FBI is recruiting in Mississippi. You’ll be surprised at the people they want to hire.

People from different walks of life are often surprised to learn they have skills that can qualify them for a job as an FBI agent, a recruiter says.

If you can speak a foreign language, have computer science or cybercrime skills or intelligence experience with the military, “your application will get a pretty fast and hard look,” said Erica Parker, FBI recruiter for Mississippi.

But those aren’t the only skills sought by the FBI.

Doctors, teachers, therapists, lawyers, retail business managers and people in religious roles are just a few of the types of people the FBI wants to handle diverse investigations that can range from health-care fraud to money laundering.

“If you can imagine it, we have somebody doing it,” said Richard Boswell, FBI supervisory special agent of FBI operations in Gulfport, Pascagoula and Hattiesburg.

“We have SWAT teams, undercover folks, hazardous materials, scuba divers, pilots, guys that drive boats.”

The FBI in Mississippi is looking to recruit new special agents, not just people with law enforcement or military backgrounds.

“We are really in need of agents,” Parker said. “We have a lot of agents who came in during a huge hiring push about 20 years ago and all of those folks are getting ready to retire.”

Parker is putting together an invitation-only information meeting in Jackson on Sept. 13. The program will run from 6-8 p.m.

Those invited will be selected through an application process. Applicants who come close to meeting requirements also may be invited.

The starting pay for an FBI agent is based on location. In Mississippi, that’s $55,000 a year for a GS-10 position. Agents get an additional 25 percent of their base pay for being available 24-7.

Here are the basic qualifications:

• Between the ages of 23 and 36 when you apply.
  
  
• Have a four-year degree.
  
  
• Have three years of full-time professional work experience (or two years if you have an advanced degree).
  
  
• Be in top physical condition. Must pass a physical fitness test before you fill out an application and pass a physical fitness test at least twice during a background check.
  
  
• Pass a full background investigation (includes polygraph and drug test).
• Be willing to relocate.
• Be willing to carry and use a firearm if necessary.

Agents work no less than 10 hours a day and must be available 24-7, Parker said.

She is referring those who are interested to go to fbijobs.gov to do research on special agent positions.

Applications for the Mississippi recruitment campaign are handled online through the FBI’s Jackson Division at fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/jackson/recruitment.

But before you file an application, you must pass a physical fitness test on your own, Parker said. The test includes a 1 1/2-mile run, a 300-meter sprint, push-ups and sit-ups with only five minutes between each exercise.

A free app, called FBI Physical Fitness Test, gives videos of the protocol for physical fitness tests, and can help you improve your techniques and scores, she said.

Why would the FBI need a teacher?

As a recruiter, Parker said she often hears, “Why would the FBI need me?” And, “How would I be of use?’”

She gives as an example the responsibilities of a teacher.

“A school teacher knows how to multitask, handle parents that are upset, how to calm down someone, whether it’s a parent or a child. Why would we not need that?”

“Our mission is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution, and we need to represent the American people. The American people are very diverse.”

In 2013, 83 percent of FBI employees were white. That has improved, but is part of the FBI’s diversity push, Parker said.

“We’re not just increasing diversity in ethnicity, but hiring more females and hiring more people that have more diverse backgrounds,” she said. “There’s very few skills that we cannot find a spot for in the FBI.”

Those accepted for 20 weeks of training at the FBI Training Academy in Quantico, Virginia, will be paid “as soon as their feet hit Quantico,” she said, and will be eligible for insurance and savings plans.

New FBI agents typically do not remain in their home state, Parker said.

He saved the ‘Hunger Games’ star

Boswell came to South Mississippi from the FBI’s Louisville, Kentucky, division. His cases there included catching a man who was stalking Oscar-winning actress actress Jennifer Lawrence, of “Hunger Games” fame, along with her brother and mother.

He said the 2013 case shows that many FBI cases come about as a crime reported to local law enforcement.

A Vancouver man had sent Lawrence’s brother hundreds of emails and texts. In some, he declared he was “Jennifer’s husband for life.” The man took a taxi to the Indian Hills Police Department in suburban Louisville and asked where Lawrence’s mother lives.

The man showed up on her mother’s doorsteps, and she called police, who recognized him as “a significant threat,” and called the FBI, said Boswell, the lead agent on the case.

“So we started diving into his past, his connections overseas, where he had been in different states, his activities in those states. We got him arrested and we got an indictment. He is no longer a threat.”

The FBI may have never known about the threat had it not been for local police, Boswell said.

“That happens a lot,” he said pointing to heavy local law-enforcement help in the recent arrests of five men in Greene and George counties on federal drug-trafficking charges. “There were only three (FBI) agents and the rest were state and local task force officers.”

The FBI also has undercover jobs. Once an agent has two years’ experience, “you raise your hand and take a very intensive two-week tryout,” Boswell said.

Passing the tryout isn’t easy, he said. But for those who do, “You can work on any undercover operation you want to, including undercover operations overseas.”

Almost every crime is a cybercrime, he said.

“We have foreign entities that are pinging the computers of our top-level defense contractors and the Department of Defense every single day. Whether it’s health care fraud or Russian proliferation, we have the ability to investigate any federal crime.”

The FBI also works to fight gang activity, which is “fueled by the drug traffic and the violence associated with it,” and comes from gangs in Mexico, he said.

“I-10 is a conduit for drug traffic between organized crime rings in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Florida, coming out of Texas from Mexico,” he said.

“There are guys on the interstate right now, and they are doing drug diversion and they take drugs and money off the streets every single week, in the tens of thousands of dollars range and the multi-kilograms.”

New FBI agents could later work on major cases from the I-10 corridor or high-crime corridors elsewhere, he said. Or counter-terrorism or many other types of cases.

This story was originally published August 20, 2018 at 5:00 AM.