CBP recruitment officials are quick to point out they want to find the best people for the job – not just huge quantities they hope will make it through the academies and hiring process.

“Just like an assembly line manufacturing process, we have quality checks at each step,” Gilchrist said.

Gilchrist added CBP competes with a lot of different agencies to get its applicants from within and outside of law enforcement circles. She said making sure the best people start out – and stay in – the application and hiring processes ensures time and money aren’t wasted. Part of that includes a polygraph test for every CBP law enforcement officer. After filling out a background questionnaire and going through medical and fitness checks, applicants get a call to schedule a polygraph examination, usually within a few weeks.

CBP polygraphers ask about serious crimes, as well as national security concerns. They are the same questions applicants answered before on their Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing, better known as e-QIP.

Furthermore, the officials advised applicants read the instructions of what they should do before the exam: Eat a good breakfast, make sure you’re hydrated, and bring snacks and water since it will take several hours to administer the test. Most of all, people need to do what they normally do before the exam since the test will measure their physiological responses. For instance, if a person doesn’t use caffeine, they certainly shouldn’t start before the exam. In addition, they shouldn’t be worried that they might be nervous; everyone is. The important thing is to be prepared and be truthful.

Scott Stevens is the director of CBP’s Credibility Assessment Division in the Office of Professional Responsibility. The office promotes integrity and security within the CBP workforce, with Stevens’ division assisting in ensuring employees and applicants are of the highest character and integrity by administering CBP’s polygraph examinations. He said they realize that not everyone, including CBP applicants, is perfect.

“We’re not looking for perfect people; we’re looking for people who will come in and show their honesty and integrity by discussing incidents they may have been involved in in the past,” Stevens said. “As long as they come in and be honest with those, then they have every opportunity to pass the polygraph.”

Every CBP law enforcement officer and agent must take the exam before entering service, with just a few exceptions for military veterans who have had certain clearances in their previous work. Stevens said CBP administered more than 13,000 polygraph exams in fiscal year 2022 and had the capability to do up to 17,000 through the agency’s 25 locations throughout the U.S.  Since 2018, 400-500 applicants per month have passed the polygraph. The numbers have dropped in the last year due to the lack of applicants in the hiring process.

Common reasons people fail the polygraph include admitting something that automatically disqualifies them from serving, such as marijuana use within a two-year period or use of other illegal drugs within a three-year period before applying for CBP or covering up past incidents of criminal activity. Either way, Stevens said applicants need to be honest when they fill out their pre-employment questionnaires and honest when they answer the questions during the polygraph.

“We’re fairly transparent about what would be disqualifying, so applicants do know what the policy is,” he said. “We tell people to cooperate with the examiner and process and come in and be open and honest, and they won’t have any problems passing the polygraph.”

Some of the myths about the examination include that it’s an intensive interrogation that lasts hours without any chance for examinees to catch their breath. While it can take around four hours, that time includes multiple breaks, and those being tested can bring snacks and water. Most of the time is spent going over what’s going to happen during the exam, including all the questions that will be asked before any components are attached to an individual.

“It’s like an open-book test,” Stevens said, adding there are no quotas for passing or failing. “That would be unethical.”

Tricia Luck is a polygraph examiner for CBP. She said nerves are common for those being tested – she was nervous even for her own examination. But as long as they’re honest and forthcoming, applicants shouldn’t worry about the test.

“That nervousness is going to be there. Think of it as white noise,” she said. “Everyone’s going to have some level of nervous tension, but that’s going to be present from the beginning. Being nervous and not being truthful are two different responses by the body, so we’re trained to look for that.”

Luck said the image in the movies of a needle moving back and forth across a paper, picking up on each lie isn’t what’s done anymore. A much more sophisticated piece of machinery that measures several physiological responses is what she uses today.

“There’s no needle, pen and ink,” she said. That’s been replaced by digital readouts on a computer screen. “But we’re still monitoring different aspects of the body: blood volume, intentional movements, and sweat gland activity,” among other things.

