1. Know that the FBI doesn't actually have employees with the job title profiler. Special agents at the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) at Quantico, Virginia do, however, construct profiles of unknown offenders. They also provide case management advice, threat assessments and interviewing strategies to law enforcement agencies both home and abroad.
   
2. Pay your dues. You cannot simply apply to the FBI and immediately become a NCAVC agent. A basic requirement is three years service as a FBI special agent. However, such is the competition for places, successful candidates tend to have up to 10 years of service behind them along with experience investigating violent and sexual crimes and abductions.
   
3. Get your education. An advanced degree in a Behavioral or Forensic Science is often listed as preferred qualification.
   
4. Find alternate paths. It is possible to work at the NCAVC without being a special agent. These professional support positions include Intelligence Research Specialists, Violent Crime Resource Specialists, and Crime Analysts. These are essentially research positions so an in-depth knowledge of research methodology, data collection and analysis is required.
   
5. Prepare adequately. Whether you are applying to become a NCAVC agent or a research specialist you can expect to have complete a range of written and psychometric tests.
   

• Don't get your hopes too high. Very few people get to do criminal profiling as a career. concentrate on doing well within a broader field e.g. psychology. While you're doing so, there is no reason why you can't continue pursuing your interest in profiling, for instance doing a profiling related final year project or dissertation.
  

• How to Become a Police Officer
  
• How to Disarm a Criminal with a Handgun
  
• How to Get a Job With a Criminal Record
  
• How to Tell a Loved One About Your Criminal Records
  

• https://www.fbijobs.gov/
  
• http://www.all-about-forensic-psychology.com/fbi-profiler.html - Original source of article. Used with permission.
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Become an FBI Profiler. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.