Effective as of today, I have finished my last college course, and will soon be presented with a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice.
It's been a long road, but now comes the job hunting. Hopefully that will be a much shorter road.
I've got a few leads I'll be following, but I want to get all the help I can to make a good decision where to apply to (and God willing, get hired by said agency).
First, to clarify, I don't want to be a police officer, or anything related that puts me in potential harm's way. It's not a matter of can't, as I've always been told I'd make a good cop, but I would much prefer working in an office or courtroom somewhere than hitting the streets, where it only takes one punk with a gun to ruin my day.
I would also prefer to find work at my current residence (FL), though I'm not against moving to another state.
Basically, I would like advice on where to start looking. Which agency is hot with demand right now? Where are some places or people I should immediately check out? And to satisfy my curiosity, what are the "cool" jobs in the field? The stuff that's not too far off from Hollywood or Television? I've been told from the beginning that there is a lot you can do with a CJ degree, so I want to try and narrow my choices down to what sounds most appealing (and profitable) to me. This can also apply to other "cool jobs" that aren't related to my degree, but will take a Bachelor's graduate all the same.
I've driven myself crazy looking for jobs in the past, so I want to do this one right. Any advice at all would be most helpful.
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It's my first step; I'm going to arrange a meet with the Career Development Center. Then I plan to keep in contact with one professor over what the CDC tells me. Then the rest is....well, Google I suppose.
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I have considered graduate school, specifically law as people have mentioned I have the "makings" of a good attorney, but for the moment I really want to focus on getting a job, as I've been unemployed for way too long.
Like, I want to dream of being able to look at something and say "hey, I can afford that now". Heck, just the thought of owning my own place, let alone renting, is like some far-off dream.
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Hmmm...I don't know. Maybe intern somewhere? You're going to want something that applies towards your future goals. Also something that's going to give you LOTS of time to study for the LSATs if you plan on going to law school. My lawyer friends all have bachelors in things like Mathematics, Anthropology, History, or Philosophy, or a combination thereof. I don't actually have any idea what goes into a Criminal Justice degree or what you would you use it for exactly.
I'm sure one of your profs or your advisor has some good ideas though. Especially for the immediate area.
Good luck mate , congratulations on your degree!
My plan to see an adviser on Saturday had been pushed back, as they aren't open on weekends. I'm now scheduled to speak to someone Friday.
Something I think could help a bit is a site that lists all the potential positions I could have with my degree. Is there anything like that, where I can add qualifications like "Bachelor's in Criminal Justice", "40 WPM", "Internet savvy", and so on?
Again, I've been told there's a lot you can do with a CJ degree. Now I need to find out what all those jobs are, and then narrow it down to the ones that sound most interesting and/or matches my qualifications.
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Yes it is. No one cares about a Masters. A Masters right out of college tells a potential employer "this guy couldn't or didn't want to find work after college".
I'm exaggerating a slight bit - I'm sure some people would see it as a plus. But most see it as a dilettante degree if you get it before working outside a very limited set of jobs.
Finding a job sucks. Its a terrible, draining drudge for most people. You can definitely do a lot of jobs with a CJ degree, although a vast majority don't care that your degree is in CJ. There are a lot of office jobs that want a college degree but don't care what the degree is in. I'm not sure what kind of office jobs are really looking for CJ degrees (that's the "cop degree" largely). Why did you decide to go for a Criminal Justice degree in the first place? If it wasn't for a specific job or field don't feel like you have to work in this area just because that's what it says on your degree.
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Are...are you in Florida? Or is this some work-at-home thing I can do?
I mean, if you're legit I'll definitely hit you up.
As for why I went with CJ, well it wasn't my first choice; after a few failed attempts at other degrees, yet always testing positive in assessments for a police/law field, I decided to bite the bullet (so it were) and give it a shot.
It took less than a year to get over halfway done. The classes really spoke to me, I loved the environment, and I really would love to be part of a CSI/Law and Order/24 type group.
So no, it isn't a requirement that I find a cop-type job with a cop-type degree, but it is something I'd like to pull off.
Job security and money are the primary things I'm looking for, though.
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I got my masters at Florida International University too
Job security is real great, it is the state. Money is so-so for evidence techs though. Not sure if you would relocate for it. I think its around $13
But I would like to hear more about jobs like that, so I have a better understanding on the kind of work I'd like to try for.
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Can you show some evidence of that? I'd be pretty curious to look at it. Saying that no one cares about a masters or calling it a dilettante degree outside of a "very limited set of jobs" seems like pretty goosey advice.
Depends on the field. If you're talking about MBA's, unless it's top tier, it doesn't really mean shit other than a checkbox. If you're talking about sciences, it starts to mean something, but generally the masters isn't what gets you a job, it's the work you did in your masters program/life that does. A lot of people can survive a masters program, but far fewer actually know something at the end of it.
