From What can you do with a degree in psychology?

Contents 1 Canadian Customs Officer (Amanda Lea) 1.1 General Overview 1.2 Job Duties and Responsibilities 1.3 Typical Workday 1.4 Educational Requirements and Other qualifications 1.5 Related Skills, Interests and Abilities 1.6 Relevance Of Psychology Undergraduate Degree 1.7 Salary Potential 1.8 Job Outlook 1.9 To Know More 1.10 Notes and References

[edit] Canadian Customs Officer (Amanda Lea)

Canadian Customs/ Border Security Officer

[edit] General Overview

Officers employed by the Canadian Border Services Agency are the first point of contact an individual has when entering Canada. As such, it is important that they maintain a professional, respectful interaction with individuals entering Canada ^[1]. It is the job of a customs officer to ensure the protection of Canada and its citizens by screening individuals entering the country, and denying entry to those who pose a threat to Canada, its citizens, or its livestock ^[1]. Each officer will process hundreds of individuals into Canada every day, and take measures to ensure the safety of Canada and its citizens, sometimes by detaining individuals who are wanted in Canada or the United States, or by preventing the passage of contraband into Canada ^[1].

[edit] Job Duties and Responsibilities

Customs officers are responsible for many important tasks that directly impact the Safety and well being of Canadian citizens. Tasks that customs officers are responsible for include:

• Ensuring that all people and goods entering Canada comply with Canadian laws and regulations^[1].

• Assisting in preventing human trafficking and money laundering^[1].

• Detaining individuals who may pose a threat to Canada^[1].

• Preventing the introduction of human, animal and plant diseases into Canada^[1].

• Guarding against the circulation of narcotics, firearms, child pornography and other illegal or prohibited items in Canada^[1].

• Applying punishments and seizing goods if required^[1].

• Ensuring that all applicable duties and taxes are paid^[1].

[edit] Typical Workday

Agents working for the Canadian Border Services Agency work shifts that are usually 10-12 hours long. Since Canadian borders remain open 24/7, some customs officers will be required to work midnight shifts, and on holidays ^[1]. There are also overtime shifts that agents may be expected to work^[1]. Officers are expected to work where they are needed, so it is possible that officers will be placed in parts of Canada they are unfamiliar with^[1]. The typical workday will primarily involve the agent sitting or standing in a booth, processing individuals or groups of people in the computer and sending those individuals who are required to pay taxes, or who are suspected of trying to smuggle prohibited substances into secondary inspection^[1][2]. The workplace conditions can vary depending on whether the agent is in an airport, or at a land border. In an airport, for example, the agent will be working in air-conditioned building, and may be required to assist other airport personnel if they are experiencing a slow day ^[2]. If the agent is positioned at a land border, the officer will be situated in a cubicle with a fan, or a heater in the winter. It is expected that there will typically be a steady flow of traffic entering Canada, and that there will be minimal times when the agent will not be busy. It is expected that if the agent thinks that individual is suspicious, they are to detain them in a holding cell at the border until either the police are informed, or the situation can be resolved (calling a child’s parent to ensure they are not being kidnapped, for example) ^{[2] [1]}. It is expected that there will be a steady flow of traffic entering Canada, so officers will remain busy.

[edit] Educational Requirements and Other qualifications

To be considered a successful applicant for a job in customs, one must successfully complete the following requirements:

• Completion of secondary school education (post-secondary education is not mandatory)^[1].

• Possess and maintain a valid Ontario driver’s license^[1].

• Complete the Canadian Firearms Safety Course and the Canadian Restricted Firearms Safety Course, and pass the final examination tests for both courses. These courses only need to be completed once, as long as you are able to do so successfully^[1].

• Complete the Physical Availabilities and Restrictions Evaluation (PARE) in less than 4 minutes and 45 seconds. This also only needs to be completed once, as long as you are able to complete the test in less than 4 minutes, 45 seconds^[1].

• Complete the Canadian Border Service Agency’s (CBSA) Officer Induction Training Program (OTIP), in Quebec^[1].

• Requirements for customs agents are the same in all provinces of Canada, but will vary country to country^[1].

[edit] Related Skills, Interests and Abilities

Personal characteristics that will help individuals meet the demands of the duties as a customs agent include:

• Maintaining physical fitness- This job can be highly active, and it is possible that officers will have to chase after individuals while on the job, and maintaining physical fitness will help officers perform well when faced with this situation ^[1].

• Customs officers must be conscientious in processing individuals at borders. They need to do many things accurately at the same time, and need to do them relatively quickly ^[1]. These things include: knowing what to look for when processing an individual into Canada, being able to correctly put an individual into the computer, check their criminal history when required, be aware of missing children, and wanted individuals in Canada, and assessing the behaviour of the individual, looking for signs that they may be hiding something ^[1].

