In August of 2010 shortly after my graduation from high school, I took a big step in leaving my parents home and quitting my job at Harris Teeter, a local grocery store in North Carolina where I worked during my senior year of high school, to move to Edmond, Oklahoma to live with my aunt, uncle and three cousins. Two months after I moved to Oklahoma, I am a busser (aka busboy) for Outback Steakhouse and a soccer referee for the Edmond YMCA branch. I also write as a freelancer for Associated Content, and now Seed. Since I moved, I have published two more poetry books with Lulu Self-Publishing.
A different uncle, who lived in the area and worked for the FBI, told me the Oklahoma City FBI Office had sent out an email to its employees stating a position had opened for a relative, preferably a recent high school graduate, of an employee. The open position was an entry-job, a clerk or secretary position. I would be shredding top secret information, stay on-call, work in dispatch, and act as a secretary to the Head Agent in the Oklahoma City FBI Office. After reading more information on the position, I put in a request with Cary High School to have my transcript faxed and mailed to me. I then typed up my resume, only including details relevant to the position. I went to Kohl’s with my aunt and we picked out a snazzy suit on the first try, a very rare happening for me when it comes to clothes shopping.
On October 5th, 2010, my aunt drove me to the FBI Office in Oklahoma City and wearing my brand new suit, I nervously walked into the building. I stepped through the metal detector and waited in the lobby for the Head of Human Resources to meet me. I had my resume and high school transcript in hand. All I knew about the Head of Human Resources was gender and name. I looked up from a magazine I had glanced through, when I heard a door open. She stepped through the door and stood in front of it, waiting for me to walk up and greet her. I introduced myself to her, shook her hand, and then handed her the folder containing my resume and transcript. We talked for about five minutes; I told her that my uncle worked for the FBI and she told me a summary of the process I would go through in order to be hired by the FBI.
About a week later, I received a call from the Head of Human Resources asking me to provide more details on my specific duties as a bagger, cashier, and night shelf stocker with Harris Teeter, as well as wanting to know my typing speed (words per minute). I emailed these items, and did not hear anything more for a few more days. Then a day later, she called me to come in for an interview.
One of my aunts, who is married to my uncle in the FBI and graduated from the Naval Academy, helped me prepare for the interview by role playing – she being the interviewer and I the interviewee – and by giving me questions that the FBI interviewers may ask me. After practicing with my aunt, I felt very prepared, just as nervous but I had an idea of what I would be asked.
For the interview, I dressed up in the same suit I wore when turning in my resume. Once I went through the metal detector, I sat down in the lobby and waited for the Head of Human Resources to take me to where I would be interviewed. When she walked through the door, I shook her hand and she took me to the interview room. It turns out that the interview was almost nothing like we thought it would be. We thought that I would sit at a table surrounded by five to ten FBI employees and they would ask me the questions. Instead, I sat down at a table with the Head Oklahoma City FBI Agent and another employee. When I sat down, the interviewers told me to relax and that this interview would simply be to learn more about me in a relaxed atmosphere. They asked me questions about my past jobs, my strengths, and my hobbies. They wanted to know if I could multitask, which is a requirement of the position I applied. To our surprise, the interview took only thirty minutes, while we expected it to take up to three hours.
The next call sent my emotions to the ceiling! An FBI employee in West Virginia called me to give me the news that I had been chosen as a second alternate and asked me for some personal information. He also gave me a list of forms on the FBI website I needed to complete and hand in at the office. My uncles told me how excellent it was for me to be even a second alternate because not many applicants made it that far. The next day I received an email with a link directing me to a government website where I had to fill out information about my background.
A few days later, they called me to schedule my security interview and polygraph test. The security interview did not take long, nor was it hard at all. The interviewer simply went through questions in a packet and I answered them to the best of my knowledge. I had already answered most, if not all, of the questions when I completed the forms on the FBI website. On the other hand, the polygraph test did take a long time and it was quite hard. I did not get the job, but there’s always hope for the future.
