Federal Bureau of Investigation

Nate Fredrickson is currently a special agent of the FBI. The title of special agent refers to those involved in active investigations of federal law violations. Now 55 years old, Nate has been with the FBI since 1969. According to Nate, "The FBI has high standards, demands quality, and is highly professional as an organization designed to fight crime." For those who aspire to the FBI Nate recommends, "Don't be lax in your attitude, attentiveness, and even your appearance. Be professional." For most this requires a substantial learning process which includes an undergraduate degree and relevant experience.

In Nate's case he was attending a small liberal arts college, majoring in business administration, when it became necessary to get a job to pay the bills. The local police department had positions open and Nate was hired. He worked there as an officer for the last two years of college and one additional year after graduation. While Nate learned the basics of law enforcement at the local police department level, his future was determined by the people he met on the job. In that community there was an office of the FBI. Over the years Nate came into contact with the agents there as they occasionally worked on cases together. According to Nate, "What began as simple contacts eventually turned into friendships. Friendships laid the groundwork for really understanding how the FBI worked. I developed a healthy respect for them as individuals, and the FBI as an organization. To me, they were the best in quality, and the best in pay."

It is important to understand a critical lesson about career development as illustrated by Nate's experience. Whether you begin with clear goals and a well devised plan, or your decisions are made by necessity and your future is somewhat fuzzy, it still matters who you meet in life. This is not to say that intelligence, talent, and merit count for nothing. But it is to say that merit must be matched with opportunity for there to be an inkling of career. Opportunity is almost purely social. It does not just appear. It is created or presented by means of others. Because of this relationships are essential. They are the means and structures by which opportunities are distributed. So, who knows you, and how they know you, will significantly influence the opportunities and choices you will have to make. It is on these building blocks that a career can be launched.

Because of the relationships Nate had while serving on the local police force, he had the opportunity to see enough of the FBI to decide that his future, his immediate future as least, lay there. He made an application and waited on the Bureau's background check. On approval Nate was admitted in February of 1969 to the FBI training academy in Quantio, Virginia. In May of 1969, he graduated and was ready for his first assignment. But what did he learn while at the academy? There were at least three lessons. One was physical, a second was intellectual, and the third was social. The physical training in many respects was rather straightforward, though it did require discipline. The intellectual was more challenging. You must understand the law and the Bureaus's place within it. Because of the litigious nature of society you must be sure of where you stand. The social lesson was the way the Bureau actually works. It is the culture and community of the FBI that ultimately makes it work. According to Nate, "As a part of the FBI you are a member of a tight-knit organization. It is really like an extended community. You are part of a network of people who associate in particular ways. We have a common language, common experiences, a common culture. This really is very important because you must count on each other to do the job."

After graduating from the academy, Nate took a one-year probationary assignment. "It was there that I had to somehow put into practice the lessons of the academy. While I was a special agent I was also very lacking in experience. I really spent the year learning. Specifically, I spent time with an experienced agent learning that culture which they tried to teach us in the academy. Above all else I learned that as agents we all needed each other, all the time. Collaboration was the word."

From a probationary assignment in the deep south Nate was transferred to an intensely urban assignment in the northeast. While there for the next seven years Nate's learning curve escalated dramatically. According to Nate, in his second assignment, "There was definitely a focus on violent crime. I was assigned to various squads which specialized in the pursuit of fugitives, kidnaping, extortion, and bank robbery. In a large department like that one you could afford to specialize. I also had the opportunity for additional training such as SWAT and anti-sniper tactics. Being in an urban area you also had to learn street survival." Each area of expertise required specific training. However, according to Nate, "The most significant details and largest amount of learning took place in the field. You could go back to the academy all you want for laboratory-like training in something such as an anti-sniper protocol. But not until you actually experience something like a sniper situation do you really figure out what needs to be done. And, what you find out is that you must rely on your peers. They teach you, and you in turn work with them."

Since 1978 Nate has been assigned to the same moderately sized metropolitan area agency. While it is urban, it is less intensely so, and it includes some rural areas within it. Nate is part of what is called an RA, or resident agency. A regional headquarters might contain up to 59 field officers. There are, however, fiscal pressures on the FBI to do more and more with less and less. The RA is one of the Bureau's answers to fiscal pressures for efficiency. The RA can range in size from one to eight agents with staffing such as a supervisor, secretary, and finance auditor. Rather than specializing in squads like those mentioned earlier, "We take pretty much what comes in the door," according to Nate. "We are much more the generalist."

