Advice for college student on an 1811 position

[MikeG]

BS Accounting, MS Forensic Accounting, CPA w/4 years forensic accounting/fraud examination or risk assurance experience

or

BS Accounting, MS Forensic Accounting, w/ 4 years experience as Deputy Sheriff including work with Drug Task Force

Not a LEO but I'll weigh in with my 0.02 (which is 0.02 more than you paid and is 0.03 more than it's worth ).

I do hiring occasionally (not LE) and I'd go with the second option (LE in your case but would apply to widget making). The reason is that, first, it shows your interested in the specific field. As the hiring person, hiring from Local Widgeter to Federal Widgeter means I don't have to worry that your career change is more about boredom with your current field than about a desire to make widgets. In your case, the LE background would mean your interested in LE and that your not just bored with accounting. To me, hiring you with the Dep sheriff experience would be more like a lateral change of flavors, not a career change that you may or may not like.

Second, if you have the opportunity to do deputy sheriff, they can still use your skills after all the basic training and patrol stuff is out of the way. Academy plus FTO plus two years road experience will get you to a point where they may put you in a fraud/accounting investigation unit. Maybe even sooner. None of that first two years is wasted either as it's mostly learning how to "be safe."

Thirdly, if the Deputy Sheriff position is available to you, I think that will be more competitive. I think it will be harder to break into the LE side than it would the Accounting side. If you take the LE route first and decide you don't like it, accounting will always be there and the LE experience won't be negative. I don't think it's as sure going the other way meaning that there will be less LE opportunities. I have no idea how transitions from local to fed works but I have heard that there are paths that exist for currently sworn officers that are not available to non-sworn applicants. It may only be experience substitution for education, others would know more. Still, knowing the people on the hiring board because you worked with them on previous assignments/task forces is probably a good thing. I've hired people (not LE) as permanent employees after they worked as contract employees and the only reason they got the job was that I was familiar with their work. Their resume would have been just another in the stack but they the known quantity gets more attention than just an impressive resume.

And a question about CPA: If you are in LE and in a fraud unit that routinely does auditing, can that experience qualify you for CPA? Can LE accountants maintain their CPA status? Not sure about CPAs, but other professional licensing areas (i.e. engineering is what I am familiar with) encourage licensure for professionals regardless of their employer, especially if the license holder is not a "moonlighting" professional and is advancing the professionalism of the field (yes, it's kind of whacky in that some view professional licensure as "protection from competition" while others view it as a "public standard of competency" whence the various roadblocks/requirements that make no sense that come from each camp).

[Dan P.]

1depd and MikeG:

Thank you for your responses. I do realize some will think it's strange to specialize in accounting and then consider foregoing a career in it in order to pursue a different field of work. However, I would say that my "heart" isn't really in accounting, but I thought it a good backup career. At the very least, I rationalized that it's at least a "check in the box" to have the education and to hopefully make me as competitive or more competitive than some other applicants.

Maybe none or only one of these employers will contact me, but I'm thankful for everyone's input in keeping me on the right thought track in the event that I have to decide. I'll keep the posts on this board in mind.

- Dan

[Wolfman]

Joeyd:

Thanks for the response, I'll weigh-in on that also. It's still all a bit speculative, but I want to be prepared if there's good news from each employer. I'm also entertaining military service, but not for the sake of 1811 employment. As indicated earlier in this thread, it can't hurt down the road if I did go that route and then applied for an 1811 later. One way or another, I need to get to work!

Thanks for hearing me out.

Saw this post and thought I'd chime in. I can't speak for the other FLEA's but I know (as things are right now) prior military service is practically necessary to get into the FBI. Due to the HUGE downturn in hiring, the only folks that are really getting in currently are those using Veteran's Preference points to cut themselves from the herd. Having talked to my divisional recruiter several months ago, something insanely close to 100% of hires were Veterans. Whether it was a fluke or the sign of things to come who knows.

