My Internship as a Special Agent Student Trainee
for the United States Treasury Department

The 7 Greatest Truths about Successful Women

I choose, The 7 Greatest Truths about Successful Women, because I work for a male dominated agency. I wanted information and tips on how to be looked at as professional and how to be taken seriously. I also believe to be professional and taken seriously you need to be successful. Which indicated that this book would be perfect. Marion Luna Brem, The 7 Greatest Truths about Successful Women, Penguin Putnam Inc., New York, 2001. Brem hit real hard times in 1984 and had to find a way to pay medical bills and support her and two boys. She now owns two car dealerships and is very successful. Her book describes exactly what she believes made her a successful person. There are seven qualities that every women is capable of possessing; resiliency, passion, nurture, intuition, creativity, self- value and sensitivity. Brem teaches you how to utilize these qualities and improve your situations.
Resiliency is essential in dealing with adversity. It keeps you from giving into situations that do not benefit you, allowing you to step out of them. Resiliency allows you to rise above a bad situation. I am very young compared to a majority of the office. I often receive criticism from my co-workers telling me “I am to young for the job”. I am able to stay resilient to the comments and realize I was selected for the position, so management must know I can handle it.
Passion ignites determination. When you are passion about what you are doing you can accomplish anything. Passion gives you the means to strive. I enjoy and have so much passion for my job. There are evenings that turn into late nights sometimes, because my passion gives me the determination to complete my job well.
Nurturing our beliefs and passions will help our projects and ideas grow into something great. Providing nurture to those around us will also help them grow and this can benefit everyone. I am very supportive to my co-worker and I believe that is what nurturing is about and if you provide it for others, they will be there when you need them.
Intuition is a gift that is often ignored. When utilized it can create great thing and prevent bad situations from ever taking place. Intuition is key in my job. We are working criminal cases and you need to rely a lot on your intuition when you are entering homes, or making arrest. You don’t want to put yourself or others in a bad situation.
Creativity is a must. You need to be creative to deal with any situation. Creativity can get you out of every bind. In my job I need to think creatively to keep on top of my subjects. I need to think about all the possible schemes they are using and ways to prove that is what they are doing. This takes creativity.
Self-Value, you need to believe in yourself before others will believe in you. You need to know that you are an asset, then others will know it also. I need to remember that no matter what is said, I am a valuable part of my work environment. The more confident I am with myself, the more others around me will realize how valuable I am.
Sensitivity tempered with reason creates a circle of inclusion and power. When you are sensitive to others situation and help them with reason, they as well as others will look to you as a leader, they will need you. Taking the time to find out how a co-worker is feeling after they return from being sick, or wishing them a happy birthday, is important. Helping people and being sensitive to their situations will help the way people look at you.
This book will help me a lot in remembering how I need to use the qualities that I naturally have to improve my work situations. I have already passed the book on to another co-worker.

Description of My Job

My job as a Special Agent Student Trainee is incredible, I am given the opportunity to not only assist Special Agents with their cases, but to also investigate and work my own. I am employed under a work-study program arranged by the District Office of the United States Department of the Treasury with a cooperating school (San Diego State University). Through formal and on-the-job training I am exposed to the duties and responsibilities of a Special agent.
I have received training in tax law and investigative techniques. During my first summer with the service I was assigned daily exercises and given a textbook titled Financial Investigation. Through the exercises I was able to learn how to recognize tax law violations and the steps to investigating them.
I was given Primaries (potential cases) and instructed to go thought the documents that were provided by the SAR (Suspicious Activity Reports) project. I had to go through the companies bank records, deposits and checks, daily business records and tax returns. I was instructed to look for inconsistent patters in deposits and amounts that would not represent the type of business being conducted.
During my internship I have been assigned 4 cases, all four have been closed by me due to lack of criminal potential. One of my four cases (case C) was developed from a DA search warrant. I was provided with all the financial document that were seized from the search warrant of case C. Which were check logs, client recipes, bank statements, and client records. I was able to take the information provided by the search warrant evidence and develop a database spreadsheet that would analysis the records once the data was entered. I could then take the sorted records and look thought them for inconsistencies. I was able to notice that the amount the subject was claiming on his tax returns was lower then the amount of documented checks he wrote to himself as payroll items. This discovery gave me the opportunity to order tax returns, mail cover letter and trash runs and the business. These items are all investigation techniques that could lead to future investigation of the subject. Once I was able to receive and analysis these document it was discovered that the subject did not reach LEM criteria and this investigation was also closed.
My duties also consist of accompanied Special Agents in conducting field investigations. Once a case is developed and there are potential criminal charges a case agent does a subject interview. This is where the agent meets with the subject reads them their right, lets them know they are being investigated and gives them the opportunity to make a statement. Once a subject interview is completed the Agent begins field investigation. Field investigation includes drive byes of the subjects home or business, possible surveillance, searches of county records and third party interviews of family, friend and business acquaintances. I have been given the opportunity to participate in the fieldwork of various agents’ cases. I have conducted and participated in third party interviews, served subpoena and summons in order to seize the necessary documents and done extensive searches through county records.
As a Student Trainee I am also given work that is what I consider “busy work”, although, it is work that even a Special Agent must do. These duties may include searching public records, summarizing and analyzing cancelled checks, identifying flow of funds between depositories, assisting in research of legal questions, and photocopying evidence. There are times when I spend weeks standing in front of the copier photocopying documents. I use these opportunities to go through what I am photocopying and learn what the agents consider important evidence. It is important to use every opportunity to learn about the position. Even the most mundane appearing projects can be used as a learning tool.

