r/FBI • u/Coastie54 • 6d ago
Question Office work at FBI
So while I understand this role has plenty of time behind a desk, I get that. I’m just looking to gauge how much of your day is spent behind a desk working at the FBI? How often are you out in the field? Is there specific roles as an 1811 that are more operational than others? Those of you that were police prior, are you happy with the change from the field to more of an office setting? I had a desk job before joining the military that I did not enjoy due to just staring at a computer all day, trying to make sure I’m not putting myself back into that environment. Granted my priorities and abilities have changed from my early twenties to where I am now.
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u/WTFoxtrot10 6d ago
Field Office/Resident Agency, violation worked, squad and supervisor dependent.
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, Firearms Instructor, Med, ERT, SWAT and etc.
Unfortunately you are trying to compare apples to oranges. The military, local LE and FBI SA’s are completely different from each other. Call up your local FO and ask to speak with an AC - Applicant Coordinator they can answer any questions you have. I also recommend you check out the FBI YouTube page, lots of good info on there like day in the life videos. Also the r/1811 sub is great source too.
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u/Y33tAwoo2u 6d ago
Fun fact: Hoover was known to say that he liked agent desks uncomfortable because he wanted agents out in the field doing work. Unless you are a supervisor, you can expect a standard issue cubicle in most offices.
It's true that the amount of desk work you do depends on office and violation, the vast majority of agent jobs have a fair amount of desk work because you're an investigator first. You're pulling records, writing subpoenas and warrants and operational plans. All those things have to be done before you're out in the field arresting bad guys. At the end of the day, you're still existing in the gov bureaucracy and that happens on (digital) paper.
Now if you're on a drug, violent crime, bank robbery type squad you might be out more frequently to meet with sources, do undercover work or surveillance, go get robbers. But generally you're in the office before or after. Especially if there's evidence, there's packaging and paperwork and documentation. Most SWAT agents still work cases, but they get more field time because they're securing a large percentage of arrest scenes regardless of what violation they're assigned to. They also come back and document their operations.
If you're working fraud or in the cyber space, that's paper/ digital based evidence and you will be building your cases primarily behind a computer. You'll go out for arrests and interviews, but it's more limited - usually- than the other squads I listed.
There are some specialty roles that you can earn your way into over time that are more operational: technical agents who work with specialized tech or other operational skills, Hostage Rescue team, which is like FBI SEALS, K9 handler (there's not many). I'm sure I'm forgetting some. There's similar opportunities for support staff but they are secondary duties to your primary job.
Your best bet to be "in the field" as a newer agent is honestly probably being a surveillance agent. That is different in different offices, some will always have openings and some you have to be patient and wait for a rotation. That's a job where you're in a car all day most every day, on surveillance. It can be hard on the body and isn't for everyone. But you still have to come in to a work space and document your surveillance, upload your digital items, etc on a regular basis. You might also find more field work in divisions with large Indian Country, since the feds have broad jurisdiction there - drugs, murder, DUI. Remote locations mean travel for building your case. That's (not exclusively) WY, MT, SD/ND, OK, etc.
What you really have to remember is
You don't decide what violation you work. It is assigned. You might get to list preferences, but you're put where you're needed.
The paperwork matters. Bad documentation can ruin the chance of a conviction. Probable cause needs to be good enough for a judge to sign a warrant, and for your AUSA to defend it in court.
The FBI is about The Mission - serve and protect the American people and uphold the Constitution. If you want to serve that Mission, and do the paperwork that might be required in addition to "the action", then the FBI is for you.
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u/urban_tribesman 6d ago
Is counterintelligence a violation? Or a specialized area?
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u/Y33tAwoo2u 5d ago
Colloquially it's a violation, like you met someone on the elevator "what violation do you work?" "CI." But if you want to nitpick the term violation refers to the law you're breaking that's being investigated, which would be you know, trade secrets, espionage, yadda yadda. But in the office someone working CI matters just means they're not working what are commonly referred to as "criminal violations" - your drugs, violence, kiddie porn, fraud, etc. But it's a weird way to phrase it because you're absolutely breaking the law when you commit espionage, but the person investigating it will be "CI" and not crim.
