USSS Interview

[logan32]

Well it seems that I am going to be starting the long arduous process of interviewing with the US Secret Service. I have my first interview on Monday. Does anyone have any tips or advice?
Thank you all in advance.

[tunlrat]

Is it for UD or Spec. Agent? Is it a preliminary or panel interview? I went through both interviews for SA. Whatever the case is, just be yourself & answer honestly & truthfully. Don't give them answers that YOU think they want to hear. They'll ask you a lot of hypothetical situations & what you would do & how you would feel about it. What worked for me (not that I got a job offer yet praytell) is I related similar situations from my past jobs--"Oh yeah, that actually happened to me & this is how I handled it..." Be prepared for a LONG interview, especially if it's a panel. They'll probably try that good cop bad cop thing too to try & rattle you. Above all RELAX! When you think about it, it's really just a conversation between 2 or 4 people. They want to get to know you & it is also a 2 way street. Ask questions if you got em--promotion potential, job satisfaction, etc. When I walked out of my interviews, I felt very confident (you can tell how it went through that final handshake) because I was myself & didn't pretend to be someone else. This is just what I did, I can't tell you in the end if it really worked because again I'm still going thru the process myself. I guess if I was working for them, I could tell you this would be good advice. Hope this helps & good luck from another USSS hopeful...

[tunlrat]

ps

I seem to be the only one answering your USSS questions logan32! Anybody else with anything good chime in!

[logan32]

Hey Tunlrat,
Thanks for replying to my question and sorry it took me so long to thank you for the reply. Well anyway I had my interview Monday and it went well. After the interview he asked me if after everything that we discussed did I still want to continue with the process. I said yes of course, so he set me up for a time to take a test. So I am guessing that is a good thing.
By the way how is everythign going in your quest?
Talk to you later.

[tunlrat]

Hey no problem dude. Congrats on the successful interview! By the way, are you applying for UD or SA? If that was your first interview, then the "test" he was referring to would be the TEA for SA or the POST test for UD--two completely different tests. And I believe we already discussed the in's & out's of the TEA? As far as my process, still zip, zilch, nada...

[JudgeDredd]

Now that you made it through the "why this job sucks" interview, you will take the written test. when I took it, I was the only one being tested, so if this is the case for you, just go at your own pace. It's like any other test, RELAX and trust your first instincts on the answers and you will do fine. After you pass the first test, you will be called in for an oral panel interview and report writing test. After you pass those, they will send you for the physical. I can't comment after that because this is where I got hung up. After the physical, I got a letter stating that I hadn't filled in the medical history properly. They wanted more information on a knee surgery I had 15yrs ago. The bite in the a@@ was that the letter stated that I had to have the information back to headquarters within 30 days of the posted date at the bottom of the letter, which I got 20 days after the experation date had passed. When I called Headquarters, they said that they were not responsible for the postal service and that I should send in the information witha letter of explnation and the envlope <sp> bearing the postmark. I had already thrown the envelope away, so keep everything they send you and I mean EVERYTHING. Hope this helps.

[logan32]

Tunlrat actually applied to both divisions when they brought me in they said I would have to make a decision on which I wanted to pursue after I took the tests.
JudgeDredd thank you for the information. I will be sure to fill out all information thoroughly, if I make it to that step in the process.