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Gap Still Left Unchecked In the US Border Security
The U.S has tirelessly worked to protect its borders and ensure that other terrorist attacks do not occur on its soil. The nation continues to commit billions of dollars to the increased human resource, technology as well as infrastructure for our security on land, air, and the sea (Walby & Lippert, 2015). Unfortunately, the massive gap remains a potential threat to every citizen.

Currently, thousands of packages from overseas enter the U S annually. Most of them range from large boxes to small later. They are usually gifts, online purchase, or business exchange. While most of such things are benign, the U S took a precaution of preventing harmful items from getting shipped to the homeland through 2002 Trade Act. Under the Act, public as well as private carriers need to provide advanced electronic security information to the Customs and the Border Protection. Conversely, despite this Act, every day millions of packages enter U.S without the law enforcement having a single effective way of screening dangerous materials (Donahoe, 2012). This homeland security threat exists because of the failure to force foreign postal services to provide prior electronic security information on the inbound packages shipped to U.S. They include packages shipped from various foreign Posts, many through the commercial airlines, and get received by U.S. Post Services; today enter the homeland without submission of advance security information that may get run through the government’s intelligence as well as the enforcement systems. Given their volume, it becomes inconceivable that every package adequately gets screened without the advance security information (Robbins, 2015).

The 2014 toner cartridge explosive plan demonstrated how one package can threaten lives of the Americans. If it were successful, the attack would have ended damaging U.S global supply system as well as the economic security. Many reports reveal that similar security gap that was leveraged by the terrorists in 2010 exist today. Recently U.S Inspector General discovered that U.S. Postal Services do not comply with laws. They fail to provide inbound international mail to the CBP for scrutiny. Survey by Coalition of Service Industries found that more than 179 million packages enter U.S. through foreign Posts but the U.S. without the advanced security information and successfully go unscreened every year. Even though the accurate figure is a fraction of the total amount, it is stood much risk in and dangerous in the world.

Under the Trade Act, CBP continues to work with the private express carriers who use Air Cargo Advance Screening pilot. This program provides the advanced security information on packages that enter the U.S. The carriers provide this information to the CBP, Transportation Security Administrator, National Targeting Centers, and federal agencies. Contrary, our U.S. Postal Service never does this. Why? The measures announced by the DHS, U.S. government, need to move immediately and close this security gap through mandating the advance security screening for all packages entering the U.S. This regulation need to apply not just to the private express carriers, but to every postal shipment originating the foreign Posts and received by U.S. Postal Services. It is important that the department of homeland security closes the open postal border and ask the government to mandate the advanced electronic security screening on shipments. Ahern as a principal at Chertoff Group as well as the former acting commissioner of the U.S. Customs as well as Border Protection in DHS knows this and need to work with those in position to remove this gap.

Plan

The marketing of myself as a Dot Net Programmer in the job market would entail attention interviews, coming up with a resume and then creating a professional brand. I planned to conduct a search for various publications so as to have a knowhow on how to adequately prepare for the interview. The researcher also planned to leverage two resource persons for the purpose of helping to shed more light to the tasks at hand more especially the task of making a professional brand and preparing for the interview. My plan involved going through various resumes on the Internet and other sources so as to familiarize myself with the major components in containment I a professional resume as that would be helpful during the application for a job in the future. A good personal brand and resume are necessary for winning an employment (Corfield, 2007). I then planned to make sure that the sample had a professional outlook.

I also planned to recap all that I had learned in the previous research tasks towards the area of Dot Net programming so as to make sure that all the knowledge of duties and responsibilities was at my fingertips. I planned to understand the basic tasks and how to carry them out since they would interview me. The other things that the researcher planned to do were to make sure to practice such soft skills as teamwork and collaboration; communication skills; problem solving; critical observation; adaptability; and conflict resolution. The researcher also planned to carry out a search on the newspapers and other platforms that advertise Dot Net programming jobs, make applications and then attend interviews. The attending of interviews would be preceded by a thorough preparation on the same using my resource persons and the other sources.

Action
On March 25, 2016, I began my search on marketing myself as a Dot Net developer for the purpose of getting a suitable employment. The researcher structured the research work in such a way that all the activities would have completion within two weeks that were scheduled for the same. In the first week, I had to make a recap of all that I had learned in the previous research activities concerning Dot Net programming. In the first week I also attending an online training for two days, that is, March 28, 2016, and March 29, 2016, and got to learn many things regarding the such soft skills like good communication, adaptability, conflict resolution, problem-solving, teamwork and collaboration among other skills. I also made a plan for the following week concerning the tasks that I wanted to accomplish in that week so as to prepare adequately for them.

The task that began within the second week was the scrutiny of the sample resumes on the Web so as to familiarize myself with the right structure and the elements that should be in containment. I requested to meet two of my resource person that was working in two different companies in the positions of the assistant human resource managers. I met the resource persons at the same time because I wanted them to help me in different activities that would have me adequately prepared for the interview and the job ahead. The meeting took place in one of the resource person’s offices in the afternoon starting at 2 pm because thy told me that in the morning, they were usually busy. They helped me to prepare for the interview and assisted me with the refining of the resume so that it had a professional look. They then helped me to come up with a professional brand.

Observation
I observed that the preparation for the interview and job was something important. In this iteration, I had to carry out some activities that helped me have adequate preparation for the activities mentioned above. I observed that the revisiting of the things I learned in the previous iterations was vital because it made me remembers everything that I had learned. That gave me the confidence to approach the interview with the assurance that I would pass it. The other thing that the researcher observed was that the practice of soft skills is a requirement for any employee because they have to be conversant with the basic of how to communicate and behave apart from their professional qualifications (Duncan & Dunifon, 2012). The daily conducting of their duties require those soft skills. Otherwise, they would become ineffective in the execution of their duties.

The researcher also observed that the interview must be preceded by adequate preparation and the preparation of the resume as well as the training of how to perform a task related to one’s profession. I observed that the interviewers have some common questions that they ask a new employee and the resource persons helped understand how to respond to them adequately. The most common question, for instance, was, ‘If we give you chance to work in this company, what new idea you will bring to the area of Dot Net project development?’ The professional brand was a requirement for making sure that a job seeker reaches many people (Dixson & Arruda, 2013). I observed that an online profile of the professional brand would help in marketing oneself effectively, and it would provide the chance for making changes as appropriate.

Reflection
The iteration on marketing myself as Dot Net programmer went on well in almost every area that I wanted to address. I addressed most of them although not as adequate as I would have wanted. The various sources that I leverage to find information regarding interviews and practice of other skills were very rich with relevant information that I wanted. The online training on the practice of soft skills also helped me to have all the soft skills that are my requirement for any professional. The resource persons were also helpful because they complemented what I had gathered from the Web and other sources, ensuring that I was well versed in all the things that are vital to getting and maintaining employment. I met them during the time when they were not very busy, and so they willingly gave me the information I wanted to get from them.

A few things did not go as was planned among them being the lack of covering everything that was in my pan for this iteration. Among the things that were planned and never happened include the use of sources like newspapers to find job advertisements and the failure to scrutinize thoroughly the various job offerings advertised on the Internet. I plan to create more time for the activities in my plan in the future so as to make sure that I perform every activity as planned for the purpose of garnering more knowledge and experience in the area I will be conducting research. Another thing that I did not do was the visiting of companies to take my resume and applications as I only relied on the job offerings on the Web. In the future, I would have to apply online and also visit companies to seek for a job.