borich

Thinking about what jobs i can do now that i have finished uni and one of the options which looks interesting is custom and excise officer, I was wondering if anyone here is a customs or excise officer? if so do u think its a good career to go into? Also wheres best place to find out where there is current vacancies in these jobs?

Borich

wwp8

oooohh wnaker

borich

ha! wondering what the pay etc is like!

Aztec Performance Ltd

iTrader: (234)

First thing that springs to mind is W@NKER.

Now thats out of the way....

Its my understanding that they 'select' from the police force.

BTW: (Most) Customs officers are a bunch of bent low lives. The whole HMCE system stinks.

and its not normal for me to use language like that.

Bob

borich

ok...

vindaloo

C&E is part of the civil service. God knows how you go about applying these days. When I was a civil servant (transport, not C&E), you had to apply to the civil service commision in Alencon Link, Basingstoke.

Pay would be civil service rates, so probably not too hot but not shabby either.

J.

Brit_in_Japan

C&E have a variety of roles do they not? I would think that trying to catch illegal importers of drugs and guns would be interesting, more interesting than sitting behind a desk anyway. Collecting VAT though, that doesn't sound like a bundle of laughs.

milo

why does that look interesting to you?

Tentenths

For someone who's supposedly keen to persue this as a career, I'm amazed that you haven't already looked for/found HMCE's website that provides much of the info. you're looking for - but maybe Google isn't working where you are?

Anyway, here you go - http://www.hmce.gov.uk/channelsPorta...CE_PROD_009416

Brendan Hughes

I always wanted to do that when I found that it was one of the most powerful positions in Britain, far more powerful than the police

It fell by the wayside, I can't remember why. But as B_I_J says, prepare yourself for a lot of bureaucracy and paperwork, more than catching drug smugglers.

A good test is the rest of the comments - do you have a thick skin and can take shedloads of verbal abuse? As there won't be many people thanking you for doing your job...

Out of interest, what is your degree in?

Senior_AP

Why do you wanna:

A. Stick your fingers up peoples *****??

B. Steal all the drugs??

C. Wanna lear at all the fit foreign birds??

D. All of the above???

ajm

I know a customs officer (friend of a friend), she complains that the pay is cr@p. Make of that what you will! I suggested she might "supplement" her income with confiscations, but she didn't see the funny side!

Vegescoob

Scoobynet. Impartial career advice for all!

Daryl

Sounds like you've had some bad experiences with them

Don't think they select from the police though.

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Go for it. If thats what you want to do !

Beats being unemployed sitting infront of a computer monitor all day !

Dr Nick

In my last job some C&E guys turned up at work and started examining van some builders arrived in to build a new office.

Apparently their diesel was the wrong colour ....

vindaloo

I reckon there's two career paths to try to follow.

Try to catch bad guys: Co-ordinate with 'friendly forces', running about in helos and ribs in the Caribean etc. Flip side of that is the 'bad guys' will know what you're there for and will take every opportunity to 'off' you. Also, getting into shouting matches with builders and lorry drivers in 'remote' locations about how you are (are not!) going to dip their tanks for red diesel.

Get money: Train as an excise officer, get all the expensive training required to qualify as basically a super accountant, leave, then set-up as an independant accountant/VAT adviser.

J.

pugoetru

I had customs and excise dip my tanks before the first lot were ok the second time the guy was a total w@nk turns out he was the boss man i just gave him lip he was not impressed that i wasn't scared of him

He asked why i kept using red after the first time i informed him that it still saved me money even with the fines

at the time i was buying 200 litres for £20 !!

Jerome

A friend of mine joined C&E from a Job Centre where he was a manager. He mostly spent his time looking at company accounts looking for irregularities etc. Sounded mind blowingly boring to me. An up side was he got tons of leave as standard and got extra paid leave for the Territorial Army (where he was paid as well).

Edited to add the nickname for this guy in the TA was "bedsores". Should be some indication of the lack of a strenuous workload in C&E.

BI6 BHP

If you do get the job let me through please lol !

Just about every time i travel on a ferry or the tunnell im pulled into a flippin garage and questioned for ages. The french were worse had guns out the lot and laughing trying to **** us up. Saying we had drugs they new where they were, but didnt like it when were toldd go get them if you no.

Not my most favourite people in the world lol.

wwp8

i prefer to do that than be a wnaker

WNAKER