Luck said it can be surprising what people disclose.

“It runs the gamut from people trying to participate in smuggling drugs and criminal cartel activities,” to admitting to illegal drug use just hours before the test or even murders, she said. That’s why this screening is so important. “We don’t want those people coming into our ranks having a badge and gun and the authority to use them.”

While some things will be automatic disqualifiers, Luck reiterated that the agency isn’t looking for perfect.

“We are simply trying to determine if the applicants have the integrity needed to be a federal law enforcement officer or agent,” she said. “We really just need you to cooperate, follow the instructions and stay away from all the misinformation out there.”

Informational videos and other resources to break the myths of the polygraph are available at www.cbp.gov/careers/car/poly.
 

Not Every Recruit Will Carry a Gun and a Badge

While the vast majority of CBP employees are law enforcement types – whether as Border Patrol agents keeping watch over thousands of miles of America’s northern and southern borders, or CBP officers checking cargo coming into a seaport or international airport, or Air and Marine Operations agents who watch the borders through the sky and on the waters surrounding the U.S. – a large number of employees never carry a gun and a badge and serve in support of those agents and officers.

“We hire heroes,” said Laura Szadvari, acting deputy director of CBP’s recruitment efforts, pointing to the men and women who put on the green, blue and tan uniforms as real heroes protecting the U.S. But those who wear coveralls, suits and business attire also perform heroically in their own rights. “I feel like the folks on the front lines wouldn’t be able to successfully complete their mission unless we have CBP employees in the non-law enforcement positions supporting them.”

She said people join CBP, even in the nonuniformed ranks, because of the agency’s mission, just like their uniformed counterparts.

“They want to support those on the frontline, doing what they need to do to protect America,” Szadvari said. “The mission is a big selling point to people, even if they’re not the ones working as agents and officers. It’s still protecting the homeland in some way, shape or form. And because we’re the premier law enforcement agency in the government, I think that carries a lot of weight, and people want to contribute to that.”

Just like the uniformed components, CBP mission operations recruitment competes with a variety of other government agencies and the commercial sector to get the best and brightest to join from all over the country, not just the borders and places that have major shipping or transportation hubs. But Szadvari said CBP offers that unique mission, which is attractive to those who are looking for more than a paycheck.

“Millennials and Generation Z,” those who just graduated college up to about 40 years old, “are looking for things other than money,” she said. “So knowing your audience, knowing what to push in terms of benefits and opportunities,” is what makes CBP competitive. Recruiting non-law enforcement employees means not only knowing how to pitch to them, but also where to pitch. Szadvari said they also use targeted recruitment, such as going to trade events to get an auditor specifically versed in that type of specialty. Social media platforms, such as LinkedIn and Twitter, are good sources for the professionals CBP needs. Virtual career expos are also something the agency’s human resources has tapped into more and more, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Szadvari said a primary recruitment focus is ensuring CBP has a diverse workforce that reflects the diversity of America.

“That involves conducting outreach to veterans and transitioning service members; underrepresented populations, such attending events at Historically Black and Colleges and Universities female-focused places of higher education; and recruiting persons with disabilities,” she said. Mission support positions can be a perfect fit for those who might not be capable of going to the field but still have the abilities and desires to support and serve in a border protection mission. “We’re trying to mirror the civilian workforce numbers, making sure the people of CBP are representative of the population in general.”
 

The Care and Feeding of Applicants

Whether they will become a badge carrying officer or agent, or whether they will be a mission support specialist who has a pen, paper and a laptop as their “weapon” of choice, those applying for positions with CBP need to be tended to all through what can be a long hiring process. Border Patrol and Office of Field Operations use recruiters to help with applicant care; Air and Marine Operations uses people separate from the recruiters. Overall, CBP’s hiring center makes sure all of those who have applied, regardless of the component and the job, are continually contacted and kept in the loop through the process, from putting together the job announcement in the first place to bringing someone on board the agency.

