September 21, 2006

Does the Border Patrol still exist?

I thought they had a different name, but here is some info on an interesting career opportunity. I have lots of federal employees in my family, and even a cousin who is just finishing his career as a border patrol agent (or whatever they are called). Good steady job, decent money, and interesting work. Can be brainy or brawny, either way it won’t be too boring, and definitely meaningful.

This is a great job, starts out at 35K, second year 45K, 3rd yr 55k, 4th yr 65K.
Have You Considered a Career in Law Enforcement?
The United States Border Patrol is Hiring!
We have thousands of positions to fill in the next 24 months. We are looking for men and women ages 18-40 of good character, physical fitness and self discipline for entry level Border Patrol Agent Positions along the US/Mexico border.
As a federal agent, you would receive an outstanding compensation package which includes:
a federal retirement pension, a 401(k) (Thrift Savings Plan)
health and life insurance
Non-competitive promotion to GS-11 pay grade, plus 25% paid on top.
Agents in training during their first 12 months generally make between $35K-$40K
Border Patrol Agents get a non-competitive raise every year for their first three years. Most agents with three years in service generally make around $65K-$70K
To meet the qualifications for employment you must:
Be a U.S. Citizen
Have lived in the United States for the past 3 years
Be under 40 years of age
Be able to pass a written test and oral interview
Be able to pass a background security clearance
Possess a valid state driver’s license
Have at least one year of work experience or a bachelor’s degree
New agents receive over 20 weeks of on duty training at the United States Border Patrol Academy in Artesia, NM. There you will learn Immigration Law, Constitutional Law, Statutory Authority, Firearms Training, Physical and Arrest Techniques, Off Road and Pursuit Driving Techniques and the Spanish Language (and, I’m guessing, lizard catching skills?)
Although speaking Spanish is a requirement of the position, it is not a requirement to apply. Most Agents do not speak any Spanish when they are hired. The academy has an excellent Spanish program with a very high success rate.
The hiring process generally takes 12 months. However applicants who are “sponsored” by a recruiter are put on a priority fast track which takes between 6 and 8 months.
If you are up to the challenge and ready to apply for the sponsored recruit program or just want more info
Call Border Patrol Agent Recruiter (I took out his contact info since I didn’t have his permission to post this here, but just wanted to share this idea with you… contact me if you want his info)
September 15, 2006

So, how easy is it to keep a job?

My last post was on getting that job. What an interesting topic. An expert in this field had a great post on a study of university grads, talking about how “recent grads found the job hunt to be long, arduos and stressful…” Duh. If they find it to be so hard, why is it going to be any easier to anyone else? I know plenty of folks from all kind of backgrounds, with all kinds of skills that find the same thing. In fact, on Monday I met a guy who had been in special ops, speaks five languages, has worked in a lot of anti-American places, and is finding it VERY difficult to get a job. He thinks that it is because people are afraid of his background - I found this to be really quite interesting considering his broad and deep skillset.

But enough about “getting the job.” The truth is there are jobs, and lots of them. You may need to learn some job-search techniques, and it would be helpful to understand that you’ll need to incorporate them throughout the rest of your career… what? Just remember, the average worker changes jobs every 2.8 years, or 3-5 years or whatever. If this is the case make sure that you are doing things that ensure your time between jobs is as short as possible. All of my job transitions happened because of people I knew… I think some experts call that networking (even though I didn’t know that is what I was doing).

So, why do these transitions happen every 2.8 years? Well, there are a bunch of reasons. I’m sure you’ve read about Intel’s 10,000-person layoff. And that is just one wave of many in a move to reduce expenses. And this has been followed up with Ford’s announcements to cut a bunch of jobs. Of course you know that many jobs are moving overseas. So, one reason is that the jobs are disappearing - this is something that you can’t really change or avoid - it is out of your control.

Another factor for the job changes is that people outgrow their position. I’ve talked to a number of veterans coming back from war that have had life changing experiences that make them rethink their careers. Many are opting to leave what they previously did and put their new skills into practice. That happens all the time, where workers feel that they have reached the top of their game, there are no promotion opportunities, and they choose to look somewhere else. This might be with another company and a different career path or starting their own business.

The bottom line is that the awesome pension and heavy-benefit jobs of yesteryear are just that - history. Today’s worker is more mobile, changing more frequently, and the career we’ll have looks a lot different than the career our fathers had. Here is another Secrets of the Job Hunt post that I think is a great read: what the new job market is.

What do I think about all this? Well, instead of steaming over these stats, I figure we just have to get used to it and figure out how the play the game. Learn how to navigate the job transitions, and figure out how to get the most out of it. There really is quite a bit of opportunity for the person that “gets it.” But make sure you get it!


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