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July 15, 2002
A: FROM MENTOR TERESA ESSER, To read TERESA's bio. click
here.
Hi Cassie. When I was a senior at MIT, I heard rumors
that both the FBI and the CIA were coming on campus to
recruit Brain & Cognitive Science majors. There were
stories going around about how a guy on campus had been
interviewed for either the FBI or the CIA, but when the
agents started to put the pressure on during his interview
he broke down and started to cry. For whatever reason,
he was not offered a job.
My impression of the recruitment process is that
they screen you for drugs, check out your background,
see whether you have been convicted of any crimes,
check your credit record, subject you to a
polygraph test, and then they ask you a whole bunch
of tough questions to see how well you hold up under
pressure. So, the advice would be: live a clean life,
stay away from drugs, avoid breaking the law,
and don't run up gigantic credit card bills that
you can't pay off.
The FBI has a Web page, which you can visit.
http://www.fbi.gov/
I couldn't figure out from the Web page what sorts
of classes would be good to take in college if you
wanted to prepare for a career in the FBI, but
once again, I've heard that they actively try to
recrut Brain & Cognitive science majors. You're
trying to figure out how criminals and terrorists think,
so you may as well get an objective sense of how the
brain works. I would think it would also be important
to study some criminal justice, computer science,
political science, and mass media and communications.
The FBI's Web page says: "Whatever your background
or expertise - whether you are a lawyer or chemist,
an administrative assistant or file clerk - you can
apply your skills in this important cause." Clearly
there are many different ways to help out at the FBI,
but the file clerks don't get many roles on prime time
TV shows.
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