What it does: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes. The agency works to protect civil rights, combat transitional criminal enterprises, combat significant white-collar crime, and combat significant violent crime.
Mission: FBI’s mission is to protect the American people and make sure that the rules and regulations of the Constitution of the United States are being followed.
Size and presence: FBI works around the globe and has 56 field offices located in major cities throughout the United States. The agency also has around 350 satellite offices called resident agencies in different cities and towns across the nation.
Best known for: As the nation’s lead federal law enforcement agency which works to investigate and prevent acts of domestic and international terrorism. It investigates attacks involving weapons of mass destruction including radiological, biological or nuclear, and chemical weapons.
The good bits: Excellent career prospects at one of the world’s leading and prestigious intelligence and security service. There are a plethora of opportunities for deserving candidates in different departments including field jobs, laboratory services, operational technology, information management, etc.
The not-so-good bits: As the FBI is a leading intelligence and security service, employees should expect a lot of work both mental and physical. A law enforcement authority has to be strict when it comes to protecting the nation against criminal activities.
Established in 1908, the FBI serves as an intelligence and security service agency to protect the U.S. from terrorist attacks, cyber operations, foreign intelligence, and cyber criminal activity, and to combat public corruption at all levels. FBI’s history is quite long and it starts with the establishment of the National Bureau of Criminal Identification in 1896. The bureau provided agencies across the country with appropriate information to find and identify known criminals.
It was during 1901 when the assassination of President William McKinley questioned the security of the United States. Though the Departments of Justice and Labour kept records of anarchists for years, President Theodore Roosevelt wanted something more to monitor everything closely. In 1908, the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) was created, and later in 1933 it was linked to the Bureau of Prohibition and rechristened the Division of Investigation (DOI).
DOI became an independent service working within the Department of Justice in 1935 and its name was officially changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the same year. From then till now, the FBI has been continuously providing services and investigating many cases of espionage against the United States and its allies.
They have special FBI teams to address more complex issues and employ over 37,000 people to stay on track. The positions include special agents and support professionals such as language specialists, scientists, intelligence analysts, and information technology specialists.
Here’s what they investigate…
Managing an organization as large as the FBI is quite a challenging task and that’s why the employees can expect a bit of discipline in every department. Also, diversity is something extremely prevalent in the organization as it needs to address all types of people coming from different cultural backgrounds.
The work environment at the FBI is quite supportive and motivating as the agency needs to encourage its employees at every phase. It works on a core strategy of respect, leadership, accountability, compassion, transparency, integrity, and obedience to the Constitution.
FBI believes in proper communication and transparency in the hiring process and therefore has a seamless process. Here’s what candidates can expect…
Some positions may also require attending some training sessions at the FBI Academy in Quantico.
Candidates can visit the FBI’s hiring and recruitment site to know the current job openings and see if they’re eligible to apply or not. Apart from the full-time jobs, there are also opportunities for students and interns to learn new things. They have a variety of internships, programs, and entry-level career options.
Whether a candidate aims to fill a full-time senior position or just wanted to gain some work experience, there are a plethora of opportunities with the FBI. The features careers include positions like a special agent, intelligence analyst, contract specialist, independent contractors, investigative roles, and specialized careers.
There are so many other career options apart from features jobs with the FBI such as contract linguist, forensic accountant, healthcare and counselling experts, victim specialist, police officer, automotive equipment specialist, computer scientist - field operations, data analyst, data scientist, digital forensic examiner, information technology specialist, engineers, and more.
In a nutshell, career opportunities are endless but candidates have to be eligible to apply for preferred roles in the FBI.
FBI is counted among the most prestigious and powerful law enforcement organizations and the positions are complemented by lucrative salaries. The salaries for special agents, professional staff, and supervisors are way more than other law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world.
Trainee Pay or new FBI agents get salaries in the range of $51,921 - $66,996 for a year. Salaries just keep going up depending on the promotions and responsibilities in the FBI.
Apart from the salaries and other perks, the FBI offers several benefits to its employees such as…
The community outreach of the FBI is quite impressive as the agency works to protect the nation as well as all residents. The Community Relations Unit at FBI Headquarters and the specialists working there create relationships locally and nationally.
They reach different minority groups, schools, non-profits, religious and civic organizations, and other communities. The idea is to empower such communities by raising awareness and enabling families to stay safe from fraudsters and criminals.
There are many controversies experienced by the FBI throughout its history. Being such a huge intelligence and security service, it has to undergo a lot of controversies both at home and abroad. There is a complete list of FBI controversies that one can find on the Internet.