Specialization has the advantage of expertise in some relatively small domain. But in fact, crime is rarely so specific. There is typically a lot of collateral involvement and damage. For example, a fugitive is more than someone just tying to stay out of the reach of the law. He typically has violated a host of other laws and involved a number of other people (i.e., stealing a car or taking a hostage). The other thing is that many crimes are multi-jurisdictional. They are such not only geographically, for example the crossing of state lines, but also in the spheres of responsibility, as in the case of a bank robbery. "This puts a premium on your relational skills," according to Nate. "If you cannot figure out how to get along with the local police officer who was first on the scene, then you will not make much progress in solving that particular crime." The fact is, we all tend to be somewhat territorial. We have 'turf' to protect. "The FBI agent must sort out competing interests in order to successfully, and efficiently, produce the desired conclusion to a crime situation." Typically the local police officers are first upon a crime scene. Depending on the nature of the crime the state police may be called in. In particular, local departments may need the crime scene investigation expertise the state police have. According to Nate, "If the crime falls within the interest or domain of the FBI then I must step in, but carefully. I usually rely at this point rather heavily upon the state police investigators because of their speed and expertise." After the crime scene investigation then certain lab experts take over. According to Nate, at this point the local police become generally less involved and the FBI role increases. "It really is a balancing act. You are almost always working with law enforcement officers over whom you have no authority. You have to be skilled at persuasion. But in order to be successful at this you must first have a relational foundation. You need regular contact with all personnel in the chain. Actually, it is a network of personal contacts. The personal relationship is the law enforcement relationship. You must be especially careful of not appearing to be coming in and taking over. You need everyone's input, and it is amazing how much harm you can do to an investigation by offending, inadvertently or not, someone along the way." Having been a local police officer for three years has perhaps made Nate more sensitive to this than many others. Essentially, the FBI functions on the receipt of information from a variety of sources. Therefore, the special agent cultivates any and all possible sources. This is just one reason why productive people skills are so important. "Our primary job," according to Nate, "is to solve crimes and put criminals in jail. To do this we depend greatly on others."

"Eventually," according to Nate, "we must make decisions as to what we can successfully pursue. More specifically, we must decide what we can prosecute. Sometimes you, as an agent, believe in the merits of your case. Yet the U.S. attorney's office decides the other way. You see, they have different criteria. They must figure whether they can make the case and get a conviction. If not, then we must move on. This can be very difficult to deal with at times, especially for local police who may be emotionally invested in a case. In my situation, I must think that if a case cannot be reasonably pursued then I'm better off dropping it and moving on to other cases. Otherwise, I am endlessly pursuing an unwinable case. Ultimately, I need to prioritize crime."

There is one final item which significantly impacts the FBI's mission. It is the rather unglamourous function of budgets. As has already been indicated, large regional offices with many specialists are necessarily giving way to Resident Agencies with generalists, who in turn must negotiate complex jurisdictional boundaries and parochial interests. In Nate's case, his RA, with eight agents, is responsible for five counties.

For those thinking of pursuing the career possibilities of the FBI, Nate has some rather specific advice. The basic criteria include a four year college degree, with any major, being less than 37 at time of appointment and mandatory retirement at 57. You should also have three years of employment history. Understand, all of this will be investigated in a background check, so it really matters the kind of personal history you are now creating. In this regard, Nate emphasizes a "clean lifestyle," right now. Begin making good lifestyle choices, right now. Understand that you are creating life patterns which will make a difference later in your life.

One such choice is a major area of study. Nate does not recommend criminal justice per se. In fact, Nate says, "A C.J. degree will not help at all. You must still make it in the FBI, and this means getting through the academy and being socialized into the FBI culture." So, Nate recommends majors like law, accounting, language, and the sciences. In addition students must excel at various forms of communication, both written and oral, as well as have a keen understanding of interpersonal relationships.

If you make the right choices and are in a position to start your career in criminal justice, Nate wants it understood that successfully fighting crime is very satisfying. And, it can be financially rewarding. Today salaries range form approximately $30,000 per year at step one, to the mid $60's at step 10. Overtime is possible and the benefits are substantial. But so are the personal benefits of a career in the FBI. "Fighting crime and helping people is ultimately rewarding."