The guys I’ve talked to about it have said that new troopers are going to West Texas or the RGV, with the theoretical potential to transfer to more desirable parts of the state later on.Originally Posted by TheNewbie
The guys I’ve talked to about it have said that new troopers are going to West Texas or the RGV, with the theoretical potential to transfer to more desirable parts of the state later on.
Location can be a big issue with a federal LE career. Some agencies (NCIS, DSS, USSS, FBI, USAID OIG, etc. — to varying degrees) move their agents several times during their careers.
Others (some OIGs and HSI come to mind) won’t force you to move.
However, even if you are hired by an organization which won’t force you to move, be wary of any promises that you’ll be able to move voluntarily to a specific office, or even from your first office.
Nothing is certain, to be sure, but your best bet for geographic stability is to be hired for the location of your choice at an agency which (in practice, if not by policy) doesn’t move its people. That can be very difficult to accomplish.
Perhaps you could see where your wife’s career takes her, and then take a local or county LE job in that area, at a department big enough to give you investigative opportunities after some time in patrol?
An 1811 position is great, with many advantages, but as in real estate: “location, location, location”.
My info may be outdated then.
West Texas would be an amazing duty station for someone like me. For better or worse, most people are not like me.
PM sent.
pat
W TX is pretty pretty coolMy info may be outdated then.
West Texas would be an amazing duty station for someone like me. For better or worse, most people are not like me.
“Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais
the circle back refers to your wife and her complex requirements. sounds like you can't do much signing up any place unless ya'll have steeled yourselves to geographical bachelor tours because of the organizational intransigence of one or the other's schooling.
seems like her training/education will be longer than your potential courses of action. one of the suggestions about not forgetting local or state organizations may carry with them residency requirements to first satisfy. many programs keep lists because they're forced to to make their various H/R quotas for different demographic categories.
i'm sure many others a part of this discussion thread had marriages shredded by mismatched assignments or career trajectories or repetitive deployments/tours away. the army ate my first marriage and darned near got the second one when i got recalled less than a year after i resigned my RA commission to get married again and get into a PhD program.
"once upon a time..." i shot with and did combatives with a guy in SoCal (1988) who waited two years to get into the LAPD Academy. he had to wait because the H/R category of white, heterosexual guy - not to put too fine a point on it - with a college degree who'd played football and could already shoot was full; for two years. we lost touch (i went to the ROK then back to SOF on the east coast) but last i heard he'd done well through the process and very well on the street. he'd talked about trying to go fed' after five years but i don't know how that turned out for him.
all the best in this
Some rambling side thoughts:
With CBP/BP/HSI/ICE, you can somewhat select the City you want to go to (from a list of vacancies). But the big advantage over FBI and Secret Service is, they tell what city you are going to before you accept the job. With FBi/USSS you accept the job, then get your duty station later on while at the academy. With CBP/HSI/BP/ICE, they call you and say “this is a job offer, you can pick from Atlanta, Memphis or Dallas.”(or other random city)... If none of those sound good, you say no thanks... and that’s it. I have heard of people negotiating a spot over the phone in the offer, but not often. My Daughter is CBP, and they initially offered her Dallas, but she asked and ended up getting sent to Houston like she wanted. The point is, you know where you are going before you have to report to the academy for 6 months of Basic. That’s a huge selling post over the FBI.
My example is for HSI/ICE. I was living in Houston before the job, and have been working in Houston 20+ years. I have taken a few long term TDYs, ranging from a few days to six moths. In my 20 years, I have probably spent just under 4 years on the road. But a lot of that was shorter one to two week assignments. I volunteered to be a Fletc for 6 months as an instructor, just for a change of scenery. You could conceivably spend 95% of your career in the city you get hired on in. Do they force folks to TDY? Sometimes. They always ask for a volunteer before they go to voluntold. Last election, HSI had to kick up 600 agents to the secret service. Houston was taxed for 40. About 30 volunteered, the rest voluntold. But they are pretty good in my office about taking things into account like “wife is 8 months pregnant, don’t force TDY me.”.
If you want to promote to supervisor or higher, you will have to do a tour of HQ in DC, minimum 18 months, typically about 2-3 years. They you can promote to supervisor or up. Some other tours can count for HQ time, like working the National Targeting Center (intel). But typically, you have to move your family in order to move up. Or leave them 8n place while you go to HQ for 2 years. If you don’t want to move, you stay a working agent in your city.
Side note: This strategy is problematic, because MANY good solid agents that would be excellent leaders refuse to uproot their wives and kids to promote. (Sadly.... That means you get many leaders who’s though process is “my son doesn't want to break up with his girlfriend, my daughter just made the high school cheer squad, my wife is on track to make partner at her firm.... but fuck them, I want to promote so everyone needs to pack because it’s all about ME ME ME!” We have some good management, but we lose a LOT of potential good leaders because they care more about their family than climbing the ladder)
“A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.” - Shane
I'm a little out of my league, but I can add one data point.
I briefly worked at the DoD IG. I was an engineer, not LE. My corner of the organization was screwed up, which is why I bailed as quick as I could. However, I have a relative who also worked for there for 20 years with some sort of LE powers. He was retired Army, with an MP background. At the DoD IG, he had a badge and a gun, but I don't think he ever came anywhere close to arresting anybody. He mostly did audits of investigations for standards compliance, and other quality-control things like that. He didn't mind the work, but it wasn't kicking down doors. He was supposed to work a mandatory 20 percent overtime, but since he was a GS-15 in the DC area, he hit the pay cap and didn't make 20 percent more - he just had to work the longer hours with no compensation. Sure, that's a good problem to have. On the plus side, he wasn't in any danger of being reassigned. Coincidentally, he and I both worked for the same SES, and the same sort of mis-management that made me leave eventually caught up to my relative, until he got fed up and retired. There are a lot of other areas within the DoD IG (I think they have ~1,000 employees), and maybe agents that work in different parts of the organization do more hands-on LE, but I didn't get that impression. I also didn't get the impression that anyone in the organization was forced to move. Again, keep in mind my caveat: I only worked there for a brief time and I didn't really deal with the LE side of it.
Last edited by trailrunner; 01-25-2020 at 02:16 PM.
I think for most of us, having an LE position as a paper pusher would be a non-starter. Which is not to say that working long term, complex investigations is not satisfying, but I think most of us need to feed the "meat eater" side of our personalities as well, or wither on the vine. When you can do both, it offers the benefits of the best of both worlds imho.
Nobody wants to be an accountant with an ice pick if he can't get to poke some holes in stuff.
There's nothing civil about this war.
For sure, I understand. The benefit I was trying to show was that it had sort of normal hours and no pressure to move, and the pay probably isn't too bad.
But the IG struck me as even worse than just paper pushers. My relative (who is a super guy) investigated the investigations to ensure that they were done properly. Important work, I guess, but it always struck me as dull, and I never understood why he carried a gun, but it wasn't my place so I never said anything. (Really, I think the SES we worked for wanted to be able to say that he supervised real gun-toting cops, so he lobbied for some 1811 positions. Now you know why I didn't stay there very long.)
Plus, I was trying to point out that the IG had a lot of other LE type agents that might offer a better combination of interesting job without the pressure to move.
Last edited by trailrunner; 01-25-2020 at 02:47 PM.
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