Yup, wasn't talking about MBAs. For instance, when I do my masters program (in Linguistics), there'll be a lot of field and community work (I might do it through the Peace Corps as well). Plenty of real world experience to show employers once I'm finished.
Well, which classes did you really like while getting your bachelors? That's a place to start.
As a criminology major with a minor in psychology I can tell you that your college lied to you when they said there were a lot of cool jobs out there for a dude with a CJ degree. Sorry, they really, really wanted your money.
You have a degree, and that's awesome, but that specific degree is no better or worse than a generic business degree, english lit degree, sociology degree, or any other bachelors degree out there.
Cool jobs where you aren't a cop are the following.
Forensics - masters and med/IT classes required, or you at least have to be working on the masters
Criminal Profiling - the stuff that catches serial killers - masters in psychology and probably working towards a doctorate. We had a profiler as a professor at my college and he wrapped up school when he was about 35ish.
Attorney - well, you know the routine here. Also prosecutors don't make a lot of money, but you're doing the right thing.
Every other job that's not a cop is your typical desk job. You could look into crime scene photography or something on the lower end of investigation, but even that usually requires a few years in the field.
Congratulations! First off. My post wasn't meant to sound condescending or intimidating. I love my degree, I saw some cool things, was a corrections officer for a while, worked IT for an enforcement agency, and now I work IT in the private sector because I had IT to fall back on.
If you want to continue in the criminal justice field you need to talk to your counselor, and decide if you want to branch out into criminal law (attorney), criminal investigation (forensics, crime scene investigation, computer investigation and data recovery, etc), or the medical route (profiling, the gorier side of CSI, etc) and plan on going to get your masters in one of those three fields.
Good luck man, seriously. It's a big, cool world out there in criminology. Needless to say at the end of the day it wasn't for me, but I enjoyed every minute of it while I was there.
edit: when I said your college lied I didn't mean it as bad as I realize it sounds, but when they said "there's a lot you can do with a CJ degree" they mean "it's a solid degree that holds a little more weight than something like art history (also cool) and will help get you in that coveted 45K-55K office job early on"
double edit: Also I know you said you don't want to be a cop, but understand that a lot of these jobs will require you to have some form of experience. Detectives aren't just hired, they were cops first. Judges were attorneys, forensics guys worked in an ER, IT forensics worked at some computer company while they got their masters, etc. Just some food for thought.
You dont need a masters to be a forensic scientist, just a degree in a science (at least thats the requirements where i am). Evidence tech is just a highschool degree
You're right about the evidence tech, but I didn't figure the OP was looking for a glorified stock boy job that probably still pays hourly instead of salary.
Yeah, right now the supply of lawyers far outstrips the demand.
All sorts of lawyers? My friend Erin just decided to switch (her studies, she's currently in law school) to criminal defense instead of environmental law because (as she said) the former is woefully under represented.
If you want to be a lawyer, go for it. But if it's just about getting a job, it's probably not worth it right now.
I don't want to rain on your parade but you're probably not going to get much more than that with your degree right out of college.
Experience is king.
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1. Office experience
2. 40+ WPM (last time I tested I was put around 90)
3. Data entry experience
4. Basic Fingerprint Identification Certificate (a one week course; not sure if it expired, or if it holds any weight)
Ironically, a job has been posted in the DEA website asking for an evidence technician, so that's one place to start.
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...why would you put 40wpm if you were tested at 90?
If you want to practice law then go for it, but otherwise you'll just be paying more money to face the same job market three years from now.
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Yes, that's a good place to start, but I would also start looking for every other job you qualify for, too. It's not like it's bad to get too many offers.
If there's one thing you can't afford to be it's being picky. You appear to have no idea what job you want to do, but you're still quick to discard jobs based on their pay or location. You should be thinking about what you want to do with your career and see what steps you have to take to get where you want to be.
At this point, you should take whatever kind of job you can get. If you wanted to do tech work, you should have gotten a science degree. Good luck though, there are jobs out there, just none in the glamorous world of crime like you see on TV.
All that said, once you have a job, the feeling is wonderful, just to have the stability of that compared to the shaky feeling of being unemployed.
Also, I would highly advise widening your search area, but I have no idea what you have tying you/keeping you in Florida. The vast majority of jobs I applied to were in North Carolina, but here I am in Georgia just because they had the first group to sign me at an acceptable pay grade.
Neat site. Looks like archaeologists are in demand. I'll have to remember to check out ads for linguists after I graduate.
Linkedin is also a great resource, but it definitely gets better as you've been in the field longer. It's like facebook for unemployment basically. You keep a profile updated and as friends of yours gain and lose jobs you know where they're at in case you need to do the same, and it makes it MUCH easier to get in touch with past co-workers for references and security/background check kind of stuff.
Also, I agree with what was said after my post about law school not promising a job as a lawyer when you graduate. However a law degree does hold a lot of weight in the criminal justice field at the higher level. It's really a cost versus gains debate though as to whether or not it's as helpful as I personally think it is.