Last month, Laura Adams and Yolanda Ramizes from Sacramento City College hosted a Zoom workshop with a special agent from the FBI, Daniel Rodriguez, in partnership with American River College Career Pathways. Rodriguez gave insights on how to work for the FBI as an agent and apply it to work in different institution areas.

Those who are interested in applying to the FBI as a special agent should learn about the requirements, according to the special agent Rodriguez.

Interested applicants who want to apply as an FBI special agent must be a United States citizen and must be between 23 and 36 years old.

The individual must have a valid license for at least six months to use as a valid document.

After the individual graduates from college, they need to have at least two years of full-time professional career experience.

One of the essential requirements is to pass a fiscal fitness test required by the FBI. The individual needs to accomplish at least 12 points in each category to pass.

If an individual is applying in California, the use of marijuana is legal at a state-level but not at a federal level, so the individual must be clean for at least three years and not have used any hard drugs in the last 10 years.

Besides these requirements, Rodriguez says there are other characteristics the FBI looks forward to hiring someone to be part of the team.
“The type of individuals that we look to hire are those that have core values; the one that I most believe in is the diversity because we love to hire individuals who come from different backgrounds, different professional disciplines,” Rodriguez said.

According to Rodriguez, the FBI also hires individuals with any type of disability to work for them.

“The only work area that might be limited according to the individual disability is a special agent, but we have plenty of opportunities besides the special agent that the individual can apply for it,” Rodriguez said

If an individual passes the above requirements to become a special agent, they are transferred to the FBI academy in Quantico in Stafford County, Virginia.

Rodriguez also emphasized individuals can have different educational backgrounds but still can apply for the academy; after getting into the academy, they will learn the skills to be an outstanding agent.

“Individuals that arrive there are new agent training you will pay in full salary with full benefits and total compensation, Rodriguez said. “In terms of academics, study whatever you want because, and as soon as you get into the academy, we will give you the foundation to be a great special agent.”

Rodriguez says that the professional staff category comprises more than two-thirds of the FBI institution. They are not considered a special agent due to the process of being hired differently than training for an agent.

“The majority of individuals that work for the FBI are non-law-enforcement, and because they are not a special agent, it means that there is no age requirement or fitness test,” Rodriguez said. “The qualifications and salary will vary according to the positions that this individual is applying for, but we do have the same requirements for drug policy and background check.”

He also gave a couple of examples of jobs that people can still apply to work at the FBI as professional staff.

“We have a full-time nurse, where they have to go through background checks as a top-secret clearance; we also have a full-time photographer, and even auto mechanics shop all over them have passed all the requirements to be working at the FBI,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez also said that the FBI has opportunities for any educational background and wants to be part of the team. Each section of the institution is open to any kind of education experts.

“Any position that you can think of we have at the FBI, so depending on what you study or depending on you want to do, you can always think that there are opportunities for you at the FBI.”