FBI and Law Enforcement Interviews

Amazing two weeks – lots of great emails from those who have passed. Some of them were “second timers” who did not work with me the first time aroung.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!! Today was by far one of the best days of my life when I got the call!!*****

I couldn’t have done it with out you! This time around, I was nervous…..but it was a confident nervous……I knew exactly what to expect and I made sure that before I left the room, those 3 agents knew how important the SA position was to me!! And my WHY FBI….was solid. I banged out my intro, why FBI, and 5 points!

Again, it was a lot of work to prepare for but without your help….I would of failed again.

Thanks again and keep up the exceptional serive you provide because it’s making a positive difference in peoples lives!

 I found out my results last week and could not be more excited.  I am very confident in saying that I could not have passed without your coaching.  And I will tell you, as both an on-board employee and someone who had taken the Phase II before, I felt entirely different afterwards than I had the first time — and it was all because of your program.  After the first time I took the interview my head was literally spinning and I had no recollection of my answers.  This time I had clear and organized thoughts about what I had told my panel, so much so that I went back to my notes and highlighted every story I told.  In addition, having a prepared response to “Why I want to be an FBI Agent” was key in making me very comfortable with the entire interview and I am convinced really got me off to a great start with the evaluating agents.

I don’t know what else to say other than “THANK YOU” and will guarantee you that I will send anyone who asks advice of me to your website.

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I just wanted to let you know that I passed!! Thank you so much for all of your assistance, I could not have done this without your guidance. I would definitely recommend your services to anyone that is taking the Phase 2 interview. Thanks again.

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Just wanted to let you know that I found out today that I passed phase 2!  I really cannot thank you enough…I have never felt as prepared for an interview as I did this one. 

There were two very important things that you focused on in our last session that really proved to be invaluable.  First, was making me focus and understand that I would inevitably have to morph my stories- there were very few stories that I told that were not amended is some way shape or form to fit the question asked.  Second, was the tip on how to re-phrase the question when your story didn’t exactly fit the question asked- i.e “Well I have never done…, but I can tell you about a time when..”

Again, thank you so much.  I really think it would have been a very awkward 60 minutes had I not worked with you- it was definitely something that required preparation and I felt you prepared me well.

Thanks again,

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I passed Phase 2! Christmas indeed comes early this year. I wanted to say thank you for all of your help. I felt so much more prepared this time, and less like I was stabbing around, hoping to create the right answer. For the interview, I had very good, animated stories for 11 out of 13 questions. Two of them I had to make up, but I stuck to your format like glue, and remembered to show, not tell the interviewers. For the writing portion, I spent the first 30 minutes just reading and re-reading the material, outlining my essay, and making sure I didn’t miss anything. 

From the heart – thank you for all of your help. I would recommend your service to anyone, and would not hesitate to contact you again if the need arose. Stay safe, and God bless.

“I’m happy to report that you have another satisfied customer to add to your list of testimonials. I received word this morning that I passed phase 2! I can say with certainty that things wouldn’t have gone the same had I not chosen to hire you as my coach. I went into my interview with confidence and walked out with the very same confidence intact. I nailed my “Why FBI” and I think that separated me from others. I can’t imagine going in there cold without your framework and a fair amount of preparation. I’m not sure if others there used you but I almost feel sorry for those who didn’t. As I told each story, pens were racing nonstop. The more that happened, the better I felt, and the more comfortable I became. Keep up the good work and I will definitely be passing your name along to anyone I come across who is interested in the field. Thanks again!“

From someone who I coached and he passed —

I took my panel interview yesterday morning. Without a doubt in my mind your help assisted me in passing!  There were 10 people scheduled at the same time I went and the other nine applicants all failed. The FAMS panel told me that the failure rate was about 85% so I am confident in saying I was very well prepared fortune because of you. The questions they asked were very close to what we practiced and I had a story in my head for four out of the five questions. The way they asked the question was a little bit difficult because it was probably five or six sentences long so I kept tuning in to hear what they were looking for. All in all they said I had an excellent interview. You service is worth every penny and I offer my sincere thanks for your help!

