So you want a job in law enforcement? Better get in line.

Throughout California, many police and sheriff's departments are on hiring lockdowns. The CHP hasn't accepted any new applications in nearly three years. The only local law enforcement hiring in Sacramento these days is for "on-call" officers or volunteers.

There is one law enforcement agency that's taken off the hiring handcuffs: the FBI, which unlocked a tiny hiring window this month.

Jump quickly, though. It's closing Wednesday.

What does it take to become an FBI special agent?

"In a nutshell, the FBI is looking for honest, hard-working professionals who have one or more of the many critical skills computer science, engineering, law, accounting, languages that we need," said Special Agent Steve Dupre, who's in charge of recruiting for the FBI's Sacramento office.

Under a new hiring process, the FBI accepts applications for only two weeks twice a year and only online in March and August. For 2012, it had only 450 openings for special agents, the lowest rate in the last five years, primarily due to federal belt-tightening. All of those openings have been filled.

Those who apply by Wednesday's deadline will be put into the FBI's 2013 hiring pool, although the exact number of openings for next year has yet not been determined by Congress.

Dupre said the bureau is "continually looking to hire," due to its mandatory retirement age of 57. Once qualified, a candidate stays in the FBI's hiring pool until age 36.

The FBI doesn't take just anyone, however. At a minimum, applicants must be young 23 to 36 years old with a college degree and several years of professional work life. It also helps to possess one of the FBI's most-wanted professional backgrounds, from accounting to military to computer science.

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Personal Finance: It's not easy lining up a law enforcement job