Please advise :) Good or bad!

[greeny]

Hey everyone. I'm fairly new here, and just introduced myself in the intro section. Anyways, I hope to get into law enforcement, and I have developed a tentative plan of how I hope things may go. Here's the basics.
I know you all aren't career counselors or anything, but I would really appreciate any thoughts anyone has about this plan.

-I recently graduated HS with honors, and tested in the top 7% nationally on both the ACT and SAT
-This summer I'm working almost full time as a security officer to help earn money for school (go ahead and joke if you want, I can take it ). I'm shortly going to take the exam to become a Certified Protection Officer (CPO) through the International Foundation for Protection Officers. I will probably still work part time during the school year.
-I'm attending the University of St. Thomas this fall. I plan on majoring in criminal justice and minoring in either spanish or business management.
-When I graduate from college, I hope to be a police officer with the city of saint paul. During my first few years of work I would try to get an advanced degree.
-After 3-5 years of experience in law enforcement and attaining an advanced degree, I would apply for a federal law enforcement position (Secret Service, FBI)

So there it is. Please scrutinize Thanks for taking the time to read this, and ANY advice is greatly appreciated.

[greeny]

Come on...dont be shy

[Groundhog]

Sounds like a good plan. Just don't tell your St. Paul PD background investiagtor you wanna use them as resume filler so you can defect to the Feds.

[4Victor12]

Sounds like you are well grounded and goal oriented. Here's my .02 worth:

Major in something other than CJ. Use that as your minor if you absolutely have to.

In law enforcement you are always one inattentive driver, one kick to the knee, one car accident away from being out of a job.

If you are no longer capable of being employed in LE, your CJ degree is a waste of time.

One of the things that will make you more valuable to a police department, and to the feds is a degree in something else. Computer forensics, accounting, psychology, something, anything that can be used for both law enforcement purposes, and as a fall back should you get out here and find that this is not for you. That happens quite often.

The best cops, in my 20 years of experience, are the ones who have some "life experience" outside of law enforcement. Guys who spent time doing construction are better at dealing with the drunk construction worker in the bowling alley on friday night. Guys who spent time as a mechanic are better at detecting BS when somebody starts lying at a traffic related incident. The guys who know how to get into computers and recover the data on the hard drive are invaluable to our major crimes detectives. If you get into U/C work, and you have to spin a yarn in conjunction with your cover story, you'd better know what you're talking about or the target will see right through your story and you. If your whole life has been doing nothing but being a cop, it's kind of hard to come up with any kind of believeable cover story.

The Feds are looking also for degrees they can put to use, not just CJ. you will actually be more marketable, and a more desireable candidate with another degree.

JMHO

[mosetti]

I totally agree with 4Victor12. Get a degree in something other than CJ. If you check out the FBI's employment website it says they are searching for applicants with degrees in Accounting/Finance, Computer Science/IT, or Engineering.

[greeny]

Hmmm...that is a very good point. Do you think that some kind of business degree would be at all valuable? (I guess you did mention finance).
Anyone else have opinions?

[greeny]

Sounds like a good plan. Just don't tell your St. Paul PD background investiagtor you wanna use them as resume filler so you can defect to the Feds.

Ah yes, I will certainly avoid that.

Another thing that I forgot to mention was that I would also apply for special assignments within the SPPD after three years when I would become eligible (right now K9 or CIRT (SWAT) are sounding the most appealing) So it wouldn't neccesarily only be a resume filler, although I guess it certainly does have the potential to end up that way.

[BrickCop]

I think it's great you set goals for yourself just don't expect everything too soon. On most Departments you'll have to prove yourself on the job to get into a specialized unit. You cannot assume that after three years on the job that you'll be accepted for a K9 or SWAT position with the PD.

You're also assuming you'll get the Fed job you're seeking. You may very well but I just think you should slow down your thinking process a bit considering you're not on the job in any capacity (yet).

Take one step at a time, master one step at a time.