Welcome to the office. (Source)

It's early September. Labor Day has come and gone and kids are back in school. Seems like the perfect time for a nice six-hour plane ride from Boston to Seattle.

You check in, get through security, have a nice cup of coffee and a donut, and casually check out all the other passengers, keeping an eye out for unattended bags and suspicious-looking people.

No, you're not paranoid—you're an undercover United States Federal Air Marshal, so it's your job to sniff out any potential threats during this flight and stop them before anybody gets hurt. For a starting salary of $40,000 per year, you fly across the country and around the world, always blending in but always prepared to spring into action and stop a hijacking (source).

The U.S. Marshal Service, under the Transportation Security Administration, has been putting undercover cops with guns on planes since 1962 to deal with the growing threat of hijackers. Before 2001, it wasn't a popular gig, but then 9/11 happened. By 2002, six hundred new air marshals had been put into action (source). Since then, thousands have been inducted, trained, and entered into active duty.

However, if your thing is hanging out on airplanes to protect and serve, ready to strike out any time with your mad krav maga skills, you may have missed the big hiring boat. Word is they're closing down federal air marshal offices faster than you can wrangle a hijacker into a headlock (source). Which, if you're an air marshal, is pretty darn fast.

There's also the new threat to job security by the federal flight deck officer's program, where pilots are deputized and trained to carry their own weapons to protect their planes (source).

 

Forget pigs—when cars fly, you'll be in career trouble. (Source)

That's not to say that air marshals are headed the same way as the dinosaurs—at least, not any time soon. Once we're all cruising around in our flying cars and airplanes are outdated technology, there will probably be less call for people to keep airplanes safe, but until that day comes, planes will be our primary mode of air transportation. And, sad to say, we'll probably need someone to keep us safe.

Being an air marshal requires some previous experience—preferably through the police, private security, or the military. At the very least, you need to be in really good physical shape, have some solid self-defense skills, stay cool under pressure, and be very accurate with a handgun (source).

You also want a college degree, preferably in something like criminology with some psychology thrown in for good measure. You'll be assessing threats and dealing with all sorts of interesting people, and it won't hurt to understand the criminal mind without needing to ask Mr. Lecter for advice.

Because your job will be to thwart terrorist plots, you have to be prepared to risk your life every time you get on a plane...which is every day. However, for basically all of those days, there won't be any danger to speak of. Most flights are total non-events, so you'll be getting off a lot of planes feeling like you've been on high alert the whole time for no reason. Your day-to-day won't be as Superman, it will be as Clark Kent: totally innocuous, always prepared to save the day but generally not having to.

 

Hey, at least there's a pretty good view. (Source)

Since you're tasked with blending in, most of what you'll do is sit on a plane for hours on end, day in and day out. You need to be good with that. It will be noisy, cramped, and stressful, and did we mention how very boring this job usually is? It's very boring. Anyone looking for an exciting, NCIS-style career is going to hate this job. 

Still, choosing to guard a plane just in case something bad happens is a totally noble thing to do. It's just that while you may be Jason Bourne in your mind, in your seat, you're just a passenger on a plane to Albuquerque.

• More