To those of you graduating...

[SpacemanSpiff]

Only 19 days left for me, and I'm still unemployed. The world is starting to feel a lot bigger. :(

What are you grads or recent grads doing with your CJ degrees besides pursuing law enforcement? It's really starting to look like I'll need to explore other avenues while I continue to apply. I simply wish the hiring process didn't keep you guessing for weeks at a time.

[MisterK]

Heh, I moved to Germany and became a travel agent after I graduated 2 years ago with my CJ degree. 'Course I had one in German too.

[Cris1102]

Well I don't have a CJ degree but I would say, anything thats legal and pays the bills would be good.

[TXCharlie]

In Texas, at least, a 4-year B.S. degree in CJ will allow you to get a Private Investigator company license after you complete whatever specialized training is mandated by the PSB and pass the exam. That will in turn open you up to get a Bounty Hunters' license I believe if you want to get into that business, but the PI business seems less shady and seems to provide more opportunity money wise, as an outsider looking in (I've only taken beginner classes in each. That's as far as I've gone so far with it).

I know a very ethical PI in my town, who mainly deals with fraud investigations, and Nursing Home abuse cases - As far as I'm concerned, he's doing the work of angels in some cases, which Police Departments simply do not have the time or authority to do, since many of them are civil cases. He also has his share of following cheating husbands around, but some would argue that's the work of angels also ;)

Here's a couple of links you may be interested in if you're near Texas and are interested in any of that - If you're elsewhere, then perhaps there's something similar in your area:

Texas Private Security Bureau (licensing board for PI's, Security Officers, Bodyguards, and Bounty Hunters):
http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/psb/

PRIVATE INVESTIGATIONS I: INTRO COURSE
(only $74 for six 2-hour classes, held at the City of Plano Recreation Centers as a continuing Adult Education course)
http://parks.planotx.org/econnect/Ac...Wait=N&aid=811

There are a few civilian jobs in the Law Enforcement area (such as Parole Officers, etc) that a CJ degree may be good for, and with some extra training there's also jobs in the crime lab and so forth, but most of the jobs I've seen like that want experience and don't have the budget to furnish training - But that's true for any industry these days :(

Still you should be able to find something eventually... I'm personally taking CJ just to give me a background for eventually becoming a reserve officer, and to buy me some time while I try to get back into shape, which isn't going so well either... But I'm getting there slowly.

I think I only have Texas History and one little CJ class left becore I can get my 2-year Associates degree. I'm undecided whether I'll persue the BS-CJ degree. If I get into Private Investigations, I may go the apprenticeship route, which wouldn't require a CJ degree, but I think that route takes at least 3 years of working as an investigator for a Private Investigations company (most of which will probably involve low pay and digging thru court records or a lot of boring stakeouts) before you can go solo and get the big bucks, from what I can gather.

I already have an old BS engineering degree to get my foot in the door in almost any LE job - They don't seem to place a great value on CJ degrees specifically, but most of the good jobs want some type of college degree or a lot of experience, just from what I see in the job postings and talking to recruiters that occasionally visit our classes

[TPDHellhound]

Only 19 days left for me, and I'm still unemployed. The world is starting to feel a lot bigger.

What are you grads or recent grads doing with your CJ degrees besides pursuing law enforcement? It's really starting to look like I'll need to explore other avenues while I continue to apply. I simply wish the hiring process didn't keep you guessing for weeks at a time.

When I graduated (way back when! :D ) I swore I'd never have to say the following phrase:

"Would you like fries with that??"

The joke was on me... I bartended for nearly 3 years before getting hired. And when I did get hired, I took a paycut. :cool:

Good luck!

[Kimble]

You may want to look at some other non-LEO, "CJ-related" jobs that your CJ degree could help you attain, to include:

*Fraud Investigator (insurance, banking, mortgage, etc.)
*Loss Prevention
*Private Security (just make sure you apply to a reputable company, as there are some clowns in this industry, but some who are very professional)
*Local/State Probation/Parole
*Court Administration
*Dispatch

Good luck, and make sure you visit your school's Career Services office (or whatever your college/university calls them), as they may have some venues you should research in your area.

[SpacemanSpiff]

I've been looking at some of the probation officer jobs, and those seem fairly interesting. One of the counties around here was hiring for a juvenile probation officer, and I wouldn't mind working with minors - maybe I could help them turn things around. Thanks for the insight guys!

[UpstateNY]

The joke was on me... I bartended for nearly 3 years before getting hired. And when I did get hired, I took a paycut.

Good luck!

Same here, I was a bartender for a a few years, too. Boy-oh-boy yoy're not kidding about the paycut!

[smoke63b]

I'm graduating with an associate's in CJ in 2 weeks. I'll have about 70 hours then. The process for getting hired in my area is generally 3 to 4 months per department and that means I need a job in the mean time. I think everyone who's graduating with a CJ degree has this problem at first if they haven't been hired by a department yet.

