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Video Transcript

Hi, my name is Siobhan Johnson, and I am a special agent and recruiting coordinator at FBI Chicago. We are always looking for really high quality applicants for our internship program and full-time career opportunities. However, one of the biggest obstacles we find in recruitment is that applicants don’t generally realize that they are qualified for the majority of our positions.

We have two main opportunities for college students. The first is the Honors Internship Program. This program is a 10-week, paid internship program for current college and university students. It runs through the summer for 10 weeks, 40 hours a week. Interns are matched with their skill sets and some of our busiest squad opportunities. For example, if we have an accounting major, we’ll try to put them on a white-collar crime squad. Applicants must have a 3.0 or better, and we tend to prioritize applications from STEM majors, foreign language majors, and legal studies majors, although we will take applicants from absolutely any major. In order to apply, applicants can go online to fbijobs.gov from the end of August until mid-to-late October.

The FBI Chicago Internship Program is different in that you’re going to be working on real criminal and national security investigations side-by-side with actual special agents and intelligence analysts. We are going to send you out there to intelligence briefings. We are going to give you tours of our laboratory facilities and show you the very best of what we have to offer. And that might mean you are going to get specialized briefings from bomb technicians. You are going to get the opportunity to go off site to some of our resident agencies. You might meet with members of a crisis negotiation team.

On Day One, I ask the interns to write down a full wish list of everything they want to do for that summer, and then I spend 10 weeks knocking off opportunities one by one until we’ve made as many wishes come true as possible.

We also have the Collegiate Hiring Initiative for recent graduates or those who are graduating within about a year of application. For this program, like the internship, you must have a 3.0 GPA but you can major in any subject. And you apply online at fbijobs.gov from the last week in August until the middle of October. For this opportunity, a successful applicant, once interviewed, will be given the opportunity to have an entry level job at one of three field offices that he or she selects.

For anyone who already holds a bachelor's degree or for anyone who is graduating within nine months of application, we have the intelligence analyst position. Analysts work side-by-side with agents to help solve real investigations.

Additionally, if you already hold a bachelor’s degree and are between the ages of 23 and 36 with two to three years of work experience, you can apply for the much sought after special agent position This position is pretty much what you see on TV. You do the interrogations, investigations, surveillance, and you put everything together to make a prosecution.

I would say that if you’re thinking that you’d love to apply but you don’t have what we’re looking for, just give it a try. Go out and apply because you never know. You might be the one we’ve been waiting for.