By RINA BHATI/ Staff Writer
RBN 3035 was the place to be on campus last Monday, as three members of the FBI arrived at UT Tyler to discuss their experiences in the bureau.
The diverse panel of FBI employees offered a little something of interest for students of all majors.
Joshua Matthews was like a TV show FBI agent come to life. A special agent for the FBI, Agent Matthews came from a military background, worked in the CIA for a stint and wielded a delightfully dark, jaded sense of humor.
Daniel Freis is an analyst at the bureau. He describes his job as being akin to Garcia’s from the popular TV series “Criminal Minds,” with his primary responsibilities including finding and identifying people through social media and doing diligent surveillance.
Caitlyn Neff takes on a role less well-known and less sensationalized than others. As an FBI victim specialist, she has the crucial role of counseling and interviewing victims. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Work and has experience working as a correctional facility counselor and responding to mass casualty events. For example, she was deployed shortly after the Uvalde shooting to respond to the situation and work with victims.
The structure of the panel allowed students to freely ask questions about any aspect of the panelists’ experiences. Many students took the opportunity to learn more about employment opportunities. The panelists fielded every anxious question with candor and patience, exhibiting a refreshing openness about careers in the mysterious FBI.
Neff and Matthews listed out the many years of experience they accrued prior to joining the FBI. They described the lengthy process they experienced whilst applying for their roles, with Matthews stating that this application process to the FBI took approximately 10 years due to a military deployment.
Neff, however, said that her application took about a year to be completed. According to her, when someone applies to the FBI, they are vetted very thoroughly. An agent stops at their home to ask questions and makes unscheduled visits to family and friends’ homes as part of their investigation.
“My parents’ neighbors were very concerned about why someone from the FBI showed up asking about me,” she said jokingly.
Freis stepped in and broke down the application process further, making it more easily digestible to students. He offered words of hope and encouragement, stating that, unlike Neff and Matthews, he entered the FBI immediately after graduating. According to him, he didn’t have a laundry list of prior experience on his resume, showing students that, with determination and perseverance, they, too, could pursue similar routes to employment with the FBI.
After students and panelists had finished talking about the application process, the agents began answering more traditional questions, including questions about common crimes in East Texas.
The panelists also presented themselves as regular people. All of them arrived in business casual clothing, stating that, despite how movies portray members of the FBI, real-life members of the bureau typically dress in business casual in order to appear less threatening.
Neff states that victims find her easier to talk to in general when she’s dressed more casually, and that members of the FBI only wear suits when they have “to go to court, or, when the boss is in the office.”
The agents’ anecdotes, sense of humor and overall transparency was a breath of fresh air and a great help to all students who attended.
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