The job market is a little crazy these days. We go to work one day and are laid off the next. There’s very little stability and a rocky employment record can wreak havoc on one’s home life and finances. While no job is guaranteed to stick until retirement, the single most stable employer in the US today is the federal government.
One of the newest and most exciting departments of the US federal government is the Department of Homeland Security, chartered to detect, prevent, and respond to all threats to national security. The department was established shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Because the department was established in the wake of a man-made threat to the American homeland, many people assume a homeland security degree is limited to working with deliberate threats from people both inside and outside the US. This assumption is only partly true.
National security is also threatened by natural disaster. The department was instrumental in maintaining a safe nation during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and similar natural disasters. Law and order were threatened from within and law enforcement on many levels was required to maintain peace and safety in New Orleans as well as in surrounding communities and states as refugees fled and relief workers flocked to the scene.
Man-made accidents also threaten national security, as the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico proved. Shock and anger reached extreme levels, with the threat of open hostility and violence a very real concern. Law enforcement efforts orchestrated by the Department of Homeland Security prevented large-scale retaliation, ensuring the containment and clean-up operations continued unimpeded.
To qualify for work on the front line of such newsworthy events, many homeland security agents have degrees from criminal justice schools. In addition to a criminal justice degree, a paralegal degree is important, too. Laws must be well understood in order to be enforced so knowledge of the law on every level is vital to developing a plan of action.
Computer forensics training is equally important, as computer models and predictions help national security agents determine the likely outcome of threat, be it made by man or nature.
