A variant of this thread was posted on M4C a few years ago so some of you may have seen it already. Its pretty open-ended, and wouldn't take place for a few years, but I know some agencies have a very long hiring process. Also, the chances that I'll do anything outside of the Army are pretty rare, but I want to be somewhat knowledgable on other options.
I'm currently an active duty logistics officer and unfortunately just had to make a decision to not pursue my dream career in the Army due to a serious knee injury. The effects of the injury will be permanent, though I think they will be manageable to where I can still be in good shape, just not rucking 20 miles with 80-100 pounds on my back type of shape. LE has been one of the more appealing career choices to me over the last few years, but my guess is that there isn't anything that'll be what I'm looking for because my preferences are just unrealistic. I figured that I'd throw them all out there with the hopes that you guys with experience can let me know what is available that meets at least some of the preferences.
1. Pay/benefits: it pains me to put this as number one, but I have a family and expensive hobbies. Salary, healthcare, benefits, etc. are all pretty good and I think I have a decent shot at making 20 years and collecting a pension from the Army if that's what I decide to do. In order to get me to switch, I'd have to be able to start somewhere that is comparable with pay and benefits. If they could account for my retirement as well (federal side maybe?) that would be even better. Based on common sense and what I've heard from others, finding something that checks this box is hard enough. I have considered switching over to the guard though, so that would help with some of this.
2. Relevant/rewarding: one of my biggest complaints with my current job is that it just doesn't feel rewarding to me. I'm not looking for lots of appreciation from people, I just want to feel like I'm actually doing something good for my community/country. Typically, this has always been a romanticized idea of fighting bad guys but I do realize that life isn't like the movies. I think that I'm pretty good at interacting with people, though I'm absolutely foreign to conflict and appreciate the valuable skills that can be learned by having to deal with those situations.
3. Cool/interesting: kind of goes along with the above, but I love the cool guy stuff like SWAT, ERT, etc. I wanted to go SOF, so you get the point. I also think that counter-terror would be fascinating work. I do know that you can't just jump into any of that stuff, so agencies where that could be fast-tracked would be ideal as I'd probably be around 32 or so by the time I'd switch over.
4. Location: would have to be in a free state. NC, VA area would be great, but not a requirement. I don't like living in a city so somewhere that has a nice balance of city and suburbs with land would be great, but that's hard to find already.
I've heard that USSS has been running people into the ground. I've also heard that smaller agencies like local or maybe state would be better for 2 and 3, but maybe not so good with 1. But, I have heard that some of the larger metropolitan areas actually pay pretty well, so I'm not really sure. Its easy to jump on USAjobs and compare stuff there, but much more difficult at the lower levels because there isn't a common system where you can look at all of the open positions, requirements, salary, etc. Also, I've heard next to nothing about the Marshals, DHS, etc. FBI sounds like it'd make the most sense for some aspects, but I've heard that the hiring process is around two years and its still mostly desk work. I have a little bit of info on the DEA, but for some reason never really wanted to deal with narcotics. I'd appreciate any advice you guys can provide.