Will any agents on the federal side chime in and break down the good, the bad, and the ugly of this profession? I know this question is asked a lot, but from what I read, the opinions are coming from the contractor side.
And also, will someone break down a typical week as a DCSA special agent with how work is conducted.
Thank you!
Look at the most recent comment on DCSA Interview Coming Up post.
I will give you my honest opinion of DCSA, as a former was a GG-12 “Special Agent” background investigator. I transferred to another federal agency to flee DCSA. I did the job for about 5 years, and can honestly say from the first day on the job I felt that something was very wrong.
DCSA does not value care about it’s employees. DCSA does not view their workers as human assets and key vital pieces of the Agency – as workers that know how to innovate, know what needs improvement, know where the Agency’s strengths and vulnerabilities are found, and know why the Agency doesn’t succeed…let alone trust the Special Agents to know how to conduct a quality background investigation.
There is a general lack of respect and appreciation for work completed by Agents. Upper management mistreats the Agents, and Agents are regularly lied to by upper management with little or no regard for their safety, concern, and well-being. Agents are regularly threatened, working in hostile environments, harassed, bullied, and taken advantage of by upper management. The Agency condones this type of work place. The workload is unmanageable and expectations are unreasonable and almost impossible to meet. Training for the job is very poor.
DCSA has a very high turnover rate for background investigators. DCSA is a horrible agency. There are better ways to get into the federal government as a stepping stone. DCSA is a terrible agency to work for…it will only leave you burnt out, frustrated, and nothing to show for it. Good luck!
I worked for DCSA for 18 years. My advice is to find a different career. The whole concept of conducting background investigations has changed over the years, and not for good. You will be constantly expected to do more, more, and more with little to no increase in pay. You will feel as though the job is never ending as you will have cases reopened, told what you’re doing is not good enough, constantly deal with changes to policy and procedure, and the metrics they force you to follow are unmanageable. Imagine in a 40-hour work week to be expected to interview at least 4 subjects (which if done correctly interviewing one subject is a full work day between briefing the case, setting the appointment, driving to the appointment, interviewing the subject, driving home from the appointment, typing the report, and sending out leads) But that’s not all because you see according to the metrics and in order to meet the metrics you will also have to fit in interviewing an additional 10 sources and/or get 20 records. Yes, that much! And that will involve calling people and setting those appointments, getting in your car, conducting the interviews, and typing the reports. And it doesn’t stop there, you will also have to answer to a barrage of emails, requests, reopens, manifesting your work each day, and keeping up with new policies that come out weekly. To meet stats, it usually takes close to 50 hours per week. But the higher ups literally have a belief that that amount of work can be done in 40 hours. You will drive yourself crazy and burn out from trying to get everything done in 40 hours and your stats will go down, your boss will harass you, and the vicious cycle will continue until you finally realize they DO NOT care about you, just the amount of work you can produce for them. It’s a thankless job and very low paying considering the amount expected from you.
I will give you my honest opinion of DCSA, as a former GG-12 “Special Agent” background investigator. I transferred to another federal agency to flee DCSA. I did the job for about 5 years, and can honestly say from the first day on the job I felt that something was very wrong.
DCSA does not value nor care about their employees. DCSA does not view their workers as human assets and key vital pieces of the Agency – as workers that know how to innovate, know whatneeds improvement, know where the Agency’s strengths and vulnerabilities are found, and know why the Agency doesn’t succeed…let alone trust the Special Agents to know how to conduct a quality background investigation.
There is a general lack of respect and appreciation for work completed by Agents. Upper management mistreats the Agents, and Agents are regularly lied to by upper management with little or no regard for their safety, concern, and well-being. Agents are regularly threatened, working in hostile environments, harassed, bullied, and taken advantage of by upper management. The Agency condones this type of work place. The workload is unmanageable and expectations are unreasonable and almost impossible to meet. Training for the job is very poor.
DCSA has a very high turnover rate for background investigators. DCSA is a horrible agency. There are better ways to get into the federal government as a stepping stone. DCSA is a terrible agency to work for…it will only leave you burnt out, frustrated, and nothing to show for it. Good luck!