 “We’re all about customer service to our programs,” said Wendy Rohleder, the deputy director of the center, which has several branches to help the components and offices of CBP bring on the people they need to do the jobs.

That means going through up to half a million applications each year to fill 7,000 to 9,000 jobs with candidates from outside of CBP, as well as current employees trying to get into a new position. It can be a 12-15 step process, depending on what kind of background checks and potential polygraph examinations recruits have to go through.

“We keep them engaged and moving through the hiring steps to get them to that final phase and onboarded with CBP,” said Erika Bloomquist, the branch chief in charge of CBP’s pre-employment hiring process. “Customer service is our main goal.”

Rohleder said they want to make sure those trying to join CBP have a great experience to get them started the right way for a great career ahead.

“Our goal is to give applicants the ultimate experience,” she said.

The center has an applicant portal where users can view their application status in real-time, directly contact the CBP Hiring Center, and survey a large repository of frequently asked questions.

“Our mission is to recruit highly qualified people for the positions to meet our customers’ needs: Get offices the right candidates at the right times,” Rohleder said. “The part of that is in our control is the engagement with the candidates,” sending reminders and updates to those who apply.

But it’s not just on the hiring center and recruiters making sure candidates have what they need. Bloomquist added some of it is on the recruit themselves.

“We want to make sure through our applicant care initiatives that we are giving the applicants all the tools they need to make it through this process as quickly as possible,” she said, adding that’s where the applicant portal is so valuable. It answers frequently asked questions, provides links to hiring process videos so they know what to expect from each step. “They know what’s expected going in, and as long as they’re doing their part to keep everything moving and being responsive, we’re going to do everything on our end to get them to that final goal of being onboarded to a position.”

For recruiters in the field, such as Whyte, that support the recruiters receive from the hiring center makes sure the people he finds stay with the process until ultimately hired. He said they need a wide variety of candidates and can’t afford to lose good people along the way. That’s why having the center, as well as recruiters who can develop relationships with potential employees – and keep them in the pipeline – is so important.

“We sell the job very quickly,” he said. “It’s not a good job, it’s an awesome job. Helping them move through our hiring process is substantial. So we continue to motivate them and elevate their capabilities to make it through the process.”
 

Breaking Stereotypes and Inspiring the Future to ‘Go Beyond’

Bright said an important element of the recruiting efforts is educating the public on what CBP does. It’s not just apprehending people who are trying to come into the country illegally; a major selling point is how CBP is a humanitarian organization and how its people perform thousands of rescues of people who have been exploited.

“What we are leveraging is our recruitment brand which is ‘Go Beyond,’” Bright said. “Go beyond represents what our workforce does every day – going beyond to serve our communities on and off the job. It’s a call to something greater and meaningful and that’s how our employees feel about their job. They’re always serving.”

Whyte said those in Office of Field Operations do go beyond, and he wants to see more people give CBP a look when searching for a fulfilling career.

“We need a diverse set of individuals; we need you, and you won’t get stuck doing one type of job,” he said, whether its fostering legitimate trade and travel or performing the humanitarian side of the mission, whether that means a position close to where an individual grew up or overseas at one of CBP’s international operations. “There’s just so much opportunity.”

And those opportunities aren’t just for those who will carry a badge and a gun.

“It’s an opportunity to protect America,” Szadvari said. “It’s an opportunity to serve your country. It’s an opportunity to support those on the front line.”

Through the lengthy process, which could include a nerve-wracking – but passable – polygraph examination, recruiters need to stay positive when talking with those they want to recruit into CBP’s ranks.

“It is important that we present the background investigation and polygraph examination process in a positive light in order to encourage success,” Luck said.

It can be a long, arduous process from application to ultimately being hired. But CBP’s hiring center does what it can to make sure the process goes smoothly all along the way.

“We are applicant focused,” said Rohleder.