What Type Of Degree To Be In The Secret Service

The oldest federal police enforcement agency in the United States, the Secret Service protects of import government figures and systems. Protected individuals usually include former, current, and elect presidents, vice presidents, and their families. The Hush-hush Service also safeguards pinnacle presidential candidates and visiting dignitaries from other nations.

Moreover, the Secret Service prevents and investigates financial crimes against the government. Established in 1865 to accost currency counterfeiting during the Civil War, the Clandestine Service addresses counterfeiting, money laundering, and financial fraud. Additional crimes prevented and investigated by the Underground Service include security attacks, such as hacking attempts, perpetrated against regime information, communication, and banking systems.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) does not provide an occupational outlook page with salary data for hush-hush service agent careers, but the general folio for police and detectives indicates a median annual salary of $63,380 as of 2018. The BLS projects a 5% average chore growth for police and detectives from 2018-2028.

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Career Clarification, Duties, and Common Tasks

Clandestine Service Agent

Secret Service agents may perform a variety of investigation and protection duties and tasks. Agents usually begin their careers in field offices, which may be anywhere in the U.S., before transferring to their outset 3-5-yr protective assignments. Upon completing their offset assignments, special agents ofttimes pursue additional field assignments or brainstorm working in grooming or headquarters offices in Washington, D.C.

Protection assignments include providing personal security to top former, electric current, and prospective political and government figures and their families. Cloak-and-dagger Service agents besides protect government buildings and Department of Homeland Security-designated National Special Security Events. These professionals design and conduct out safety plans and protocols, which may include bodyguarding important persons.

Fraud investigation assignments cover credit card and fee fraud, bank fraud and access device fraud, and money laundering. The Secret Service also investigates computer and telecommunications fraud, identity fraud, forgery, and nugget forfeiture. Hugger-mugger Service agents may investigate counterfeiting crimes involving Department of Agronomics food coupons, U.Southward. Treasury checks and stamp stamps, and U.Due south. or foreign currencies. Specialized professionals sometimes design and implement new systems security strategies, tools, and protocols.

Secret Service amanuensis jobs may provide frequent, heady travel opportunities. Agents can work at various duty stations across the U.S., and some receive liaison assignments in other countries. Working in international field offices typically requires strange language training.

Steps to Become a Undercover Service Agent

Secret Service candidates must hold electric current commuter'southward licenses and U.S. citizenship. They should besides demonstrate first-class health and fitness and 20/100 or amend binocular vision, correctable by surgery to 20/20 in each heart. Upon receiving provisional employment offers, aspiring Hush-hush Service agents must exist 21-37 years old (or 21-forty, if veterans). Eligible candidates have no criminal records or markings (such equally tattoos) visible from the neck up or on hands below the wrist bone.

Secret Service agents must complete the education and experience required for GL-07 or GL-09 status. Minimum GL-07 qualifications include superior academic performance, a available's degree, one year or more of graduate education, and/or one year or more than of GL-05-level equivalent experience. The Surreptitious Service prefers candidates with pre-law or criminal justice-related educational backgrounds.

Candidates who meet the above prerequisites must go through the following steps:

APPLY FOR A Secret SERVICE POSITION THROUGH THE USAJOBS WEBSITE

PASS A WRITTEN EXAM, SUCH AS THE SPECIAL Agent ENTRANCE Exam

Pass PHYSICAL ABILITIES Test

Laissez passer AN INITIAL INTERVIEW

RECEIVE A Conditional JOB Offer

Laissez passer A SECURITY INTERVIEW AND CREDIT CHECK

Pass POLYGRAPH, MEDICAL, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATIONS

PASS A Background INVESTIGATION

UNDERGO A FINAL INTERVIEW

Take A JOB AND Begin TRAINING

Secret Service Amanuensis Task Training

Clandestine Service professionals receive considerable on-the-task training, both when hired and throughout their careers. Newly hired Secret Service agents undergo ten-week and eighteen-calendar week trainings, and they must pass both programs on the first try.

Provided at Glynco, Georgia'south Federal Constabulary Enforcement Grooming Middle, the ten-calendar week criminal investigator training plan teaches students foundational criminal law and investigation techniques.