Application of Major in Economics

Working as a Special Agent is a continual exercise in cost benefit reasoning. The position is definitely not a single task job. Working between three to five full cases along with ten preliminary cases, you often find yourself overwhelmed. Throw in an occasional unexpected arrest warrant or walk-in informant and it is easy to see why there is never enough time during the day to get everything done.
With such a dynamic occupation, I must constantly assess and re-assess each task that I am working on. For every hour that I spend working on one case, I have to remind myself that I am not going to be able to work on my other cases. I must make a conscious decision as to the benefits and costs of picking one task over another. I can’t afford to allow a case to languish too long because the statute of limitations on some of the charges may expire. This is the largest factor in deciding which case to work on. When a case needs to be finished because a charge may be dropped if I am not done at the end of the month, nothing takes priority over that case. That is when I must lock myself in the office for 12 hours a day and pound on the keyboard until the case is finished.
Under normal circumstances, enjoyment is a key benefit in choosing which case to work on. If one case needs me to sit in front of the computer and do data-entry, and another case needs me to going fly in a helicopter and take photographs of a drug dealer’s house, I am definitely going for a helicopter ride.
I also have to way in my manager’s desires. If she feels that I need to spend some more time at my desk writing reports, and less time doing surveillance, then unfortunately I’m am stuck at my desk that week.

The Student Intern’s Role

Special Agent Student Trainee requirements are second semester Junior, majoring in business. Accounting and Finance majors would most likely be interested in this position. A Special Agent Student Trainee needs to maintain a 2.0 at all times, a student with a 3.0 and higher is paid higher wages. A student that is interested in the position and meets all training progress record requirements is automatically converted into a Special Agent, so this internship is only for serious candidates. Treasury Special Agents in Criminal Investigation is often refereed to as an Accountant with a badge.

A great candidate for this position would be a student that enjoys the challenge of their accounting and finance classes, but would like the excitement of law enforcement action. A student that would be most interested in the position would need to be a student that takes initiative, well-organized, confidant and out going.
The student would need to be able to take the initiative; in searching work form other agents, constantly keeping themselves busy. Each student is assigned an on the job instructor (OJI), this person is there to guide you, not tell you what to do. A student that is not out going and doesn’t take initiative will be left with nothing to do. On the other hand a student that is constantly searching out work, keeping them selves involved in the agents case loads will find them selves with plenty of work. This type of student will find that as they get involve with the agents cases, there are so many deadlines and it is easy to become overwhelmed. This is why it is important for the student to be organized.
You must be able to prioritize and know when to rearrange your priorities. Everyone needs their work done right away and a student trainee that wants to be involved needs to know what has to go in when and what can wait. When you complete your task and hand them in they need to be copied and securely stored. A student trainee, just like agents, is responsible for maintaining all records safely that they worked on, until the case is prosecuted or closed. Once a case is closed the records must be boxes labeled and stored in an organized fashion.

Career Potential in this Field

A Special Agent position is a career, and that is the only way to look at it. Once you are sworn in as an Agent you are committed to twenty- five years. Currently the agency is in a hiring freeze and I was lucky enough to get in before it was implicated. As a student trainee, I am guaranteed a position after I graduate.
In order to become a Special Agent for the Treasury Department it is best to major in Accounting or Finance. Although it is not required to be an accounting or Finance major, it is a requirement that you have 15 units of accounting and 9 units of business. If it is a student trainee position that you are interested in starting, with you need to be a junior with interest in starting a career. These positions are limited and hard to obtain; this doesn’t mean a position, as an agent is hard to obtain though. If you graduate with a good grade point average, and have the bounties and accounting requirements you can apply for the position as a Special Agent. You are required to fill out an application that will involves questions about past jobs, and education if you are selected from application you are asked to take two exams; the Treasury Enforcement Exam and a Accounting Assessment. Once you pass these exams, you are required to fill out a background check application and your background check begins. During your background check you are interviewed and if chosen offered a position. Once selected agents are sent to Brunswick, Georgia, where you are required to spend six months for training.
If this is a position you are interested, I highly recommend studding accounting or finance and staying on top of your studies with good grades. It is important to keep a clean past free from drugs and problems with the law. You must constantly purse this potion, the agency goes into hiring freezes from time to time so it is important to get an application when they are being accepted. This can be check by going online at
www.treas.gov, or www.usajobs.gov.