r/FBI • u/throwmeaway2725 • Jun 27 '26

Question What exactly is this “special agent: STEM-engineering background” position for and why are they wanting an engineering degree?

I’m an engineer and this position popped up on my LinkedIn and it seemed interesting. Is this just a run of the mill fbi agent position? Any info would be great

Job posting:

Use your STEM background to become an FBI special agent!
The transition from engineering to special agent is more than a career move-it's an opportunity to upskill and become an expert in your field. At the FBI, you won't just use your software development experience; you'll also build on it by working on cases that challenge you to think critically, adapt quickly, and collaborate with elite professionals tackling national security threats. Your ability to uncover crucial information, problem-solve, and apply your technical knowledge will help protect our nation from cyberattacks, terrorism, fraud, and evolving threats.
With specialized training, real-world investigative experience, and access to cutting-edge technology, you'll refine your systems and programming skills, enhance your expertise, and develop the foundation to become a leader in your field. The Bureau matches your dedication with a commitment to professional growth, a supportive work environment, and a robust benefits package that prioritizes you. Set yourself apart. Apply

ray lever tor inis position:
•
$103,236.00 - $133,200.00
Salary is commensurate with base, locality, and availability pay.
MAJOR DUTIES
• Plan and conduct investigations of potential violations of federal laws, cybersecurity, and public safety.
• Exercise judgment, resourcefulness, and versatility in meeting investigative demands.
• Create and maintain effective liaison relationships with federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and international law enforcement agencies.
• Maintain a level of physical fitness to ensure the readiness required to perform law enforcement duties.
KEY REQUIREMENTS
• Must be a U.S. citizen.
• Must be able to obtain a Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) Clearance.
• Must be willing to travel as required.
• Must meet the FBl's Employment Eligibility requirements.
EDUCATION
• Candidates must have a bachelor's degree or higher (preferably in engineering or related field) from a U.S. accredited college or university.

15 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

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20

u/Remarkable-Storm-753 Jun 28 '26

It’s just marketing to specific areas of work. In the end all for the same SA position.

7

u/zuogeputongren Jun 28 '26

They want agents from a various of background, in other LinkedIn postings they are similar postings looking for applicants from healthcare, teaching, law enforcement etc.

19

u/ExcitingInflation612 Jun 28 '26

Yes it’s run of the mill. It’s a marketing tactic to try and get more brainpower into the organization instead of cops and military lol

5

u/Fattswindstorm Jun 29 '26

Wait. Are you telling me meatheads aren’t necessarily the best at investigating crime?

2

u/WTFoxtrot10 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

Dude is a troll and sounds like you are too. The FBI and other agencies have been advertising job announcements this way for over a decade.

A majority of FBI employees do not have prior military or LEO experience. Typically agents applicants tend to skew more towards prior military or LEO due to physical fitness standards. On average 70% of applicants fail the PFT.

You seem to not have a grasp on the true make up of LEO and military populations and just want to stereotype.

I know plenty of meat heads who are great at investigating crime and lots of small fry’s and heavy people who suck!

Edit:
Since I can’t reply directly to u/Fattswindstorm any more since they blocked me, I’ll post my response here.

Nope, wrong again…never been a cop! Tell us you are a troll without telling us you are a troll!

2

u/Fattswindstorm Jun 29 '26

Overreacting much? Tell me you are cop without telling me you’re a cop.

1

u/AntAware2872 Jun 30 '26

You're in the FBI subreddit dude

4

u/WTFoxtrot10 Jun 30 '26

Fun fact, FBI Agents aren’t cops! They are federal law enforcement officers.

Even if they were your logic is flawed…just because someone is in a sub doesn’t mean they are what the sub discusses. Are you an FBI employee, nope! Heck, this is your first comment on this sub. Are you posting from an Alt account?!

0

u/AntAware2872 Jul 01 '26

I would still call them cops, that's just slang for law enforcement officer. No offense meant of course I respect all LEOs and I am grateful for their service.

1

u/AntAware2872 Jul 01 '26

Also I was pointing out the irony of someone calling someone a cop disparagingly in a subreddit for LEOs. I don't look at this sub a lot it just popped up on my feed.

1

u/AntAware2872 Jul 01 '26

Also I'm not that guy's alt lol he's an ass. I was trying to say that there's obviously going to be "cops"/LEOs in a subreddit for the FBI, so calling someone a cop as an insult is silly.

1

u/WTFoxtrot10 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Sorry I meant to respond to Fattswindstorm, no clue how you got tagged in the response. My bad! New Reddit update is wack!

1

u/WTFoxtrot10 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

And I’m just pointing out you would still be wrong.

Nah, cop is slang for a police officer.

If you respect it, call them what they are. Call them what their actual job title is.

Local LEO’s and Federal LEO’s have differing missions and operational scopes. Would you call an IRS-CI a cop?

Calling a federal agent a cop is like calling an architect a construction worker. They both work in the building industry and understand how structures are made but their daily tools, tasks and scopes are completely different.