The more specialized, 18-week training takes place at the Secret Service Training Academy in Washington, D.C. This specialized training familiarizes new agents with Hole-and-corner Service policies and procedures, roofing diverse investigation and protection areas and activities. Agents acquire to foreclose and investigate intelligence and financial crimes, such as cyberattacks, admission device fraud, counterfeiting, and money laundering.

Agents also undergo training in control tactics, concrete fitness, marksmanship, and water survival. Additionally, the xviii-calendar week preparation includes emergency medicine, protective advances, and techniques training.

New Secret Service officers receive 14 weeks of specialized grooming in Washington, D.C. This training features an interdisciplinary curriculum, which provides thorough legal and physical police grooming in police procedures, laws of arrest, search and seizure, and police-community relations. Officers-in-training also acquire near criminal law, diplomatic amnesty, and international treaties and protocol.

Agents and officers must stay up-to-date on firearms and emergency medicine qualifications throughout their careers. These professionals also undergo continued training using crisis simulations. Some Secret Service professionals seek boosted grooming to qualify for criminal investigations roles. The Hush-hush Service also offers general courses on interpersonal awareness, leadership, ethics, and diversity.

Other Helpful Skills and Experience

Prior military or law enforcement experience translates well to Secret Service piece of work. Onetime armed services or law enforcement professionals often demonstrate background knowledge of government systems, plus prior concrete fitness, rescue, and weapons grooming. These areas of expertise bear witness useful when completing Secret Service amanuensis requirements, training, and duties. Agents also benefit from a passion for protecting others.

Foreign language fluency often improves hiring prospects for Secret Service agents. Strange linguistic communication skills tin translate to hiring bonuses and special positions or assignments. The government may enquire agents to movement to new locations and/or to leave home for weeks or months at a time. Therefore, agents also benefit from travel noesis, enjoyment, and skills.

Secret Service agents must communicate clearly and finer, so potent oral and written advice skills tin enhance job performance. Quick memorization helps prospective and current agents absorb the information necessary for diverse protection and investigation tasks.

Salary and Career Outlook

Police and detectives in the United states of america earned a median annual salary of $63,380 as of 2018, co-ordinate to the BLS. Secret Service agents' salaries largely depend on their functioning. New agents normally authorize for either the GL-07 or GL-09 federal pay grades, with annual starting salaries of $36,356 and $44,471, respectively, co-ordinate to 2019 pay grade data. Strange language proficiency can qualify new agents for a one-fourth dimension bonus.

Career	Average Annual Salary
ENTRY-LEVEL SECRET SERVICE Agent (GL-07)	$36,356
ENTRY-LEVEL SECRET SERVICE Amanuensis (GL-09)	$44,471

Factors influencing income include credentials and federal employment feel. Secret Service agents may move up the salary scale, which goes as high as GL-fifteen, by accruing work experience, earning new certifications, or working on loftier-level investigations. GL-14 and GL-15 positions prove extremely competitive, and so many secret agents summit out at the GL-xiii performance level, which pays $76,687-$99,691, depending on qualifications.

Equally government employees, Secret Service agents enjoy generous benefits packages, including paid holidays, sick exit, affordable health and life insurance, and retirement benefits. Qualifying criminal investigator-level agents also receive an additional 25% of their annual base of operations pay through Law Enforcement Availability Pay.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Exercise hole-and-corner service agents make good money?

Typical starting salaries for Hole-and-corner Service agents at the GL-07 and GL-09 levels range from $36,356-$47,264, depending on credentials, prior feel, and federal operation level pay course. By accumulating work experience and credentials, secret agents can move up the salary calibration. Professionals at the GL-13 level, where many secret agents summit out, start at $76,687 annually, according to 2019 data.

How long is cloak-and-dagger service grooming?

Surreptitious Service grooming normally takes several months. Agents consummate the x-calendar week criminal investigator training program, followed by an eighteen-week special agent training course. Agents also undergo continuing pedagogy and training throughout their careers.

Where do secret service agents work?

Secret Service agents may work anywhere in the country and transfer periodically, so agents benefit from flexible, mobile lifestyles and arrangements. Many agents work at Secret Service centers in the Washington, D.C. area. Agents boasting foreign linguistic communication skills and adequate training may receive assignments in foreign countries.