How does one become an FBI (or similar) agent?

Consider that there are more federal law enforcement agencies than you know. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_law_enforcement_in_the_United_States#Department_of_Justice_.28USDOJ.29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_law_enforcement_in_the_United_States#Department_of_Homeland_Security_.28DHS.29 How about your state? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Department_of_Justice Every single one of these have Web sites with "careers" links with instructions and guidelines. Do some homework and get to work! Psst. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Coast_Guard#Authority_as_a_law_enforcement_agency Law enforcement on the high seas. Plus, you might get to rescue people for a living.

You talk about languages in your question and follow-up, but unless you have near-native fluency in an in-demand language, it won't do much for you. Could you listen to two native speakers talking to each other in slang and at native speed and understand it all? How about 100% of a newcast? Could you even write your question in another language without consulting a reference? Native-like proficiency is definitely in high demand, but it is not a requirement. Plenty of people who work for the "three-letter agencies" and specifically do language analysis work have lower proficiency. I'd recommend doing some networking and meeting some FBI agents and talking to them about their jobs. Respectfully, unless one lives around DC, where you have a pretty high probability of socially knowing someone who works for one of the agencies, it might be tough to round up FBI agents, and they may not be able to talk about their jobs except in the vaguest of generalities.

I'd recommend doing some networking and meeting some FBI agents and talking to them about their jobs. I was really keen on joining the FBI, and after I made friends with some agents and learned a lot about their jobs it helped me make up my mind to go a different direction. Also, another federal law enforcement option for you could be NCIS or one of the equivalent military investigative agencies. I worked extensively with NCIS and while it wasn't as prestigious as the FBI, the agents' quality of life was generally higher, and NCIS was less of a bureaucracy. Also, it puzzles me when you say that solving murders would be more interesting than catching terrorists--you realize a lot of what the FBI does is counter terrorism and almost nothing they do is solving murders?

(hard to say which third language would be 'best' without knowing at least what your current second language is and what your current level is)

If you want to be an FBI special agent, there are four general categories for eligibility: * lawyers (this is the great majority of FBI special agents) * accountants * foreign language (this essentially means native speaker of an in-demand language) * miscellaneous (this is pretty hard) You talk about languages in your question and follow-up, but unless you have near-native fluency in an in-demand language, it won't do much for you. Could you listen to two native speakers talking to each other in slang and at native speed and understand it all? How about 100% of a newcast? Could you even write your question in another language without consulting a reference? (I don't know what language you are studying, but I don't know why you don't share what it is. It might help you will other careers, but we don't know because you won't tell us) +3 proficiency is quite a high bar. To give you an idea, 5 proficiency is complete native fluency to the point where you can pass for a native because you know old commercial jingles ("Hey, Mikey likes it!"), pop culture references, and other such things. You are probably not going to be a competitive candidate on linguistic grounds because you are competing with native speakers. Also, you talk about solving murders, but federal law enforcement is generally not involved in murder investigations because there is no federal murder statute. The FBI only gets involved in interstate murders. If you are interested in solving murders, I recommend joining the local police force and working your way up to detective. I know you say that is not your preference, but if you want to work on murders, that is where the work is. IF you really want to work in federal law enforcement, you need to look at the various agencies and see what fits your skill set and would interest you. FBI Special Agent is very, very hard. You should look at the US Marshals, Secret Service (most likely to be fighting counterfeiting, not protecting POTUS), Coast Guard, and the like. If languages is really your thing, you might give the Foreign Service a look. It is not law enforcement but it is federal employment with use of foreign language skills. I'm a multilingual lawyer, FWIW. I looked at the FBI sometime in the late 1990s.

FYI, as pure anecdata, I know three people who worked at FBI and now work at other federal law enforcement agencies. To a person they say working for the FBI was incredibly difficult and unfun (not challenging in a fun way, difficult in a horrible way), and they wouldn't recommend working for the FBI to anyone else. Pure anecdata - I am not in law enforcement and have never worked for the FBI.

If you have a foreign language skill, the critical languages we seek are: Arabic (all dialects), Chinese, Korean, Russian, Hebrew, Swahili, Albanian, Indonesian, Pashto, Punjabi, and Vietnamese. Spanish is also considered a critical foreign language. However, you would have to speak at a high level of proficiency (3+ or higher) in order to be considered for further testing. Occasionally, the work experience requirement can be waived if you speak a critical language and show proficiency. from the http://www.fbi.gov/saltlakecity/jobs-1/employment_info

Sorry, I wasn't intentionally hiding my language. I'm currently learning French. I don't think I could get there via the foreign language route, but thanks for the info! The information for other agencies is greatly appreciated, thanks!

Follow up question: I see the list of languages... if I were to learn a third language, what language would be the best bet? The language I'm currently learning is not on that list.