Carole,

Thank you for your help! The “Why the FBI” and “5 Points” were EXTREMELY useful tools, and certainly set the tone for the rest of the interview. I’m glad we worked together on all those stories, because the agents at my interview seemed really impressed. I’m not going to tell you it was easy, and I didn’t sleep a wink the night before, but as soon as they said ” why the FBI”, I was on a roll! I used about 2 stories from each section of my life; 2 navy enlisted, 2 non-profit, 2 grad school, 2 officer, 2 sailboat, etc…

I was honestly shocked to find that I was the only candidate (out of 12) at my Phase II interview who had used an interview coach. Its like going unarmed to a duel!

The first thing I noticed right off the bat when starting the interview was how important that initial contact with the interviewers is.  We engaged in some friendly small talk to begin with and it began to develop into a pleasant conversation.  But we quickly got to the business at hand which was the interview.  However, I think that initial conversation set the tone for the interview because the interviewers seemed slightly more laidback and friendly.

I interviewed with two female agents and a male agent.  I think my interview overall went well.  Definitely much better than the first time around.  I felt much more confident in my responses to their questions this time, thanks to your help.  I skipped two questions and later returned to them.  I skipped one question in particular because I had already used one of my stories to answer a previous similar question.  I didn’t want to repeat a story so I thought of a story on the fly.  I used the 20-60-20 format to answer the question and I remembered your tips from when you critiqued my stories.  So I believe I was able to come up with a good story to answer the question on the fly.

I walked out of the interview feeling confident.  I felt like it went really well and I hope to get good news soon.  I will be following up once I get the results to let you know how I did.  

Thank you so much for your advice and your help in preparation for this interview.  I honestly don’t think I would’ve felt good walking out of this interview if it weren’t for your help.  Thank you again and God bless.

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Obviously I can’t say specifics but here is some general feedback and suggestions for future testers  —

-Have some personal and exciting stories, not just work.  They really did seem to be interested in my versatility outside of work (they loved my story of delivering my son in the front yard…the female agent who was probably the least responsive really was into that one, and one guy really likes my football story, he even knew what a farrier was and was interested in that stuff too).  So don’t be boring!

-Don’t be a robot and try to say everything perfect.  Be a human.

-Practice, practice, practice!  To the point that you can relax and be yourself when the time comes to just talk (because you know your stories so well), otherwise you will probably waste too much energy and concentration on trying to remember or think of a story.  You can’t wing this interview.  I believe that these agents would see right through that if someone tried to do that.

-Biggest thing:  Learn how to first 1- identify which factor they are after, and then 2- have at least 2 stories ready to go for each of those factors.

Thanks so much for your guidance and expertise.  I will send you a note just as soon as I find out the results in a few days or so.  I left it all out on the table so I have no regrets at all.

Thank you again, I am really glad I hired your professional services!

I’ve been on quite a few interviews but out of all of them I would definitely say FBI was the most difficult; followed by ATF, DEA, ICE, Air Marshals, then CBP.

Back in 2005 I found your site on the internet while I was preparing to take the interview phase of the FBI’s application process and decided to try your interview coaching.  Through the phone sessions, you helped me rehearse all the life stories I had compiled and applied them to the interview process.  I passed the interview phase, and I’ve been a Special Agent for almost 5 years.  I can’t remember whether I contacted you to let you know, but your assistance in preparing me for the interview phase gave me a lot of confidence walking into the interview room.  Thank you for your help, and I’m glad to see that you’re continuing to guide other people.  It was definately worth the money I spent to get the career I wanted!

Thank you very much for your help. I passed!!!

Before taking phase two, I had the opportunity to spend some time with the other applicants and I got to know how they prepared for the test. They all had their own coaches that had helped them out, but it was really nice to know that I had the best coach.

I did not come to this conclusion quickly. I know you are the best because, as you know, I spent many months preparing for the interview. And during this preparation, I did a lot of study and research, that helped me learn a lot and therefore, I can honestly say that you were the best coach any of us had.

In addition to that, this was the second time I took the test. I knew what to expect. And therefore I knew that your preparation was exactly what I needed.

I had mixed emotions after the test. I was really excited because I knew I NAILED IT. But I was also feeling kind of bad because all of the other applicants had a sick feeling because they knew that their preparation was not good enough.

I told them not to worry. And if they did not pass it, I had a really good coach that would help them pass. Again, thank you very much and I will definitely recommend you.  

Hi Carole,
Thanks so much, this is great.

You and your program have been incredibly helpful so far, and I really enjoyed our conversation last week. I am working on my stories getting ready for our next session.