Mid-life career change

Hey Karen, welcome to the board!

I'm in the same boat you are. I'm an experienced developer who wants to make the jump to CF, and I've been having a tough time. In my region, opportunities are almost non-existent, and those rare few that do exist are with LE.

I've been reading everything I can get my hands on, and have done a little practical work on my home network. I'm probably going to work towards a cert or two, but beyond that I'm not sure how to proceed. I'd love to get involved with the local HTCIA chapter, but it sounds like you have to be invited by an existing member.

I think our best bet will be to learn all we can on our own time, and when a position is posted try to impress the hell out of the hiring board. Even a junior position would be a good foot-in-the-door. I'm hoping that our willingness to devote our time and energy will count for something.

Good luck in your search!

Hi Karen,

I wouldn't be too disheartened by the word 'Graduate' I think in the context of most CF jobs this means 'Entry Level' as much as anything else. You say you have a degree so you already fulfill that box-ticking exercise. The key I think is flexibility (i.e willingness to try different locations, although this shouldn't be so much of an issue in London) and acceptance of the fact that you may need to take a pay cut to get a foot in the door.

The sad fact at the moment is that none of the Police forces are hiring and most other organisations are tightening their belts. But all is not lost, I suggest contacting the main players in the recruitment arena, David Sullivan, Scott Burkeman and the like and just let them know what you're interested in and what your experience is.

I am certain you would have just as good a chance at getting a 'graduate' job as any person who has come straight from a Forensic course. Remember these CF courses haven't been around that long so most people in the industry just have generic Comp Sci. degrees or come from an investigative background.

As long as you are enthusiastic and willing to learn you should be fine. It may just require a little patience at the moment.

Good Luck! )

Karen,

I direct a county computer forensics laboratory ultimately under the control of the district attorney. Consider contacting district attorney's offices in your area to see if they have a computer forensics lab. If so, they may welcome a volunteer on evenings/weekends to help with caseload. Another option is to look for an ICAC in your area. These are the Internet Crimes Against Children task forces that are federally funded. There is at least one ICAC in every state. ICAC's are law enforcement agencies that have formed a network to exchange case leads and engage in proactive and reactive child exploitation case in a uniform fashion. Each ICAC brings on affiliate law enforcement agencies within their state to further assist in the effort. Many ICAC affiliated LE agencies will have their own labs.

Hi Broodmdh - thanks for the response. So, have you actively been searching for a job? If so, have you any feedback from the agencies/companies?
Good luck to you too - and keep us posted if you land anything!

Hi Kiashi - are you currently employed as a CFI? Patience at the moment is not a problem as I am employed full time, and I have given myself a year to learn all I can about CF before I start applying. I will need the patience then!

RyanP, thanks for the suggestions. I was toying with the idea of trying to get volunteer work, but my full-time job is pretty much eating up my hours right now. I will look into it, though, as I think it's a good way to get a foot in the door.

Thanks, everyone, for your encouragement.

Hey Karen,

I am actively keeping an eye out, but pickings are slim. Local LE posted a position recently, but I wasn't able to score an interview. That's the only position I've seen since I began actively looking almost a year ago. I've asked for feedback, and was told that they don't normally provide any (but they will see what they can do).

I'm trying to talk my way into an HTCIA meeting, and I hope to get to know some people in the local industry. Just like in the general IT world, who-you-know can be hugely important.

I'll let the board know if I find anything, and you do the same!

Mark

Hi Karen,

Yes I am an employed forensic analyst, have been in London for about 3 years and am in my second CF position here. I'm from Australia though and started in LE there after having worked for about 3.5 years in IT Support after University. So there are jobs out there for those without 'Forensic' IT degrees.

One thing you could consider is contacting police HTCUs and offering to develop 'noddy' apps for them - just simple file parsers for processing a particular flavour of chatlog, or filling some other niche that the commercial developers don't think of. For example, John Douglas from QCC has got a fantastically handy little app for parsing Gigatribe chatlogs (http//www.qccis.com/forensic-tools). The only problem is that we've encountered an old version of Gigatribe that logs in a different format. We can rip the data out with strings, but it'd be nice to have a parser and even nicer to have the time to write one ourselves…

That's just an example, but it'd be worth a shot maybe? You'd get talking to people, you'd get to see some forensics and you'd get your name known. I don't know if there'd be much point touting yourself around the Met as they seem to be well staffed and resourced, but it'd be worth trying the smaller forces maybe.

For what it's worth, if I was in charge of hiring for our HTCU, I'd be looking at someone with years of IT grunt experience rather than someone fresh out of a CF degree.

Consider whether you are someone with good verbal facility who can write professional reports and declarations. Consider whether you are someone who would be comfortable and effective on the witness stand. Don't just concentrate on the technical, consider taking some legal courses or paralegal courses. Most forensic experts come from law enforcement, not IT. Forensic experts these days write numerous declarations and reports for use in lawsuits. My background is that I was an attorney for many years before getting drawn to technical work. It's very important to do your work for an audience of lawyers, judges and juries, not other technical people.

Breaking into forensics is very difficult, although ironically there is more than enough work for the people already in the field. If you get some certifications you can start offering yourself up to people in the business to do collections or overflow work. If you get some grounding in the legal side you'll be more useful. Also start attending relevant professional association meetings in your area, that will introduce you to people in the field. If courses are offered locally that's a good way to meet people too.

You have to be persistent and you have to network. If you just send resumes in response to job postings you will never find a job.

…another couple of important things to consider are 1) Willingness to relocate and 2) obtaining certs.

Depending on where you live and the availability of CF relate employment opportunities, you may have to move to make a career change. If you're not willing to relocate to change careers, you're limiting yourself.

Some certs help - for example, LE CF analysts have to take the CMPFOR course at the Canadian Police College - Prerequisite to attend (aside from working for a Police Agency) is A+. If you don't have A+, you're not going. A+ and Net+ are good certs to have for LE related jobs (at least in .ca).