Tradd
9-7-11, 7:06pm
I had some pretty good news at work today. I'm in international shipping.
My manager wants me to sit for the US Customs Broker license exam. My company has only one other licensed broker. The exam is tough. Apparently only about 3% pass, and it's considered tougher than the bar exam to pass. Both my manager and the customs brokerage department manager think I'll have no problems passing it. It's apparently much easier to pass if you've not been doing customs-related things that much with your job, as you don't know the short cuts, and have no bad habits to deal with.
Open book exam, 80 questions, four hours. Held first Monday in October and first Monday in April. The key is knowing where in the big customs books where to find stuff. I happen to have photographic memory for what I read, particularly where in a book something is (right or left hand page, for example).
You have to have 75% to pass the exam. $200 for the exam. Then another $300 for the licensing application, fingerprint cards, credit history check, and multi-agency background check. I'll have no trouble passing any of the background/credit history check. Three letters of reference, one of which is best from a licensed broker (our brokerage manager), the others just have to be from people who can attest to your character (I know several people who are good possibilities).
I'm aiming for the exam the beginning of April. You can take 10-week prep classes, but I'm very much a self-starter. The brokerage manager told me she has lots of helpful aids from when she took the exam about 12 years ago, as well as other stuff she's collected since. We think we'll do it by her just giving me specific things to study, I do some homework (sample exam question type stuff) and she goes over it.
So, I'm going to get the customs reference books, make copies of stuff the brokerage manager has, and then as soon as I'm done with this fall semester for my theological education and the two take-home finals I have to do for that, I'm going to start working on this.
This is pretty big stuff. The license follows you wherever you work and is tied to you, not to any particular company. Makes me MUCH more marketable. I was going to begin doing some customs related things when the company merge is complete.
I'm kind of geeked. I'm already used to studying... :D
My manager wants me to sit for the US Customs Broker license exam. My company has only one other licensed broker. The exam is tough. Apparently only about 3% pass, and it's considered tougher than the bar exam to pass. Both my manager and the customs brokerage department manager think I'll have no problems passing it. It's apparently much easier to pass if you've not been doing customs-related things that much with your job, as you don't know the short cuts, and have no bad habits to deal with.
Open book exam, 80 questions, four hours. Held first Monday in October and first Monday in April. The key is knowing where in the big customs books where to find stuff. I happen to have photographic memory for what I read, particularly where in a book something is (right or left hand page, for example).
You have to have 75% to pass the exam. $200 for the exam. Then another $300 for the licensing application, fingerprint cards, credit history check, and multi-agency background check. I'll have no trouble passing any of the background/credit history check. Three letters of reference, one of which is best from a licensed broker (our brokerage manager), the others just have to be from people who can attest to your character (I know several people who are good possibilities).
I'm aiming for the exam the beginning of April. You can take 10-week prep classes, but I'm very much a self-starter. The brokerage manager told me she has lots of helpful aids from when she took the exam about 12 years ago, as well as other stuff she's collected since. We think we'll do it by her just giving me specific things to study, I do some homework (sample exam question type stuff) and she goes over it.
So, I'm going to get the customs reference books, make copies of stuff the brokerage manager has, and then as soon as I'm done with this fall semester for my theological education and the two take-home finals I have to do for that, I'm going to start working on this.
This is pretty big stuff. The license follows you wherever you work and is tied to you, not to any particular company. Makes me MUCH more marketable. I was going to begin doing some customs related things when the company merge is complete.
I'm kind of geeked. I'm already used to studying... :D