If he's interested in federal law enforcement, remember that the FBI isn't the only game in town. Lots of agencies have different enforcement entities; almost every agency/department has an Office of Inspector General with special agents who try to detect/prevent fraud in the government.

I'm an FBI intelligence analyst and have a criminal justice degree. Accounting is no longer a big thing for hiring agents. Cyber is the focus right now so I would say those skills in addition to knowing a language are key.

Definitely a language helps. My DH gets extra pay for his proficiencies. In the DOD, being a veteran helps. It is hard for civilians to get in and advance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Accounting and learn Farsi or Arabic

I agree about the languages especially critical ones (Chinese, Farsi, Arabic, Russian, etc). Accounting too. Government agencies are desperately looking for Americans who speak another language or more. Some even offer a $20,000 hiring incentive.

Of these, Arabic and Farsi are scarcer and government agencies find these harder to come by. Unless your family speaks at least some Chinese at home, Chinese is going to be an uphill climb, plus there are many other kids who already know Chinese plus English.

Anonymous wrote:Accounting and learn Farsi or Arabic

I agree about the languages especially critical ones (Chinese, Farsi, Arabic, Russian, etc). Accounting too. Government agencies are desperately looking for Americans who speak another language or more. Some even offer a $20,000 hiring incentive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think more than a certain major, getting an internship or low-level fed job will put him on the path. I'm a historian (non-fed), and I know a number of people at the National Archives and Library of Congress who started as interns and have risen to pretty high positions at their respective institutions.

Interesting. If he were going to choose based solely on his favorite classes, he'd study ancient history, without a doubt. But he doesn't see that as practical given that he's got no interest in teaching. Maybe he's wrong about that though?

PP here. I know enough underemployed Classicists that I wouldn't be comfortable saying, "Study ancient history, you'll definitely get a job at the LC. It will work out great!" But, there are many fed jobs that fall outside the usual suspects. I also agree with pps who suggest that if he has any facility with languages, high level language skills/Linguistics major might be a good choice.

+1. I love history myself. I also worked at the Library of Congress, although not as an historian. There simply aren't that many jobs at the LOC, or in the small Historian offices at many federal agencies. Worse, budget cutbacks were hitting the LOC when I left fairly recently, and the budget situation seems unlikely to improve soon. Which is sad.

Either unusual skills or areas where the private industry is more attractive to most people (much higher salaries) will be easier to get in. Agree about quant skills. Medicine too. However, in some of those fields, the fed work culture starts to resemble that of industry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think more than a certain major, getting an internship or low-level fed job will put him on the path. I'm a historian (non-fed), and I know a number of people at the National Archives and Library of Congress who started as interns and have risen to pretty high positions at their respective institutions.

Interesting. If he were going to choose based solely on his favorite classes, he'd study ancient history, without a doubt. But he doesn't see that as practical given that he's got no interest in teaching. Maybe he's wrong about that though?

PP here. I know enough underemployed Classicists that I wouldn't be comfortable saying, "Study ancient history, you'll definitely get a job at the LC. It will work out great!" But, there are many fed jobs that fall outside the usual suspects. I also agree with pps who suggest that if he has any facility with languages, high level language skills/Linguistics major might be a good choice.

There are express preferences for math, science, engineering, or quant-soc (like econ with statistics) majors in many, many agencies. Languages also count a great deal, -IF- at a high level of proficiency; three years of French does not cut it a bit. Federal hiring is dispersed and non-uniform among agencies so you might get different answers all over the place. But the bottom line remains that (A) the veterans' preference is the dominant factor, and (B) no matter the college or the program, grades count -- agencies can skip multiple steps in the hiring process if a candidate presents with especially high grades. The impact is that somebody with a 3.5 from a zero-name school has a huge leg up on someone with a 3.4 from Yale. May not be fair, but it's 100% true.

Accounting and learn Farsi or Arabic

Anonymous wrote:I think more than a certain major, getting an internship or low-level fed job will put him on the path. I'm a historian (non-fed), and I know a number of people at the National Archives and Library of Congress who started as interns and have risen to pretty high positions at their respective institutions.

Interesting. If he were going to choose based solely on his favorite classes, he'd study ancient history, without a doubt. But he doesn't see that as practical given that he's got no interest in teaching. Maybe he's wrong about that though?

Or political science, that's another popular choice where I work. But once he's in college I would encourage your son to look for internship opportunities at agencies that interest him -- those are often pathways to jobs after graduation.

I think more than a certain major, getting an internship or low-level fed job will put him on the path. I'm a historian (non-fed), and I know a number of people at the National Archives and Library of Congress who started as interns and have risen to pretty high positions at their respective institutions.

Economics? Pretty hard and he needs to be good in math. But it can be used in many different areas - small business administration, health policy, retirement policy, even education policy. It's more practical that a generic "public policy" degree.

My DS16 has talked about working for the government for years, since elementary school in fact. Now that we're getting close to choosing a college, and eventually a major, it's time to narrow that down. I think a civil service job would be a good fit for him in many ways. He likes things that are structured and organized, and would rather be a little fish in a big pond than vice versa. He's fascinated by law, government, elections, and social justice.

His first choice would be FBI agent, but he knows that's a challenging job to get, so he'd love to pick a subject to study that could lead to an FBI position, but also to jobs in other agencies.

Suggestions?

The military likely won't be an option due to a medical issue that, while mild, is an automatic disqualification for service.