside of the building, locate the enemies, find the hostage, then go in and attack.
During these rescue missions no civilians can get killed by these agents and the agents have to get every hostage out alive or else thats a failed mission. The amount of people on the hostage team is not specified because it depends on what you are dealing with in a situation. Daily Mail reporter explains, “There were also two ‘breachers,’ who had responsibility for preparing the scene for the operation; a K9 specialist, who coordinated all the responding K9 teams; three ‘assaulters,’ who helped run the show on the ground; two communications specialists; and two snipers, protecting everyone else”(Reporter).
The daily reporter is stating that the team takes on many different specialized jobs and shows that the FBI agents don’t care what they are doing because they are all trained in all of these jobs to benefit the team. A typical salary for a person apart of the hostage rescue team is $78,146 at bare minimum. All agents are doing multiple jobs and they aren’t doing the same thing the next day it’s always different.
