TSA photo.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is hosting a hiring event at the end of this week in central Iowa.
TSA spokesperson Jessica Mayle says the event is in West Des Moines, but they have jobs open statewide. “We’re hiring in Des Moines, Waterloo, Dubuque, Sioux City, Mason City, a couple of others. So, pretty much all of our airports are hiring right now. We’re ramping up travelers coming back here, we’re going into our heavy travel summer travel season,” Mayle says.
There are two main qualifications. “You just have to be 18, a U.S. citizen, you don’t have to have experience in this type of work before. Although if you do and you’re interested, that would certainly help you. But there’s extensive training,” she says. Mayle says there are some attributes that would make you a good fit for these jobs.
“Someone who’s very detail-oriented, who really has a lot of patience…. patience both for the kind of work, you’re looking at screens a lot, you’re looking at bags, that look the same a lot. And then patience for people as well, this is a public-facing position,” according to Mayle. “So you should enjoy working with the public and interacting with people, I think those skills would really be helpful and would make you successful in the role.”
Mayle says the event will showcase the benefits the job has to offer. “We know, this is a time when people have a lot of a lot of choices, if you’re changing careers, or you’re starting a career. We know there’s a lot of opportunities right now for job seekers,” she says. “And, you know, I would just say to consider, you know, TSA really can be the first step towards a federal career, there are so many benefits to working for the federal government.”
Those benefits include paid leave, healthcare and a 401 K. There’s also another benefit to starting now. “We have a bonus up to $1,000 for eligible new hires. And 500, you would get right away after onboarding and another 500 after one year of service. And that’s for everyone who would onboard before September 30th. So if you apply now, and you get started in the process, now you should be on board before September 30th,” Mayle says.
The event is Thursday and Friday (28-29) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days at Sheraton West Des Moines Hotel. To find out more and register for the event, go to jobs.tsa.gov and look for the recruiting event section.