All of that being said, who's to say how the economy and hiring practices will be in another three years when you have some of the work history requirements met. I would say just do the job which you think you would enjoy the most and do well at.

[MikeG]

1depd and MikeG:

Thank you for your responses. I do realize some will think it's strange to specialize in accounting and then consider foregoing a career in it in order to pursue a different field of work. However, I would say that my "heart" isn't really in accounting, but I thought it a good backup career. At the very least, I rationalized that it's at least a "check in the box" to have the education and to hopefully make me as competitive or more competitive than some other applicants.

Maybe none or only one of these employers will contact me, but I'm thankful for everyone's input in keeping me on the right thought track in the event that I have to decide. I'll keep the posts on this board in mind.

- Dan

I don't think it's strange at all. A relative of mine wanted to be a FBI agent since he was a kid. Fastest way was Accounting degree. Problem was that graduation for accounting was 2 years ahead of minimum FBI age of 23. He got CPA and was hired at 23 but the CPA choice was basically the most productive use of those years. Then did a few years assignment in field office before joining HRT. This was when the FBI hired either accountants or lawyers and HRT was relatively new (Browning Hi-Power was the pistol if you want to date it). It was always very clear though that his choices were a means to getting into FBI. Accounting may have served him well but I don't think anyone would mistake him for an accountant. He's getting close to retirement and is somehow still involved in the weird stuff. Quiet professional is probably the best description of his career and I suspect a lot of career officers would prefer being remembered that way.

[1depd]

1depd and MikeG:

Thank you for your responses. I do realize some will think it's strange to specialize in accounting and then consider foregoing a career in it in order to pursue a different field of work. However, I would say that my "heart" isn't really in accounting, but I thought it a good backup career. At the very least, I rationalized that it's at least a "check in the box" to have the education and to hopefully make me as competitive or more competitive than some other applicants.

Maybe none or only one of these employers will contact me, but I'm thankful for everyone's input in keeping me on the right thought track in the event that I have to decide. I'll keep the posts on this board in mind.

- Dan

The good thing about LE is your degree doesn't matter, because LE is so diverse. In every aspect of life, crime can manifest. That means in every aspect of life where there is a college degree crime can manifest. The thing is when you are talking about the more in depth degrees the crimes are typically investigated by the feds or local officers who have been on the job a long time. That is why I say if you are going for a MS in forensic accounting, local LE is probably not the best use of your education. You will most likely be able to use the education, but not for several years. Figure 3-5 years before you will be looked at seriously as a possible detective, by then you will lose many of the finer details of the education you worked for. Your first year is typically trying to figure out the job. After that it takes a couple more years to get the in depth experience and build the good reputation to be considered experienced enough to conduct more complex investigations.

FYI I noticed a couple jobs listed on usajobs, for forensic accountants with the FBI. I didn't look at them, but thought of this thread when I saw them.

[Dan P.]

I'm still waiting to hear back from some of the accounting firms, and have the deputy sheriff interview next week.

Thanks for the heads up on the forensic accounting position on USA Jobs. I checked them out, but I don't meet the work experience requirements :-/.

That's great that your FBI friend (MikeG) went from accounting to HRT. I was under the impression that you have to have some tactical training and experience in combat arms military specialties or extensive SWAT. HRT sounds like an excellent gig though, that's for sure.

Thanks again for the input, always open to ideas and advice.

- Dan

[MikeG]

That's great that your FBI friend (MikeG) went from accounting to HRT. I was under the impression that you have to have some tactical training and experience in combat arms military specialties or extensive SWAT. HRT sounds like an excellent gig though, that's for sure.

HRT has changed quite a bit since he joined. He was already finished by the time of the Waco siege. In fact, he was recalled since the existing team reached their operational deployment limit. I know changes were made because of that and I suspect even more have been made in the 20 years since. I have no idea what the requirements are now but I suspect they have a large selection of SOC types with combat experience to choose from given the last 10 years of WOT.