Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.
Testing whether border work suits you
Border officers spend long shifts checking passports, opening suitcases and barrels, reading manifests and refusing people who will be upset, often in a hot cargo shed or a busy arrivals hall at 2 a.m. Finding out what the work is really like, before you sit an entrance exam or leave another job, gives you an honest answer.
First tasks
- Write down in fifteen minutes what draws you to customs or immigration work
- Ask two officers you know, or the agency's public relations office, for a short conversation
- Read the agency's latest annual report and three recent press releases
- Record your decision and the reason that tipped it
Choosing between customs and immigration work
In much of the Caribbean customs and immigration are separate departments with separate recruitment, while the UK, Canada and the US fold both into one border agency. Customs work centres on goods, duty, cargo and contraband; immigration work centres on people, documents, permission to enter and removals.
First tasks
- Find out which ministry or agency runs customs and which runs immigration where you live
- List the entry grade and usual first postings for each side
- Ask one officer from each side what a typical week looks like
- Write down which side you will apply to and why
Entry requirements for your target border agency
Every agency sets its own floor: an age range, citizenship or residency, a number of CSEC passes or their equivalent including English and Mathematics, sometimes a degree for higher grades, and a clean record. Reading the current requirements from the agency or public service commission itself, not from a friend or an old advert, stops you applying for a grade you cannot yet hold.
First tasks
- Find the official entry requirements on the agency or public service commission website
- Mark each requirement as met, nearly met or not met
- Order certified copies of the certificates you will need to show
- Write a plan and a date for closing each gap
