FBI Special Agent Career

The Bureau of Investigation (BOI), more commonly known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is the principal investigative branch of the United States Department of Justice and is a part of the United States Intelligence Community. The BOI was created in July of 1908 by United States Attorney General Charles Bonaparte when he ordered a group of federal investigators to report to the Chief Examiner of the Department of Justice. The primary job of the BOI back in the 1900s involved national banking fraud, land fraud, various forms of enslavement, and extortion.

Over time, the name was changed from the BOI to the FBI and now is responsible for more than 200 federal crime categories.

The FBI is an elite team of individuals who protect and keep our country safe. There are very detailed requirements which must be met in order to join this team. Since the FBI is such a competitive and elite group of people, they get to be picky about who they hire.

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The initial employment requirements to apply for any position requires the applicant to be a United States citizen, must be able to obtain a Top-Secret clearance, and comply with the FBI Drug Policy. To become a Special Agent within the FBI, the requirements get a little more detailed. An applicant must be between the ages of 23 and 36 years of age with the cut off being the day before the applicant’s 37th birthday. The mandatory retirement age is 57 after completing twenty years of service. After completing a bachelor’s degree at an accredited college, two years of full-time professional work experience and the physical fitness standards have been met, a potential FBI Special Agent’s hiring process can be started.

After completing the rigorous application/interview process, the newly hired FBI Agent will undergo a 20-week training period at the FBI Academy based in Quantico, Virginia. According to the FBI website, the training is over 800 hours and includes a variety of web-based courses with four major concentrations in academics, case exercises, firearms training, and operational skills (2018). There are two divisions in the Quantico training center, which are the New Agent Training (NAT) and Intelligence Training (IT). The first division (NAT) is for all the new agents and the second division (IT) is for intelligence analysts.

For the academic portion of the new agent training, they focus on a broad range of subjects such as bureau operations, investigative techniques, law, behavioral science, interviewing, forensics, etc. Students are also required to tour the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial to gain perspective on equality and ethics. Case exercises are created to help students practice and prepare for what is to come in the field. They are also given the opportunity to show evidence in mock courts. Firearms Training allows students to train with their firearms and to give them the opportunity to learn the safety skills that come along with handling the weapon. Operational Skills are things such as tactical training and defense training.

In order to work your way up through the FBI General Schedule Pay Grades you have to go through 10 steps in each of the 15 levels. According the FBI website, “The slowest rate of progression is stipulated as one year for steps 2, 3, and 4, two years for steps 5,6, and 7 and three years for steps 8, 9, and 10. This slow pace of promotion is rarely implemented for most FBI personnel, as the “quality step increase” may award successful employees with a promotion at any time (2018). The FBI also provides a salary advantages for Special Agents because of the screening process, things such as starting them off at GS-10 pay grade, LEAP (bonus on their salary), and all employees receive a cost of living adjustments. More money is also given when employees work extra hours or in instances where they are in danger on the job.