FBI Offers Job Opportunities for Foreign Language Speakers

FBI Foreign Language Job Fair to be Held May 25, 2012

The FBI is seeking to hire foreign language speakers and will host its first ever foreign language job fair in Houston on Friday, May 25, 2012. The job fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Houston Community College’s (HCC) Conference Center, located at 3100 Main Street in Houston, Texas.

“FBI linguists play an extremely important role in keeping America safe,” said FBI Houston Foreign Language Program Manager Larry Wallace. “It’s a job opportunity that promises to be both challenging and rewarding.” FBI linguists support the FBI mission by working a variety of interpretation and translation assignments. They also play an important role in providing cultural awareness to FBI agents, intelligence analysts, and other FBI employees.

Qualified candidates must have the following qualifications:

■strong oral and written communication skills in English and a foreign language needed by the FBI [currently, the foreign languages most needed by the FBI are Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Dari, Hebrew, Farsi, Korean, Pashto, Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya, and Urdu];

■comfortable using basic computer applications;

■a United States Citizen;

■have resided physically in the United States for three of the last five years.

The FBI has nearly 1,500 linguists nationwide supporting over 100 different foreign language requirements. Over 95 percent of the FBI’s linguists are native speakers of the language. All linguists begin as contract employees, but the position may lead to full-time employment. Contract linguists are able to work part-time hours and are paid between $29 and $41 per hour, depending upon the language and level of proficiency. Candidates offered a contract can expect to provide services from their local FBI field office.

FBI language managers and linguists will be on hand at the job fair to discuss the position and will pre-screen potential candidates. Additional information about FBI job opportunities may be found at www.fbijobs.gov.

Hum Tum Radio-KLVL 1480 a.m. will broadcast live from the event from Noon until 5:00 p.m.. The live radio broadcast will be hosted by Rehan Siddiqi and other HumTum artists.