US Customs and Border Protection Reviews | Glassdoor
US Customs and Border Protection Reviews
Companies
  • Jobs
  • Companies
  • Salaries
  • Interviews

    US Customs and Border Protection Reviews

    Updated November 20, 2018
    139 reviews

    Filter

    Filter

    3.1
    StarStarStarStarStar
    Rating TrendsRating Trends
    Recommend to a friend
    Approve of CEO
    US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske
    R. Gil Kerlikowske
    28 Ratings

    Employee Reviews

    Sort: PopularRatingDate
    Pros

    • "Good pay with the overtime; good job security not particularly dangerous for a law enforcement job" (in 12 reviews)

    • "Good benefits, good fellow workers, you make a lot in overtime if you wish, not boring and not repetitive" (in 10 reviews)

    Cons

    • "Long hours, facilities can be rough in older airports/cargo offices, normal headaches that come along with managing union employees" (in 9 reviews)

    • "Start work here, than move to a professional law enforcement agency" (in 7 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons

    1. Helpful (4)

      "CBP"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at US Customs and Border Protection full-time

      Pros

      Great pay, great location and room for advansement.

      Cons

      very busy sometimes, but its a rewarding career.

    2. Helpful (3)

      "Great pay but very hard work"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - CBP Officer in San Ysidro, CA
      Former Employee - CBP Officer in San Ysidro, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I worked at US Customs and Border Protection full-time (More than 10 years)

      Pros

      Extremely great pay. It's tough the first two or three years, but automatic pay raises get you great money very quickly. CBP has great training. There are many opportunities to advance, or to put in for other positions and/or agencies. CBP is definitely a place to have a career. Great benefits, retirement, etc.

      Cons

      Not for the faint of heart. You wear a gun and train for deadly force for a reason. This can be a very hazardous job. Also, you have to "give up" your life. Overtime is mandatory, and most times you do not know you are doing mandatory overtime until 1 or 2 hours before your shift is over. Many, many days of 16 hours. By the time you get home and manage to fall asleep, the alarm goes off. This can happen once or twice a week, or even up to 4 times per week. No time for family. If you are single, it is great. If not, well it is NOT great.

      Advice to Management

      Listen more to what the bargaining officers are saying. Allow them to have a life outside of the over-intense work schedule.

      3. Join the US Customs and Border Protection team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. "CBP Officer"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I worked at US Customs and Border Protection full-time

      Pros

      You will always have a job and plenty of OT

      Cons

      Middle of border town with not alot to do, Laws for immigration

    4. "CBP technician"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I have been working at US Customs and Border Protection full-time

      Pros

      Great schedule, friendly staff, must be flexible.

      Cons

      lots of waiting for access to programs

    5. "Human Resources Specialist"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend

      I have been working at US Customs and Border Protection full-time

      Pros

      Part of the govt pay structure.

      Cons

      WOW....worst leadership I have EVER experienced.

    6. Helpful (1)

      "Disorganized agency, lots of cliques, nothing done by the book."

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Intelligence Specialist in Washington, DC
      Former Employee - Intelligence Specialist in Washington, DC
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      Disapproves of CEO

      I worked at US Customs and Border Protection full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      Good compensation, flexible schedule, interesting work

      Cons

      Employees moved rather than fired. Incompetent management. Everyone is acting in their positions. If you are “on the inside” you will travel often to courses and conferences on the government dime, if not you will sit in your home office and never leave.

      Advice to Management

      Management needs a good shakeup, remove all current management. Replace. Too many “legacy customs” managers who are not open to change and modernization. This is an agency on Its way out.

    7. "Customs Technician"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Customs Technician in Chicago, IL
      Current Employee - Customs Technician in Chicago, IL
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at US Customs and Border Protection full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      The Yearly Bide Rotation allows you to get experience from different offices

      Cons

      "All duties as assigned" Means anything they want you to.

    8. "Nope"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Personnel Security Specialist in Washington, DC
      Current Employee - Personnel Security Specialist in Washington, DC
      Doesn't Recommend
      Neutral Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I have been working at US Customs and Border Protection full-time (More than 10 years)

      Pros

      Salary is decent, schedule is relatively flexible, telework is encouraged, stability is all there

      Cons

      Very boring job with little ability to hone various skills

      Advice to Management

      Update the "CEO" page. Kevin McAleenan has been the Commissioner for sometime now.

    9. "IT Specialist"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - IT Specialist in Falls Church, VA
      Current Employee - IT Specialist in Falls Church, VA

      I have been working at US Customs and Border Protection full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      The flexibility and work life balance makes working here worthwhile.

      Cons

      There is no upward mobility or career growth.

      Advice to Management

      Should consider creating a structured career plan for ALL employees.

    10. Helpful (2)

      "Any job within CBP"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - CBP Female Employee in Miami, FL
      Current Employee - CBP Female Employee in Miami, FL
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      Disapproves of CEO

      I have been working at US Customs and Border Protection full-time (More than 8 years)

      Pros

      Benefits: health + dental care insurance, training, uniform allowance, 401K your contributions (although Trump plans to change this for future feds & retirees to less). Good fare steady paycheck if that is all you want.

      Cons

      Your hard work won't count as a person or individual. You will just be a number like a robot if you can bear it after years of service, many employees wind up divorced stress or more serious health conditions. Large male environment not supportive of WOMEN, very difficult for women of any age and much more difficult job to balance if you have a family. Women have the highest calls for counseling needs to EAP and EEO's. Lots of schmoozing croonism copycat self entitlement attitudes and environment. Lots of demoralized coworkers and mismanagement caused issues. Agency is worst rated within Federal Viewpoint Survey and overall. HQ and DFO management does not have a clue to ask lower level grade employees how to improve agency and work environment and save jobs and monies. Very difficult to get promoted, management spends wastes budget Congress allocated monies on promoting management and creating management positions instead of lower grade employees. NTEU union takes your dues and local union (male) president plays politics with little legal representation when needed much less for women's issues. Union is "not" representative of women's issues at work. Cons rating is for all of Florida.

      Advice to Management

      Improve your HR and Admin. department hire & promote more women into upward mobility, don't have enough employees to do Admin. work, contract out too much in paying them instead of hiring and promoting withing. Stop multitasking overworked employees, with no priority clear line from management. Create yearly and midyear evaluation internal agency broad spectrum viewpoint surveys with open suggestion box for feedback on what employees want to see to improve agency work and suggestions for improvement. Survey should differ from employees ask us non management to survey from management. Create fair grade equal pay system across the country, no one can financially survive and support a family on a GS 5 or 7 salary. No salary should be lower than GS 9 after hiring across the US. Stop creating too many management positions everywhere, instead promote and hire more lower grade employees to non management to do the jobs needed from GS-9 through GS-13 no higher. For every manager that HQ or DFO hires two employees could been promoted or hired. Create a Women's interest committee within agency on how to improve hiring and fostering promotions not mentoring for retaining women since agency has serious issues with. Stop ridiculous in house propaganda that employees don't care for & delete. This here is outdated CEO Commissioner has changed!