College Students Get Recruiting Pitch First Hand

FBI Jobs 101
College Students Get Recruiting Pitch First Hand

05/01/06

It’s not every day that you get to walk into FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., meet face-to-face with Bureau executives, and ask wide-ranging questions about our career opportunities and intelligence and counterterrorism missions. But students from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus in Prescott, Arizona, did just that recently.

The students, all taking courses in the university’s Global Security and Intelligence Studies Department, were welcomed by Deputy Assistant Director Robert Casey, Jr. of the Bureau’s Directorate of Intelligence. “The FBI is currently in its biggest period of evolutionary change in history,” Casey told them. “Our mission is huge—everything from international terrorism to intelligence to chasing down MS-13 gang members.”

“One fascinating thing about working here is that you can spend the first couple of years of your career as an agent or analyst working on counterterrorism, counterintelligence, or public corruption cases, then shift to something completely different,” Casey said.

The students also heard from Supervisory Special Agent Eddie Winkley about life as an FBI agent. “Every day you’ll have to force yourself to go home, because there’s such interesting work going on here,” he said. Agent Winkley pointed out that we’re currently looking for individuals with specialized experience in accounting and finance, computer science, engineering, foreign languages, law, intelligence, law enforcement, the military, and science to serve as special agents.

But the FBI needs more than just agents to protect the nation, Casey told the students. “The Bureau has roughly 31,000 employees, but only about 12,000 of them are badge-carrying agents,” he said. “Close to 20,000 other types of employees support our mission—everything from IT specialists to language specialists…from intelligence analysts to administrative staff.”

The students met some of these professionals—FBI intelligence analysts. These analysts explained how they synthesize and make sense of intelligence pouring in from our 56 field offices all over the country, brief and prepare Bureau executives for meetings with other members of the intelligence community, and travel all over the country on assignment. “It’s very exciting,” said Intelligence Analyst Micheline Stamps. “No two days are the same—ever.”

This year, we plan to hire 750 special agents and 1,200 support professionals, including intelligence analysts, IT specialists, chemists and biologists, lawyers and paralegal specialists, financial analysts, police officers, human resource specialists, linguists and translators, electronic technicians, investigative specialists, administrative assistants, and more.

Have these skills and want to join us? Apply today at FBIjobs.gov!

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