Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

I graduated with my BS in CRJ in May. This month I am starting a two-semester master's in CRJ. I work in my university's criminal justice office and I keep hearing about people I graduated with getting jobs in the field.

It scares me to see L/E jobs, of which there are few to begin with in PA, being snatched up while I toil away in school. I've been told that a master's in CRJ will essentially be useless. I kind of wish I hadn't enrolled in the program. I've completed 6 out of 30 credits.

I could be in the police academy instead of school. Do you have any words of wisdom?

YOU control whether or not you apply to an agency that's hiring, and you can't get a job by sitting back and wishing you had applied when others have done so. If you've already applied and are still working your way through the process (or were screened out someone during the process), apply elsewhere to better your odds.

I know you may not mean it this way but your post comes across as if you expect a job to fall in your lap. If you want it, get busy filling out applications and go get it.

My post did not, in fact, mean that I thought a job would fall into my lap.

I'm testing with an agency next month. I'm testing at a consortium in October. The other agencies that are hiring right now require ACT 120 certification, i.e. the police academy. Part of the reason I enrolled in this program in the first place was to better my chances of getting a job because I know just how competitive it is out there.

After re-reading my post, I can see how it would be interpreted that way. Believe me, I was humbled when I went to my first test and saw several hundred people competing for one spot. :)

Not sure what part of the state you are in but I'll tell you how it is in southwestern PA. You usually need to start out with a department part time to get your foot in the door and gain experience. Short of a city like Pittsburgh, very few will put you through the academy on their dime so you are better off going to the academy yourself.

I just tested for somewhere on Saturday that was one test for 8 departments, but all 8 weren't necessarily hiring and there was 150 people there.

I've had two part time jobs for almost 6 years now and it sucks. You do the same job as a full timer but get half of the pay and NO benefits. My "foot in the door" period is about to expire.

As for college I have a Bachelor's in Criminology which is worthless around here. Most places don't even care but I've slowly seen the departments starting to want 60 credits. I say move out of state if nothing is tying you down here.

ETA I don't see a Master's setting you above for a local department. The full time gigs usually go to military vets or people who know someone in politics somewhere, but not always.

Yep, I'm tied down. My boyfriend is on the job and finally got his dream assignment in detectives, so we won't be going anywhere any time soon. I'm fine with that, it just means that it might take a bit longer for me to get hired since my geographic pool is SO limited. I guess the only reason I'm doing the master's at this point is so that I can teach when I retire. But even then, I'm not a diverse candidate with both BS/MS in CRJ. :confused5:

The situation in PA is way better than in my home state of NJ!

Oh and I'm in the southeast

Yeah NJ seems to have some issues also. I still say the problem here is way too many small departments. They need to regionalize into large departments that can afford to employ all officers full time, and in some places they are starting to do just that. It's better on the towns economically but they lose their political power and their "personalized" police departments. Some small town politicians just won't have it.

Have you considered applying to a federal agency that will keep you local such as the GSA police which has been folded into the Department of Homeland Security? How about a local VA Hospital? They each have a full time police force. Is there a regional Park Police or state Park Police agency near you? Good luck and I urge you to continue to persue your education. Once on the job or once you have started a family getting that dregree will be a big uphill climb.

I didn't know that about the VA hospitals. There's one around me that I could look into; I think I saw an opening. What does GSA stand for?

What does GSA stand for?

GSA is th General Services Administration, but I believe the LE agency the poster above was referring to is the Federal Protective Service (previously under GSA but now under Dept of Homeland Security).

Have you considered applying to a federal agency that will keep you local such as the GSA police which has been folded into the Department of Homeland Security? How about a local VA Hospital? They each have a full time police force. Is there a regional Park Police or state Park Police agency near you? Good luck and I urge you to continue to persue your education. Once on the job or once you have started a family getting that dregree will be a big uphill climb.

I know Im jumping in this discussion late in the game here, but I'll give you my experience on the federal side of employment.

I personally don't know of anyone who wasn't a military veteran, or police academy graduate with experience who was picked up as a police officer in the federal system (edit to state my experience is limited to DoD). I'm not saying education doesn't count, it does, but generally alone will not get you hired by the "big G".

To the OP:

Education is helpful. We've got a guy here on RP that was the academic head of a college's CJ program, worked as a part-time police officer, and then got picked up by the feds, but you mentioned you weren't willing to relocate. He obviously was.

Keep your chin up, you're not in as bad of a situation as you think you are.

While a Master's is nice , Act 120 is a better " weapon " to have to get your foot in the door. Consider putting yourself through the next Act 120 class ( 5 months ) and get the certification that looks VERY GOOD to a prospective PD.