Today I interviewed with the FBI for an internship there next summer. I was one of 10 people in St. Louis chosen to interview, and I'll find out next Monday if I'm one of the 5 chosen to go on to the next round. Of those 5, DC will decide on one to offer an internship to, so I have a 10% chance of getting it. Perhaps my years of being a straightedge CS tool will finally pay off. Then my name can be "Special Agent Chris" (and yes, I would make all of you call me that, even in conversation). The internship sounds really sweet, but I don't know how the interview itself went. I always say things that pop into my head at the time but may not be the best politically correct interview things to say. I do know that of all the jobs that I've applied for, this is the first one where I've really thought it was something that would be a good fit for me, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Getting to the interview was an adventure in itself. I had the address, but the building itself was unmarked and had no number on it, apparently in an effort to combat terrorism. Then I had to pass through a variety of security measures, and part of the interview itself was to get fingerprinted. The FBI must have a big problem with criminals applying for jobs, although I'm not sure exactly how they would think that would be a good idea.

Special Agent: "Whoah, it says here that this internship applicant is wanted in seven states. And thanks to this giant packet we made him fill out, now we know exactly where he lives and everyone he has lived with in the last 5 years."

If only our nation's criminals were stupid enough to apply for defense jobs, the streets of St. Louis would be a lot safer. It was quite refreshing for a change to be interviewed by "Special Agent So-and-So" rather than "Personnel Director So-and-So". Although they asked a lot of typical interview questions, they seemed more like genuine people with interesting careers rather than corporate automatons brainwashed with company doctrine.