Engineering vs Criminal Justice?

kkuo12887
Tue, 23 Mar 2021 00:39:40 +0000

Major in engineering and if you decide to pursue federal law enforcement, it’ll work out. The more selective federal law enforcement agencies don’t need criminal justice majors. They need applicants with skills like computer science/electrical engineering, language, accounting, law degree + experience. Don’t limit your opportunities by majoring in criminal justice.

Also, the pay in federal law enforcement (particularly the FBI) can exceed that of some professional engineers. After year 5 as an Agent, you are eligible to apply for a FBI HQ Supervisory Special Agent position. You can hit the federal pay cap in 3-4 years (~173k/year at the moment) and elect to step back down into Field Agent position and retain the pay for the rest of your career. There are also a lot of Reservists in federal law enforcement and that’s another source of part time income along with a second federal retirement/annuity. There are quite a few grossing close to 200k/year in low cost areas around the country. Then there are also some that have left the FBI prior to being eligible for their 6c (LEO) retirement. A lot of those came in with backgrounds like computer science/electrical engineering, worked cyber investigations and developed private sector contacts that enabled them to get offers that were 4x greater than the federal pay cap.