ARCANUM — On Wednesday, Arcanum High School held a career day, inviting several different career professionals to speak to students about what they do on a day-to-day basis and what qualifications they need to begin working in those various careers.

Students were separated into rotating groups moving to different sessions. Every session had a different professional explaining their career and each session lasts forty five minutes. Most presenters had four sessions during the day.

The event began at 7:40 and ended at 10:40 a.m.

Some of the careers highlighted were meteorologists, chef, mortgage loan officer, pet manager, and special agents.

Mark Pohl has been a Special Agent for the U.S. Department of Defense for 25 years. Ten of those years, he worked as an FBI agent in a joint terrorism task force, working to prevent terrorist attacks. During his presentation, he spoke about what he does as a Special Agent and what employment opportunities exists in the field.

Pohl said applicants need a Bachelor’s degree and three years of work experience. The work does not have to be related to law enforcement. The agency looks for more at a work record. He said they want to know you are dependable and will work hard.

“We hire people from a very diverse background. We’ve hired people with degrees in theology.”

He said all types of backgrounds are important on the cases they work on. People with other skills are valuable because of their diverse education. They can bring something else to the table.

The main portion of agents have a military background, and have a familiarity with firearms. It is helpful if they know about a law enforcement environment but none of this is necessary, he said.

In addition to being a Special Agent, Pohl is an active shooter instructor for Active Shooter Response and a tactical medicine instructor. He teaches individuals, especially law enforcement, what to do when they are involved in a mass shooting event and someone is injured. He said teaching people how to help people who have been shot or generally injured will save life’s.

“I think that kind of is a missing piece right now in the whole active shooter conversation and it’s something I want to start training people, not just law enforcement.”

He shared with students different ways to administer assistance in an active shooter event. Pohl said they will be in these environments for numerous years as they continue on into college and it was important for him to leave them with something they could use.

He said soon all law enforcement will have this training and will not have to wait until medical personnel arrive.

“Every law enforcement officer now should be and is going to, in the future, be trained on how to keep people alive in the event they have been shot.”

He told students to follow their passions, whether it is with computers, language, history. He told students whatever they do is something they can market to gain employment.

“Whatever it is you decide to do, become really good at it. If you do that, then lots of people will want to hire you, including the federal government and law enforcement.”