The FBI has taken some lumps in recent years, embarrassed by the release of its secret files on such innocuous celebrities as John Lennon, as well as its role in the 1993 Waco debacle. But the prestige and power of the FBI continue to attract legions of would-be agents every year. More than 8,840 people applied for jobs with the bureau last year, and just 730 new agents were hired. The selection process is daunting. Competitive candidates typically have college degrees, plus training in a specialty such as accounting or technology, or a background in the military or law enforcement.
Applicants undergo a battery of tests before they even get to the interview stage.
Then come exhaustive background investigations that can take a year or more and poke into every nook of an applicant's past. After that come drug tests and polygraph exams. Applin said he wanted to be an FBI agent ever since he was a teenager in Alabama and his father took him to meet a friend who worked at the bureau's field office in Mobile. He earned a degree in history at the Citadel, then served four years in the Marine Corps as a signals intelligence officer, intercepting the communications of foreign governments. As his Marine stint came to a close, he took a position as a software development consultant with Andersen Consulting.