My name is Sophie and I am currently in my second year at Staffordshire University. I am studying Digital Forensics. I was wondering if there are any placements in this area in companies in the Shropshire area like in Telford or any companies that will be willing to take on a placement student.
I did the placement hunt a few years ago.
To my knowledge, there are no forensic companies within the West Midlands that are actively looking for placement students. Try local police forces - they often take on students but you must be aware that the majority of these jobs are unpaid.
The nature of work many forensic companies carry out is very sensitive which is why many do not entertain the idea of placement students. SYTECH and CY4OR take on students but the onus is on you to move for them. Try to be as flexible as possible when it comes to location, Forensic placements are rare to say the least.
When it is not possible to move, try looking for companies that will give you transferable skills. Security, programming, system administration… the list goes on. Forensics is diverse field and you can pretty much swing anything technical in your favour.
This thread is very similar and has received a number of responses that may be of use
http//www.forensicfocus.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=8334
Be sure to make full use of the Staffordshire University placements department, CV writing workshops and attend any Forensic meetings that are arranged by the Universities Forensic Department. They are all there to give you an edge.
This thread should probably be in the Employment and Career Issues section…
Good Luck.
hi Sophie I went to Staffordshire university I graduated in 2008.
The year I started was the 1st year computer forensics was offered as a undergrads degree, and it was hard then finding a placement or entry level job.
Only a few companies offer forensic placements, I believe for a lot of companies it practical reason why they can’t offer placement, a lot of work requires security clearance, there will be health and safety issues over what you might see and if you work on a case you might be called to court.
So my advice would be to look beyond just forensic placements, my placement was a general IT job where I rotated between various IT roles and for each role I learnt lots of IT skills all of which I use in the Computer Forensic role I do now. I wanted to stay in the Midlands and I can tell you if you’re looking to work outside of London jobs are few and far between so use the time now to build up experience to help you stand out when you graduate.
It better to have any placement and experience (even if it not forensic ) then none at all.
Do voluntary work, something like teaching people IT skill help develop your ability to talk technical to people with different levels of IT skills (very helpful for court).
Look for course online or classes that you can do to get yourself ahead. Do Stafford still do the CCNA courses? If you’ve taken the initiative to pay for a course yourself or do a course that not everyone does as standard it will only help you stand out.
You need to think in 2 years time when you graduate how many other people will be just like you and there are more forensic graduates now then jobs. When I went to university I started building up experience from my first year ready for when I graduated and it paid off for me.
Do Stafford still do the CCNA courses?
It is my understanding that Staffordshire Uni can provide CCNA, CCNP, XRY certification and EnCase I to their forensic students.
I too attended Staffs, however I was lucky enough to get a forensic placement, it doesn't always ensure the road ahead is an easy one, but like Diesel said, get all the skills you can before you leave. I found out that the CCNA course, whilst useful, was misold to us as the qualification expires after 3 years, so by the time we graduated it had expired! So that is something else to keep in mind, the qualifications you get will expire and can cost a great deal to renew.
Don't rule out a placement doing programming. I did a CF degree at Staffs. There was a good amount of programming in the syllabus(albeit not forensic).
As a forensic investigator for LE I now really see the value of coding skills. If you can expand your programming skills beyond academia and get some real world programming experience it will be a very valuable asset when you go for a forensic job.
Fab4 is right, the uni provides all if those. XRY and EnCase are offered at a discounted rate - well worth doing them both.
I worked as a software engineer during my placement year, I couldn't agree more with the comment Dan made. Sadly the syllabus is moving away from programming for forensic students a little (from what I hear from new students), the upside being that the foresic specific modules are greatly improving and becoming more diverse.
I also have found that programming has dramatically helped with my final year project. Without a year spent improving my programming skills on placement, my project would not be even close to the level it is now.
Plenty of placements are out there which will give you very useful skills, and quite a number on the placements board.
As the topic of building skills has been mentioned by diesel. If you don't mind coding, write your own forensic tools. It wont cost you a penny to do and certainly gives you something to talk about in interviews. It will give you a seriously in-depth understanding of how the recovery and acqusition of data works other than "I click acquire and it just does it".
P.s. Using the quick reply box with the Android browser is a nightmare!
