If a career with Homeland Security, the FBI, CIA or another federal or state organization is your goal, that work experience may help you get a job.

"For federal service, they're looking for people with job experience and also with technical skills, such as computers and language," McBride says. "And the key thing: a clean record in terms of criminal issues."

If you like working with technology, consider studying information security.

"We are an information-driven society and economy, and thus have to protect that information from theft, misuse, poisoning, etc.," says Gary Kessler, an associate professor at Champlain College and program director of Computer and Digital Forensics and Computer Networking there. "Information dependence is growing, as are the vulnerabilities and potential exploits."

Job responsibilities in the information security field can include educating and assisting users, creating and enforcing security policies, responding to security events and implementing solutions, such as firewalls, spam and virus filters.

People in the security field need to have a "strong moral compass," Kessler says. Problem solving, good decision-making, teamwork and communication skills are also necessary, says Bill Hutton, chair of the School of Justice Studies at Niagara College.

Those communication skills come in handy when dealing with people, recognizing situations that need to be handled, writing reports of incidents and talking to victims, witnesses and suspects.