Here's a list of stuff I've been applying for religiously for a month now.
Loss Prevention (big departments stores pay VERY well)
Probation/Parole (this requires a bachelors in Texas)
Contract Security/In-House Security (in-house is by far the best. someone above said there are some clowns out there in this industry and he is correct. Contract security is usually a rag-tag bunch of idiots or really old guys).
Private Investigation (believe it or not there are actually a few companies out there hiring and training PI's at the entry level)
Retail/Sales/Marketing (lots of these jobs can pay fairly well to get you by while only requiring 2 to 4 year degrees of any type to be part of management.)

My best tip for ANYONE job hunting is to go to Monster.com and upload a very good resume there in word format. I had about 4 job offers in the first week alone without even applying to anything. These offers were things that I didn't want to do, such as customer service or call center work, but still...

You can also use Monster.com to find all entry level type work that your CJ degree will actually help you with. What I mean by that is that ANY 2 or 4 year degree goes towards a lot of these entry level jobs. Some of these jobs pay upwards of 20 bucks an hour too. Just gotta look for em. (and wear a suit)

After about 3 weeks of hardcore looking and applying on monster.com, I just got a job offer in Private Investigation. I've had a lot of quality offers though. There's definitely plenty of work out there for people who want to put in the effort to find them. The CJ degree is still a degree and that right there puts you ahead of a lot of people.

Hope this helps you out some and good luck

[SpacemanSpiff]

Some great advice Smoke, thanks!

On a side note, this past weekend I was involved in a terrible fight with my parents. I told my Mom that my plans for the summer were to get a temporary job while I continued applying for Police positions. Long story short, she went off the rocker and made some outrageous comment about how she was embarressed to have a son with a college degree working for an hourly wage... No matter how much I explain, my parents just don't understand that getting hired in law enforcement is not like dropping off a resume and getting called back a week later.

[TXCharlie]

I can see her point in a way...

If you don't need the money right now, a temporary job flipping burgers or whatever will only be a distraction that could keep you from finding a better job, or may distract you from taking additional training, apprentiship and/or exams in persuit of a professional license (such as a PI license, for example).

Have you ruled out getting into a Police Recruiting program altogether (or is becoming a LEO still your ultimate goal but you just haven't been accepted by a program yet)? Perhaps I misunderstood.

[SpacemanSpiff]

I'm not sure what you mean by Police recruiting program. In Illinois, you cannot voluntarily put yourself through an Academy. Once you have been hired by a department, only then are you allowed to attend the Academy.

I have been considering other full time options, but my main goal is to get hired by a Police department. Maybe I'm being a little arrogant or presumptious, but I believe I have the qualifications and background to make me a competitive candidate. I have no criminal history, heavy involvement in extra-curricular activities and volunteering, strong work history with good references, will soon have a degree, the list goes on...

Edit -- Well that does seem a little arrogant, lol. I try the best I can to ride that fine line between selling yourself and coming off as too arrogant.

[smoke63b]

Ahh you're doing fine. There is absolutely nothing wrong with working a joe schmoe type job while you go through the process. I have a completely spotless record, meet all the req's by a mile, and I have still been turned down at two departments. That's pretty normal actually. I'm going to work as a private investigator until I finally get a job officer from a PD. It's not arrogant to work something you don't like until you get what you do. Also, you can work a job like that and STILL do all the self-building you need to do. I say you're on the right track. Keep applying and keep working too. It looks good on your application. They don't care if you are working for 6 bucks an hour or 150k a year as long as you have good references from your employer and a stable work history.

Keep it up and you'll make it in eventually.

[TXCharlie]

I'm not sure what you mean by Police recruiting program. In Illinois, you cannot voluntarily put yourself through an Academy. Once you have been hired by a department, only then are you allowed to attend the Academy.

Ahhh ok - In Texas, you'd be allowed to put yourself thru Academy if you could afford it - In fact, some community colleges have a Police Academy. In smaller departments that can't afford to send people thru the academy, that tends to be a positive factor when you apply.

But (I'm told) larger departments prefer to train you "their" way in an academy of their chosing, so being a graduate of some other college Police Academy seems to not be a huge positive with them (unless they actually run that academy).

Oh well, good luck!!!

[Ken K]

One good avenue is to become a claim representative. I do not understand the hesitancy to do so unless there is some stigma you perceive attached to it. Claims reps are investigators, of coverage and the circumstances surrounding the loss. They are the first line of defense against fraud.

I worked for a company as their first SIU (Special Investigator Unit) investigator and when I left there were 60. I was directly involved in hiring at least 30 of them. I hired former Army CID, AFOSI, US Postal, Deputy State Fire Marshals, local LE and firefighters. They were on pensions, had the experience, and a staring salary of $50,000 to $60,000 really added to their retirement.

In the last Career School I taught, which consisted of recent college grads hired for claims and underwriting, I had 7 out of 21 who had CJ degrees. They all thought they should be SIU, until I described their competition.

Only one did what I suggested. His dad was NE State Patrol and wanted him there. He opted for SIU. I told him to get 3 years claims experience, take all the fraud classes you can, and then apply. He did that and today is an SIU investigator chasing thefts, auto accidents and arsons.

Claim reps get paid pretty good these days with good benefits.