The FBI has its own language. It is full of acronyms and expressions that are unique to the FBI. So much so that there is a class at the FBI Academy to familiarize new agents with the FBI's acronyms and terminology. A "First Office Agent" is a newly minted FBI agent who has recently reported to their first office of assignment. While there is supposed to be a probationary period of 1 year during which each First Office Agent spends a lot of time with their assigned "Training Agent", my first office agent experience like many of my fellow first office agents was that we learned by doing and by getting advice from the slightly more tenured other first office agents.
First Office Agents have accomplished great things in their careers but there was also a certain amount of "trial and error" and some of those experiences make for some great stories. First Office Agents is based upon my experience as a first office agent in the Memphis Division and those of my good friend, Kevin Cearlock. Kevin and I are two people who find the humor in everything and there were plenty of funny things we experienced firsthand during the the course of our FBI careers. We hope you enjoy hearing about them.
At the FBI Academy, there was a class called F-O-A-C which stands Field Office Administrative Codes (at least I think that what it stands for). It is like learning a foreign language. And when most new agents hear BuSpeak, they are confronted with hundreds of acronyms and combined words that they must learn to be able to function in their jobs.
In every FOAC class, there are two distinct levels of comprehension. The former FBI support personnel who are now newly minted New Agents and everyone else. The former FBI support personnel were all fluent in BuSpeak and everyone else was really lost and confused.
It was the most daunting class in the FBI Academy – at least it was for me, and I have had an enduring fascination with FBI acronyms ever since.
5 Dec 2025
From Baby Agents to Blue Flamers
A baby agent is a playful, yet derisive term often used to describe a Special Agent Trainee at the FBI Academy. A blue flamer is a reference to the blue flame that comes out the back of a fighter jet. Upon leaving the Academy, newly minted FBI Agents are said to have a 3 foot blue flame of enthusiasm coming out of their butts. And rightly so. Shortly after arriving at the FBI Academy, I remember being told: “Congratulations. You just passed the most stringent career screening process that there is. Out of 50,000 applicants a year, we onboard between 400 and 800 new agents a year." I don’t know about you Kevin, but had I known that on the front end, I may not have submitted an application in the first place. And during the course of the lengthy recruiting process that for me lasted 16 months from beginning to end, you are periodically told that the odds are against you for various reasons. I’m not sure those seemingly casual remarks that were directed at both Kevin and me as it turns out, weren’t a part of the weeding out process. Or it could be paranoia. Before planning this episode, Kevin and I hadn’t really talked about our recruitment and academy experiences much. And it was funny to learn that we both went through a similar psychological process.
24 Nov 2025
Do High Performers Pose Greater Risk?
As we approach year end, many organizations are conducting performance evaluations and are allocating the bonus pool accordingly. And during the performance review process, low performers garner a lot of negative attention as you might expect. Indeed, one of the more widely recognized red flags in efforts to identify fraud risk is that of a disenfranchised employee, often a subset of the low performer pool. But what if I told you that the opposite may be true and it's high performers who pose a disproportionate amount of organizational risk?
This episode was inspired by an article published by Richard Bistrong (https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardbistrong/), Dina Denham Smith (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dina-denham-smith/) and @Ron Carucci (https://www.linkedin.com/company/fast-company/): https://lnkd.in/eaK4sAji (https://lnkd.in/eaK4sAji)
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