US Probation Officer

[holycrikey]

I'll chime in as well. A few districts I know provide take-home vehicles to their officers, but this is pretty rare. Most commonly, officers share vehicles. Supervision officers generally get priority other other officers such as pre-trial or pre-sentence (if offices are combined).

I know in my district, you must use an available government car first. You can use your personal if needed and get reimbursed mileage. Most officers (for obvious reasons) don't use their person unless totally necessary. I've been in a year and have never used my own vehicle other than to travel to training/meetings when gov't cars aren't available.

[Nixon35]

hi everyone. new to the forum and just going through the hiring process right now. Had the orientation, written essay test, panel interview, and now just waiting to find out if i move onto the next step. i think i did really well on my interview though.

which brings me to a few questions: 1. what is usually the next step in the hiring process after the panel interview, or do all districts just have their own hiring process? 2. i guess there were a ton of applications. what makes the federal probation jobs so competitive when compared to other state or county ones, is it just the pay? any help would be great. thanks!

[DaBulls]

I guess every district is different. I recently interviewed for a USPO position, but it was in a different district. I was supposed to do the interview over video conference, but we were having problems with the feed, so I just interviewed over the phone. I did not do an orientation, probably due to the fact that I was out of district. Now I'm waiting to see if I'm selected for the next round of interviews, in person.

[Nola504]

hi everyone. new to the forum and just going through the hiring process right now. Had the orientation, written essay test, panel interview, and now just waiting to find out if i move onto the next step. i think i did really well on my interview though.

which brings me to a few questions: 1. what is usually the next step in the hiring process after the panel interview, or do all districts just have their own hiring process? 2. i guess there were a ton of applications. what makes the federal probation jobs so competitive when compared to other state or county ones, is it just the pay? any help would be great. thanks!

After the interview you just wait for the phone call to see if they hired you. It is nothing special like you were applying for a police job. Once you are offered, you will do a medical exam and drug test then final hiring preparations.

What makes federal probation so competitive compared to state/county is that the cases can become very complex and your writing skills must be thorough. If you are writing presentence reports, the guideline manual becomes your bible. You could have a 30 count indictment of multiple different charges and you have to determine which ones group together and which ones don't OR if they do not group together at all. I will not get deep into, but trust me, you need to be on you P's and Q's. If you are in supervision, then it is not bad at all. It is baby sitting adults, if you don't mind your phone blowing up all day and night with offenders calling about missing a drug test, neighbors calling, psycho girlfriends and wives, to name a few, then hey it's all good. Supervision is much easier than presentence by far.

[holycrikey]

What NOLA 504 said.

The competitiveness of federal probation is somewhat money. Hopefully this is not your driver, but I will say that even in my district which pays fairly low, I already make more than supervisors at the state level after one year in. It isn't amazing money though, and as is the same with many law enforcement jobs, you aren't gonna get rich with this career. If you don't love the job, the lack of money might bother you, same as other types of LE jobs. But you will be comfortable. Federal benefits, thrift savings account (basically 401k), and insurance blew my state benefits out of the water. Speaking as a supervision officer, the cases you have at the federal level are generally more high profile, simply because of the nature of who US Attorneys end up indicting or taking over from the state. Because of this, officers generally need to be higher profile as well. They must be able to interpret and correctly apply policy at all times. Little mistakes are highly visible at the federal level. Judges are much more knowledgeable and expect way more out of officers than I ever experienced as a state officer. Federal judges generally don't have a high number of cases to preside over, so they are in-depth and put a ton of scrutiny on the cases. Further, these judges are appointed directly by the President of the United States. We are appointed by these judges. So yes, I believe there is some level or degree of prestige as you are that close to the upper echelon. At least in my district, and my experience at FLETC and at other national trainings and conferences, supervisors/instructors/fellow officers expect a high level of professionalism and treat you as adults. I was babied as a state officer more than I can count, primarily because there were so many screw-up officers at the state level (to be brutally honest). These are all just a few of the reasons why these positions are competitive...at least in my area of the nation. Is federal probation any "better" than state or county level jobs? Who knows. Depends on what you personally want out of a job and what these various jobs are like in your neck of the woods. The grass isn't always greener when moving to the feds, but so far for me, it has been.

[Nixon35]

Thanks for all the info. I've been trying to get into federal probation for quite sometime so to finally get close is pretty exciting. Now to just play the waiting game. Thanks for the posts. This forum really gave a great insight into what the job entails.

[NeverReturnKid]

Took the test and now have an interview scheduled with the Supervisory Probation Officer in Midland, TX. I know I've asked about salaries before, but how much would one expect to be making after about 3 years?

[dsb05c]

Depends on where your chief brings you in on the payscale. If you start at the bottom, it can take 6 years to reach full performance. I got promoted from a POA in June 2011 and still halfway through the developmental stage. Districts can operate very differently and be in very differnece financial situations.

[NeverReturnKid]

I was just wondering because in Midland, Tx everyone works in the oil field, and fast food places offer $14 an hour because you can get a job making 60-80k without a degree in the oil field.

[dsb05c]

FYI, a lot of districts around the country (including mine) will start gearing up to hire a good number of new officers. Due to attrition from retirements and the new crack retro releases, we are about to get a lot of new cases and need officers to get on board quickly. Be watching both USA Jobs or whatever districts public page you are interested in.

http://www.uscourts.gov/Careers/JobV...0.369861229716

[DaBulls]

Thanks brother. I interviewed for the Northern District of Florida position (they were filling two), but ultimately did not get selected. Tampa is my home though. I will be applying..................for the umteenth million time

[dsb05c]

Good luck, pm me if you have any questions

[DaBulls]

Thanks man. We've spoken on PM before. I'm a fellow USF Bull, hence the screen name. I'm sending you a PM now.

[3531Marine]

I know this position is in the excepted service but does anyone know their policy/practice for veterans preference? I have local le, federal corrections, a BA with 3.75, a grad certificate, and am a 10 pt vet. I'm not holding my breath for this position but figure it won't hurt to apply.

[Nick2]

I know this position is in the excepted service but does anyone know their policy/practice for veterans preference? I have local le, federal corrections, a BA with 3.75, a grad certificate, and am a 10 pt vet. I'm not holding my breath for this position but figure it won't hurt to apply.

Sounds like a pretty outstanding resume to me.