So disclaimer, im not a Marshal. Im a local guy but very tight with Marshals TFO’s, my current partner was a TFO for a number of years. That being said what little I know about the agency from him is that it’s a great one to work for, most of the opinions posted are mostly correct however with a few tweaks: There are permanent RFTF positions. They are in fact a pain in the ass to land. But once you transition to IOD in the marshals (their “investigative” command chain) you’re pretty much golden unless you fuck up or piss the wrong people off, which is par for the course anywhere. There are a ton of really cool jobs associated with the task forces, not just being in the stack. Technical/electronic things, financial things, etc. you can get some really insane mileage out of a career with USMS. But yes, you have to put in a ton of court time (for instance I believe in DC Superior Court it runs 6 days a week with mandatory OT on Saturdays from what I have heard, but again don’t quote me as gospel) and you may have only 1-2 actual slots on a RFTF for the marshals, the rest of the guys you see in pictures are usually local/state TFO’s. There’s also other task force opportunities, human trafficking is a big one, my academy buddy who’s in the FBI now says there’s a marshal on his areas JTTF, etc. Dont ask me how you land those spots I don’t work with those groups but they sound alright.
Most districts also have a guy that coordinates warrants on the federal level for that area, and isn’t necessarily part of the task force but will get thrown in the mix pretty frequently working say, a federal probation violation warrant. Also a good spot depending on which district you’re in. At least in my local district, how it was working for a long time was the marshals were doing 3 month rotations, you’d sit in court for a while, you’d work detention/transportation for a while, then you’d spend a bit on the street working warrants. I think they’re moving away from that around here though. They also have a K9 program but I think it’s mostly bomb dogs for court security, but any job where you hang out with a doggo all day is pretty alright in my book. Point is lots of cool spots in the agency, but it’s up to you to land those spots.
SOG sounds cool but for all the cases I’ve worked with the Marshals they never even came up in conversation and we have been after some real bad dudes together. So not sure exactly where or when those dudes would even be called up to do anything. Local cases that get adopted to the fed system they tend to just use local teams for that. Just my personal experience. I’ve seen the FBI SWAT team come out exactly one time for one of their warrants and they were….interesting to watch. But I think that’s a collat duty for the field office guys whereas HRT or SOG is a full time gig with a lot more training. Who knows I’m not a Tac team guy myself. At the end of the day you can say you were a top Tier guy with the United States Marshals and it’s still pretty cool to have that feather in your cap.
They also have probably the most aggravating hiring process I’ve ever experienced so strap in for that one. I’m still trying to get to an info session myself. Anyway good luck, it’s a cool job as long as you’re willing to stick it out for the rougher shit in the beginning. I’d start applying as soon as you can cause it’s a long process.