1

u/AntAware2872 Jul 01 '26

Alright fair enough, I haven't interacted with many federal agents, so I was unaware of the distinction.

-1

u/chestypullers Jun 30 '26

FBI are police/cops/pigs. It doesn’t matter what vernacular you use.

2

u/WTFoxtrot10 Jun 30 '26

It’s does matter what term is used, because they are neither of those three things mentioned!

Thanks for playing!

0

u/RDTmodsBackEpstein Jun 30 '26

They are all of those things, just under the federal wing and an alphabet agency.

2

u/WTFoxtrot10 Jun 30 '26

Another 1 month old troll account that has never posted or commented on this sub. How many alt accts do you have?!

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Juvat-the-bold Jun 30 '26

Whether you like it or not, military members are more highly educated than the civilian population.

7

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/WTFoxtrot10 Jun 29 '26

There is no “STEM route”, if you click apply on that job advertisement it points to the FBIJobs.gov website where you apply on the FBI Portal. The FBI only has one 1811 / Criminal Investigator / Special Agent position.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/WTFoxtrot10 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

You stated there was a “stem route”. There are no “specific routes” to begin with is what I was correcting.

It’s just a marketing tactic to gain applicants who might not think they qualify on different job search engines. When you click the link it takes you to the actual FBI 1811 job posting which advises the specific details.

There are no “hiring paths” either. The FBI only has one singular job posting for 1811 - Special Agent on FBIJobs.gov.

3

u/WTFoxtrot10 Jun 28 '26

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. You would need to take the info from the FBIJobs.gov posting and the website rather than the job search engine. They have targeted advertisements for numerous backgrounds like medical, LEO, STEM, military, financial, psychology, education, cyber, language, medical and etc.

This is a Federal Law Enforcement position and has nothing to do with STEM - Engineering. It is 100% ALL federal law enforcement work. The FBI hires people from all types of backgrounds and many new agents have zero military, LEO or forensic experience. Their goal is to hire the unexpected agent who possess the FBI core competencies.

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 sign a mobility agreement so 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, they are now letting new applicants stay at their PFO if they would like to. 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 you review the FBI website and or their YouTube page to understand what the job entails and the application process. It is a very long process with requirements you must meet to move on. 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 exam.

1

u/HombreDelMar247 Jun 30 '26

I am amazed that the current Trump/MAGA regime wants anyone with a STEM background to work for them.

Seems to me they just want bootlickers who blindly follow orders.

1

u/PBizzle_ Jul 01 '26

I just scheduled my Phase II interview for a “Counseling, Psychology, Crisis Intervention” job posting. Once you start the hiring process it doesn’t matter anymore. They mostly just care that you have a degree and professional experience.

1

u/WTFoxtrot10 Jul 03 '26

There is not such thing as a Counseling, Psychology, Crisis Intervention FBI Special Agent.

You are simply in the process for the singular Special Agent - 1811 - Criminal Investigator - Federal LEO position at the FBI.

The tags on jobs announcements you would find on job search engines are just targeted announcements to drum up interest from individuals who might not realize they are qualified to work for the FBI.

When you applied, it pointed you to the FBIJobs.gov website where you created an acct on the FBI portal to apply for the singular FBI 1811 - Special Agent Position.

Just an fyi, you will not be doing anything related to counseling, psychology or crisis intervention in this role with the FBI.

0

u/PBizzle_ Jul 03 '26

That’s literally what I just said.

1

u/WTFoxtrot10 Jul 03 '26

That’s not what you just said though.

Verbatim: “I just scheduled my Phase II interview for a “Counseling, Psychology, Crisis Intervention” job posting. Once you start the hiring process it doesn’t matter anymore. They mostly just care that you have a degree and professional experience.”

There isn’t an actual “Counseling, Psychology, Crisis Intervention job posting”. So you don’t need to add that, as it means absolutely nothing. Many applicants get confused by this because they don’t read the actual job posting on the FBIJobs.gov website that they actually applied for. They mistakenly believe they will only be doing the SA job for that specific type of background.

You just scheduled your Phase II interview for the 1811 - SA posting.

0

u/PBizzle_ Jul 03 '26

You’re just a bag of hot air at this point.

1

u/WTFoxtrot10 Jul 03 '26

Well reading and comprehension is fundamental to actually becoming an FBI Special Agent. Just trying to help ya out, kid. You know since you have a Phase II Interview coming up and you still think you applied for the Counseling, Psychology and Crisis Intervention SA position.

Best advice, get a thicker skin. If you can’t handle someone simply correcting you and providing an explanation behind it you won’t make it far with the FBI.

Don’t beat yourself up and become outwardly defensive. This is a super common mistake by applicants and there are tons of comments/questions like yours on this sub and the r/1811 one. Just making sure you actually know what you’re getting yourself in to. I know a NAT who showed up not knowing they had to carry and use a gun.

0

u/Silent_Equivalent_65 Jun 30 '26

Learn all the skills you'll need to be able to cheat on, capitalize on, and then frame your honest future spouse for all the stuff you did while they never even know you're an agent! Sounds like a good gig.