• It is very helpful for border agents to be competent in detecting lies, which could help catch those trying to hide illicit items they are attempting to bring into the country, or trying to bring a trafficking victim into the country.

• It is important for Border Service Agents to maintain patience and a positive attitude while on the job. This is because they are the first people that individuals see when entering Canada, and will leave an impression on visitors ^[1].

• It is important for customs officers to be confident, as this will help you professionally handle individuals who may be agitated, annoyed and angry by the rules that are being enforced ^[1].

[edit] Relevance Of Psychology Undergraduate Degree

Many elements from psychology are relevant in the field of customs and border security. Of the courses offered at Brock, several offered valuable information for individuals hoping to peruse a career as a customs agent. These include:

Forensic psychology- In forensic psychology, the students learn how to predict future violence of an individual who has previously committed a crime based on factors that would be made available to the officer. For example, items such as marital status, the nature of the crime they committed, the age at which they committed the crime, whether or not the victim was injured, etc. This will be beneficial for individuals going into customs because this information will be available to officers, who will then be able to direct their behaviour according to their perceived likelihood of violence (to avoid conflict, or prepare for it).

In violent predators, students learned some valuable information about intuition and how an individuals intuition is usually correct about dangerous situations ^[3]. so, for example, if an officer gets a bad feeling about a car or individual that pulls up in their lane, they should know to trust their feeling and conduct a further investigation on that car ^[3]. Even though it can be argued that everyone has gut feelings, not everyone knows that going with your gut feeling is very often the correct thing to do, because they do not know that this has been proven to be accurate ^[3].

In social psychology, students learned about many cognitive biases. It is important for customs officers to be aware of these biases so they do not happen to make these mistakes when dealing with individuals passing through the border. Examples of these would be:

• Stereotyping- Stereotyping is the tendency to expect a member of a group to have certain characteristics without knowing these individuals^[4]. Customs agents should avoid engaging in stereotyping, since stereotypes are not accurate of all individuals ^[4]. For example, when seeking contraband, officers should not target only vehicles with drivers of a certain race, or gender unless there has been evidence that an individual of that race or gender is trying to take contraband into the country.

• In-group bias- the tendency for an individual to give preferential treatment to individuals in their group^[4]- It would be amoral for officers to give preferential treatment to those in the same group as them, and not as good treatment to their out-group. This would mean for a white officer, they would be less likely to pull over a car with a while driver than they would if the driver was any other race^[4]. This is ineffective, since it is possible that the individuals who are bringing prohibited substances into the country are not being searched.

• Illusory correlations- Thinking that two things are correlated, when in fact there is no relationship between them^[4]. It would be bad for customs officers to hold any illusory correlations because it can lead to holding an innocent individual in detention, wasting the company’s resources and possibly letting a guilty individual go^[4]. An example of this would be if you arrested a young man driving a new car for bringing contraband into Canada, the officer then may believe that most young men driving new cars are carrying contraband^[4].

[edit] Salary Potential

As an officer in training, your salary can be between $ 58,078 and $64,859 ^[1]. Following the completion of training and certification, a border security officer will make between $62,697 and $70,120^[1][5]. Benefits are also included in the job, including health and dental, as well as a Canada pension^[1][5].

[edit] Job Outlook

According to the government of Canada’s job bank website, by 2022 in Canada, there will be around 204,000 job openings available in customs related fields, and only 134,714 job seekers to fill these positions ^[5]. This means that there will be a lot of careers available in the field of customs and immigration. The reason that demand for border services agents will be so high is because many of the officers that are employed by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) are in their mid to late forties, resulting in a high projected rate of retirement among officers in the next ten years ^[5]. Retirement of current officers accounts for 61% of future demand ^[5]. The government is also looking to expand border services within the next ten years, accounting for even more demand for new officers^[5]. This expansion accounts for 28% of future demand^[5].

[edit] To Know More

If you are interested in looking further into this career, check out the following websites:

Canada Border Services website: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/job-emploi/bso-asf/hiring-embauche-eng.html

Application process: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/job-emploi/bso-asf/req-exig-eng.html

http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/reporteng.do?area=9219&lang=eng&noc=1228&action=final&ln=n&s=2

[edit] Notes and References

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28} Government of Canada. (2014, July 9). Before You Apply. Retrieved February 12, 2015, from http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/job-emploi/bso-asf/hiring-embauche-eng.html ref
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Australian Government - Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2015, from http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page4848.asp ref
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} De Becker, G. (1997). The gift of fear: Survival signals that protect us from violence. New York, New York: Dell Publishing. ref
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6} Aronson, E., Wilson, T., Akert, R., & Fehr, B. (2012). Social psychology (5th Canadian ed.). Pearson Education Canada. ref
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6} Explore Careers by Occupation - Results. (2013, December 23). Retrieved February 12, 2015, from http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/report-eng.do?area=9219&lang=eng&noc=1228&action=final&ln=n&s=2 ref