Ah, very well.
At this point, I am in the "dipping my toe in the pond" phase, but I will say that I am not opposed in the least to moving out of CA.
Printable View
I run our FTO program and that's one of the techniques we use. Even then it's hard to find good people. We recently gave a test for one position and had over a hundred show up. We took the top 20 but only six passed the background.
We're finding more and more the candidates over the age of 30 or 35 are the best. I wouldn't hire the majority of the under 30 crowd to work at McDonalds. No idea how to talk to people, absolutely no real job experience, and many times the work ethic sucks. Walking in the door to take our test with a 4 year degree and working three summers as a lifeguard doesn't make you a good cop. What it usually makes you is a clueless, arrogant a****** that causes more fights than you're able to stop.
We've had a few stellar part-timers that were under 30 that worked for us for a year or two, but we lost them to other agencies before we could give a test.
The current environment has definitely reduce the size of our potential pool. Many of the potentials that passed the test are horrible. On the other hand, the ones that do pass the test and the background are truly dedicated employees and you're going to do well with them during their 25 to 30 year career.
Excellent advice. Ask adjoining agencies about your prospective employer to see what kind of reputation it has. There's one that's near to us I wouldn't work for and don't even like to respond for mutual aid because the agency as a whole is so corrupt.
It has several honest, hard working officers, but they're having a horrible time getting another job due the current ones reputation.
Again, going for a ride a long shows you what the culture is, morale, equipment/facilities and type of environment they serve.
I'll try and find it.
Please let me know if you need any sort of state Assembly level sponsorship from my father in law for your budding LE career.
Federal jobs do tend to pay more than the average local/state police position (with notable exceptions like Suffolk/Nassau Counties in NY, LAPD, etc), and most have guaranteed promotion to journeyman (usually GS13) in five years. Add in locality pay and Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP) - a 25% "additional" pay to cover overtime without formal paperwork, and the base pay is pretty aggressive. Being a multi-lingual person with an IT/programming background would make you extremely competitive. Of course, MOST Federal LE jobs (and, to my knowledge all Criminal Investigator positions) require a bachelor's degree.
HCM's point about assignments is correct for some agencies, not for others. I've moved five times in 16 years of Federal civilian LE, but all voluntary. Some agencies hire in place and leave an agent in place for their career (moving Federal civilians costs A LOT of money). My agency's CURRENT policy (which changes every couple of years) is 5 years for first assignment, 8 "safe" (not in consideration for a "selected" transfer) years for follow on assignments - unless you p1$$ off someone at HQ, or screw up royally - of course.
Another point to consider on the Federal side is there are A LOT of agencies, and most have their own "niche" field they investigate. Obviously, if you don't want to work narcotics cases, the DEA is a bad choice. Some agencies have a fairly wide range of cases they work - my own covers any/all Felony level crimes, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Fraud investigations affecting the Department of the Navy. That means you can swap around and find a field you enjoy - but it also means you're almost certainly going to spend your first couple of years investigating sex crimes (the current hot button topic in DOD).
So... hypothetically... does this mean there would be a greater number of part time/reserve positions? I ask because I have always sort of been interested in LE but it isn't super compatible with my career (MD-PhD student). That said during the PhD phase which begins about a year from now I would have a relatively decent amount of free time and would certainly be interested in pursuing LE part time or in a reserve capacity that made use of my medical background. It also could end up being a direction that I pursue more seriously later on, after I've finished all of my medical training - I know there are a number of MDs who are able to work with LE either full time or part time as part of EMS or other related functions. I'd be interested in hearing more if anyone has any thoughts.
I really don't care if it means that I would do nothing but direct traffic part time during the PhD phase - I would be happy to get the training up front and to make some extra money on the side while building a foundation for a job that I might want in my later career.