How to Become an FBI Special Agent

So you really want to become a real-life Dana Scully or Fox Mulder? You'll have to allow your past and present life to be dissected, then pass intensive entry exams and undergo rigorous training and testing. Finally, if you manage to become an official FBI special agent, prepare to set aside your personal life at a moment's notice. Amazingly, most special agents love their careers anyway.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Be a U.S. citizen between 23 and 37 years of age and capable of meeting the Federal Bureau of Investigation's strict physical requirements. These include having a corrected vision of 20/20 in one eye and no worse than a corrected 20/40 vision in the other eye.

2. Possess at least a bachelor's degree from a specially accredited college. Your major must thoroughly prepare you for law, accounting, science, language or a diversified FBI program. Visit the FBI's Web site (see Resources) for the specific degree requirements.

3. Look for the Special Agent Employment section in the FBI Web site. It contains special agent application information and FBI field office locations. Contact your state's field office for additional instructions before you submit your application.

4. Be prepared for strict background checks, tough written tests and demanding interviews as part of your application. Lie detector tests may also be required.

5. Go through an intensive four-month training period at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, if you get through the application process. Information about the training is also available on the FBI Web site.

6. Expect a two-year probationary assignment at a field office once you graduate and become an official special agent. Chances are you'll remain in that location for at least four years.

Tips & Warnings

• Include writing classes in your college course work. As a special agent, you will be writing numerous reports each year.
• Expect to work often by yourself or with just one partner.
• Understand that you're eligible to retire after 20 years as a special agent, but are forced to hang it up when you are 57 years old.
• Keep in mind that you will be trained to use deadly force and will be expected to carry a gun.

Resources

• FBI.gov

[smartj17]

on 10/13/2009 Hello, I am a sophmore in high school and have some questions regarding becoming a fbi agent. Please email me at [e-mail]. Thank-you(:

[joelperez]

on 10/3/2009 Hi, my name is Joel Perez, I am a student at the university of California, Davis. I am interested in becoming an FBI agent, but the criminal justice major, nor accounting major are not in the university. However, law, forensic science, psychology, and sociology are criteria I am passionate about. Is their any advice you can provide me on how to become an FBI agent through the majors I am desirous about, or do I have to meet any require official major.

Without equivocation, Joel Perez
Thank you! My email is [e-mail]

[traintrackjump]

on 9/27/2009 i was raised on the wroung side of the tracks by choice , ive done time in the system i have done my wroungs, i am now a single father of a little girl, that is my life , i look at her every day and regret my past , i cant change it but i can make it better . i am not all that book smart in the law department but i am street smart in it , and i do beleave it takes some one whos been there to catch somebody that is there , i want a good hounest job, i want to make my kids and family proud of me and pay back to the world for the wroungs i have done so what better way to do it but to become somebody who puts there life on the line to clean the streets , i have a bad back ground but who is to say people cant do 180's with there life , take it or leave it ,but dont judge me because thats gods job, so if there are any opening in the fbi department and i have any kind of chance let me kno...

[brome005]

on 9/16/2009 Hi, I am 19 and i am currently doing Psychology, Sociology ans Criminology in College. I am interested in working for the BAU department of the FBI but i not sure how to go about fulfilling my goals.Is there any advice you can give me? please contact me at [e-mail]

[vayne65]

on 8/1/2009 Hi, I am 14 and I am interested in this field of expertise. I would like to make my chances higher of becoming a FBI agent. If you would please contact me at [e-mail] thank you.