NSA Offers 2011 Student Summer Program

From the NSA website:
"NSA's Intelligence Analysis Program offers rising college seniors the opportunity to receive training in a multi-faceted cryptologic discipline that involves research, analysis, and the presentation of findings that enable us to provide the fullest possible Signals Intelligence picture to U.S. policymakers, military commanders, and other Intelligence Community members."

This is a 12-week paid program.  Most CRJ majors would not qualify although those with strong computer and/or international backgrounds might.  Application deadline is October 31, 2010.  Details at http://tinyurl.com/nsasummer

1500 Border Patrol Positions authorized

Legislation authorizing 1500 additional U.S. Border Patrol positions was passed on August 12, 2010 by Congress.  In a time a layoffs and hiring freezes in many criminal justice agencies, this is welcome news.  The market is increasingly competitive.  For example, there were 1294 people applying for the Allentown Police Department test last summer; most likely only a few will be hired.  According to one person who took the same test years ago, there were nearly three times as many applicants this time.

Homeland Security as a Career

Dr. Logan just called my attention to an article on the Government Executive.com website that should make job seekers think twice or three times about career paths.  There are over 200,000 contractors to the Department of Homeland Security but only 188,000 federal employees.  Take a look at http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0210/022410e1.htm  (posted by Marc Renzema)