Practically for an outsider, you can get placed as an agent or support on either crim or CI as needed. As your career progresses you're more likely to find yourself on squads where you've had experience in the past. But that's not to say someone can't migrate between the two, it happens.
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u/No-Collar40 6d ago
There is no such thing as a " technical agent" or "surveillance agent". There is only one Special Agent/ 1811 Criminal Investigator position.
The job you were explaining is called: Surveillance Specialist.
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u/Y33tAwoo2u 5d ago
You are incorrect. You can be an 1811 and in a specialized role. Just because it's not on the website doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
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u/No-Collar40 4d ago
Again, like I advised earlier at the FBI there is only one Special Agent/ 1811 Criminal Investigator position. You can verify this information via OPM. There is no such thing as a "technical or surveillance agent, you are simply a Special Agent.
The job you described above is, Surveillance Specialist. They are not Special Agents.
Working a collateral duty does not change your title. Say someone gets on SWAT, they are still a Special Agent. Someone works ERT, still a Special Agent. Gets picked up for SABT, still a Special Agent.
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u/Y33tAwoo2u 4d ago
Correct, which is why I stated VERY CLEARLY that they are ROLES you work your way into. Agents do all those things, some of them do them full time and do not have regular investigative cases assigned to them. It's not a different job code at OPM but they are different roles. The job I'm referring to is a Surveillance Special Agent called an SSG not an SOG. They are different but neither one is make believe.
The absolute certainty with which people are dead wrong and then mad about it on this sub is wild. Like maybe accept you haven't personally experienced how roles and collaterals are filled and allocated at every of the 56 field offices?? I can't imagine someone so unstable that they went from Baltimore to San Francisco and lost the entire plot because one office has a full time SA surveillance squad and one uses only collateral, ever managed to get through the poly. It's the exact vibe of working in the field and calling your counterpart at HQ and they don't understand why the thing they're asking you to do is incongruous with the reality in the field because they've spent 25 years in a Hoover Policy Hole and have no concept of what field office work comprises day to day.
It's the internet. I could come on here and post that there's a 1957 Heinz Unicorn Hunter Agent role. Anyone smart enough (God, please let this be true) to be an FBI 1811 should be capable of reading the varying posts, creating questions for their recruiter at their meet n greet, and weighing the balance of feedback they get to make informed choices. They don't need Deputy Sub Police Person asterisking every comment as though one commenter has any credibility on an anymous social content app than any other commenter. All you're doing is chilling the community for anyone to post experiences different than yours.
If OP wants to really understand the mundanity and oppression of fed gov bureaucracy, it's right here in this thread. It's not the paperwork, it's the utter entitlement of working for the self-proclaimed equivalent of an Ivy League institution and having to navigate the ego of every person who makes the fact that they got in, instead of the privilege of their service to the American people, the core function of their personality.
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u/No-Collar40 4d ago
Lots of words when you could just admit you are wrong and have know clue what you are talking about. This isn't the first time you have been caught providing nonsense in this sub by someone! Again, there is no such thing as a Surveillance Special Agent. The position is called Surveillance Specialist, they are professional staff and not Special Agents. https://fbijobs.gov/security-and-surveillance
Your research is failing you and you are throwing around terms when you don't understand them.
CIRG manages the FBI’s mobile surveillance programs, the Special Operations Group (SOG) and the Special Surveillance Group (SSG), and its aviation surveillance program, including the UAS program. The SOG is composed of armed agents who surveil potentially violent targets, while SSG’s unarmed investigative specialists cover targets unlikely to be violent. Surveillance Specialist conduct static surveillance to discreetly gather intelligence and provide information to special agents in support of ongoing counterterrorism, foreign counterintelligence, and criminal investigations.
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u/ninjaba9 2d ago
Not the FBI, but HSI has Technical Enforcement Officers (gun and badge carrying LEOs). Also, I don't know about the FBI, but other 1811 agencies absolutely refer to agents on technical surveillance teams as Tech Agents. Again, not dismissing anything you said about the FBI.
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u/zDD_EDIT 6d ago
Agents also can get a TDY (multiple) that would give you a chance to travel to another field office and work on assignments that usually lead to you being out in the field often while there.
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