What was your Path?

[JBT]

I got my degree in CJ and then found my way into federal LE. I started with Immigration as an Inspector to get a foot in the door. That is one thing to think about. Get any federal LE job (1801, 1810, 1854, etc.), make your way up the GS scale a bit and then get an 1811 position. That is what I did. When you make the move, you keep relatively equal pay to your previous position, although you may lose a grade level (5, 7, 9). But some of the best experience is federal experience if you want an 1811 position. Just my two cents.

[Group9]

Law degree, Group? Damn, your stock just went down.
LOL

BTW, who was your first fed agency?

FBI. And, you know my current federal agency. If you don't think it was fun going through that academy as a lawyer, and a former feeb, you just don't know what fun is.

The worst time was when we were doing raid training and I was designated as the announcer and I accidently yelled "FBI" as we went through the door. The instructor stopped the exercise and asked me, "What did you just say?"

[Switchback]

LMAO Beautiful!

[Sleuth]

I got my B.S. in Management, took the TEA (had the highest score to that time in New England), got turned down by ATF (a stroke of luck), picked up by Customs right out of college. Served 26 years, 6 months, and 3 days, got to see most of the world, worked on both coasts.
Lots of folks join Border Patrol, then move on. Nice, outdoors work, gets your foot in the door, lots of my co-workers (and supervisors) took this route. Advanced degrees did not mean a thing.

[travis86b]

Sleuth,

I have been searching the CBP.Gov site and have only found physical requirments. Can you send me a site that might have more information. Maybe I missed a link and couldn't find requirements. I have also tried to use usajobs.gov but could not find any answers. So Customs and Boarder Patrol do not have previous experiance requirments... This is what I am gathering from above posts. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks

[Kimble]

Sleuth,

So Customs and Boarder Patrol do not have previous experiance requirments... This is what I am gathering from above posts. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks

This is true to my understanding. The requirements for the position are as follows (from the FAQ on the Careers section of CBP.Gov):
(1) Written Test
(2) Background investigation
(3) Medical examination
(4) Drug screening
(5) Structured interview examination

Prior LE/Military experience would be a plus, but does not seem to be a prerequisite. To my understanding this is usually the case with 0083 positions (Federal Officer), which I believe is the series for a CBP officer.

[tunlrat]

ROS is dead on with the CBP hiring process steps. It was exactly the same for legacy US Customs. Wow, I can't believe CBP officers are 0083s now not the old 1890s--takes some getting used to. If that's the case I hope FLETC "Inspector" training is more police intensive to at least compare to the Mixed Basic Police Training Program at FLETC. I don't think I heard the term "officer safety" once when I was there--but that's just my gripe. :mad:

travis: CBP & Border Patrol (and BOP) seem to hire more people without LE and/or military experience fresh from college. My observation with other Federal 0083 positions is that they'd "prefer" to pick someone up who already went through FLETC's Mixed Basic Police program AND currently a Fed employee (that's just my observation--don't take it as gospel). That's why it's important to get your "foot in the door" anywhere in the Fed system.

Oh, and here was my path: I got a bachelor's in CJ, worked for a city PD, got picked up by legacy US Customs (after 9-11 back when the Fed was hiring like crazy) and now am back in the civilian world. I've come to the conclusion that civilian jobs suck & now am trying to get back into the big G. Good luck in your quest. :cool:

[tunlrat]

I'd have to agree and disagree w/ Sleuth about advanced degrees. I don't think having an advanced degree alone will necessarily help you get a Fed job. Now if you had several years of relevant work experience to go with that degree (e.g. Master's in Info. Systems & you worked as a Systems Analyst somewhere); that would be a different story. I thnk ANY work experience is better than none. Having degrees and initials after your name up the ying yang is certainly impressive (heck who wouldn't want a Phd after their name?), but it's probably not enough for the big G if you have zero work experience (internships & co-ops don't count for much either). I think advanced degrees can help you once you're in the Fed system if you want to move up to better paying supervisory positions e.g. GS-12 and above--but I digress. Just my 0.02$ :cool:

[tunlrat]

ps
I think Switchback's story is awesome! Molecular biology? Such diversity. I don't want to use the words "lab rat" because I'm afraid he'll kick down my door w/ his SOG team...

[g32499]

Actually CBP Officers were converted from 1890 (customs) and 1816 (immigration) to 1801 last year . Since then I believe they may have changed to 1895, but I am sure they are not 0083. Just FYI. The 0083 series is a fedral police officer such as VA, FPS and Park Police. Some are 6C covered (law enforcement retirement) such as park police and capital police , but most are not.

[JBT]

Neither the former Customs or Immigration Inspectors positions are 6c (covered), they have been fighting for it for years, but the positions aren't considered LEO enough to be covered. Sorry, my former Immigration Inspector side started to come out. My bad, I am much better now.

[Kimble]

Actually CBP Officers were converted from 1890 (customs) and 1816 (immigration) to 1801 last year . Since then I believe they may have changed to 1895, but I am sure they are not 0083. Just FYI. The 0083 series is a fedral police officer such as VA, FPS and Park Police. Some are 6C covered (law enforcement retirement) such as park police and capital police , but most are not.

Upon further investigation, this is absolutely true. My statement about CBP officers being 0083 was only a guess :cool: .

[GrayPatriot]

The FBI will take people with a degree in Computer science or Languages (Farsi or some Arab language) without any experience as of 6 months ago. They may have filled up this past years classes with IT and languages so it may change for next year I don't know.

[tunlrat]

I didn't think they would be converted to 0083s. It wouldn't make sense since they're not 6c covered and because police officers they are certainly not. 1801 seems to be the most "general" kind of category where they would fit.

[Sleuth]

Travis, I can't lead you to a site, as A) I'm not very computer literate, and B) since I retired, I'm not hot on getting hired.

My experience with Customs (Customs Agency Service/Office of Investigations/Office of Enforcement....no, back to Office of Investigations - they changed our name every few years) was that your on-the-job actions and supervisory reccomendations had more to do with promotions than any advanced degrees. With exceptions (yes, some folks had ""hooks"), the better agents got promoted, unfortunately some got to their 'level of incompetence'.