SAN ANTONIO – The FBI hopes to attract more people with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.
FBI Special Agent Mardi Yanez joined the federal agency after being a high school mathematics teacher for nine years.
"It is very, very different," she said, when comparing the FBI job to teaching. "However, I do think I possess the patience. And a lot of the patience that I use with the children I use with this job as well."
Yanez said the FBI was her dream job since she was a young girl.
The University of Texas at Austin graduate said she always wanted to make her parents, who are Mexican immigrants, proud.
"They weren't even 18 when they came to the United States for a better life," Yanez said.
Yanez said an appreciation for diversity has helped her career.
After FBI training in Quantico, Virginia, she moved to Puerto Rico.
"More than 50 percent of my job there was done in Spanish," Yanez said.
According to statistics released in 2016, 217 female Hispanics are special agents. Overall, there are 10,840 male special agents compared to 2,683 female agents.
FBI officials want to hire more women for all types of positions.
"From accounting to forensic accounting, to intelligence analysts, to supply technicians," Sheri Armstrong-Hardy, an FBI Administrative Specialist, said about the type of jobs available.
Yanez and Armstrong-Hardy said working at the FBI has been a great experience.
"So what fun when your parent walks in, and you bring your parent to work day, and they say, 'Oh, you know, this is Mrs. Armstrong-Hardy. She works for the FBI,'" Armstrong-Hardy said.
Yanez said women have a lot to offer to the FBI.
"I think I add a lot to this organization being a female because we have a different perspective of how we approach many things, including the investigations that we do," Yanez said.
Women interested in an FBI career can get more information by clicking here.
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