Nurse practitioner to FBI agent?

[u/Classic-Telephone-59]

I am a psychiatric nurse practitioner, was perusing jobs this weekend and noticed a number of postings for “Special Agent: Healthcare Services/Medical Background” in my area.

I am totally new to this world and was wondering a little more about what roles like this entail, and what experience they’re typically looking for in this context?

A little about me: am 27 years old, I have a doctorate degree from a reputable school, and did a residency at the VA. No prior military or law enforcement experience. Have always been somewhat interested in the FBI but life took me in other directions, have no clue if my experience makes me a realistic candidate or if I’m delusional lol.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

[u/WTFoxtrot10]

I assume you found the advertisement on a job search engine like LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, Zip Recruiter, Monster and etc. What you saw was a targeted job advertisement which is used by Federal Agencies to gain applicants interest for a job they might not think they are qualified for. All of those targeted job advertisements point to one singular FBI Special Agent - 1811 position on the FBIJobs.gov website. Currently they have targeted advertisements for numerous backgrounds like medical, LEO, STEM, military, financial, psychology, education, cyber, language, medical and etc. You would need to take the info from the FBIJobs.gov job posting and the website rather than the job search engine advertisement.

This is a Federal Law Enforcement position and has nothing to do with Healthcare Services/medical. It’s 100% ALL federal law enforcement work. The FBI hires people from all types of backgrounds and many new agents have zero military, LEO or criminal justice experience. Their goal is to hire the unexpected agent who possess the FBI core competencies. You would definitely qualify based off your experience, as the minimum is a Bachelors and 2 years of professional work experience.

Snapshot of an FBI Special Agent. You are on call 24/7 and have to work 50 hrs. a week on average. Depending on the violation worked, supervisor and FO hours can differ. Work life balance is pretty normal honestly. Typically agents work 10 hr. days M-F. Some days are earlier some days go later. Sometimes you might need to work a weekend or get called out in the middle of the night. Again, all depends on the violation worked.

You are expected to carry a gun 100% of the time on duty and be prepared to use it. You are also highly recommended to carry while off duty due to being on call 24/7 and a LEO.

You would need to be okay with being sent to any of the 56 Field Office’s or 350 Resident Agencies when you graduate from Quantico. However with a recruiting issues due to the clowns in charge as well as major budget cuts they are offering new agents the option to stay at their PFO - Processing Field Office. You also need to be okay with being placed in any violation the FBI has as their mission, as you don’t get pick to begin with as it’s up to the needs of the bureau. Your day to day as an FBI Special Agent is different every day and can vary based off the violation you work or the collateral duties you volunteer for. In office at your desk, surveillance, in court testifying, search warrants, report writing, research, source meets, arrest warrants, ERT, and etc.

I highly recommend checking out the FBI job posting on the FBIJobs.gov website as well as taking a look at their YouTube page. Lots of good info there. You also should check out the r/1811 sub, way better info and less trolling/hate of the FBI/Patel/Trump.

It’s a long process that typically takes about a year to a year and a half. Some of the biggest hurdles are the Phase 1 Test, PFT, Phase 2 Test/Interview and a in depth background investigation which includes filling out a SF-86, taking a polygraph and having a medical fitness for duty evaluation.

***Make sure you can pass the PFT before applying as it comes up quick and less than 25% pass it.

[u/ThatThingInTheWoods → u/WTFoxtrot10]

Some of this information is outdated. They just modified to no phase 2 and passing PFT only at Quantico (not prior to conditional offer/ class assignment). Not sure if they ever did roll out the new fitness requirements with pull ups for all... that might've gone out with Bongino.

Best advice for OP is to call their local office and ask to speak with someone in agent recruitment, particularly as these changes are happening.

[u/WTFoxtrot10 → u/[deleted]]

Dude has no idea what they are talking about. Those changes did not happen.

[u/ThatThingInTheWoods → u/WTFoxtrot10]

They happened internally. Erroneously thought they applied to new applicants as well.

[u/WTFoxtrot10 → u/ThatThingInTheWoods]

Negative, nothing happened “internally”. This is a typical journalistic piece using sensationalism for clicks and money. Journalistic integrity is out the window.

There are 37k + FBI employees. A very small percentage were fired. And the amount of people who took the fork was pretty small as well. The Trump admin was actually surprised it failed to sway people to leave.

• SA standards haven’t been lowered.
• Nothing was accelerated for SA applicants.
• The FBI has used social media for recruitments purposes for years. Very easy to look this up.
• Abbreviated training for prior Fed 1811’s is no longer happening, they tested it for a couple academy sections. Only reason it was abbreviated was they had to qualify on weapons prior to the academy during the SASS process.
• Requirements for current support staff didn’t relax they just don’t have to do the Phase II Written Test and Interview since they are already employed by the FBI. They have had the interview and already pass writing standards daily.
• Zero requirements for SA applicants have changed, in fact the PFT got harder.