I echo Jonathan's response.
Is there anyone who's moved from Law Enforcement and looked back with no regret???
I went from a 20 year career in law enforcement, the last of 6 in digital forensics to a # 10 accounting firm. It was both a positive and negative experience. The type of cases I worked were far more complex than what I encountered in the LE, required a lot of thinking outside the box, and resulted in a great deal of self satisfaction. The negative side—billable hours! 75% of my time was expected to be billable. This resulted in some moral issues as to what I should report as billable—running a 5 hour key word search, billable or not? Etc. Dealing with attorneys in the civil environment, not a pleasant task. Many, many hours, salary about the same as I was making in LE. Overall, glad I did it. Vietnam, overall, glad I was there. Both, don't want to do it again.
It's always interesting to hear the differences in private sector work from country to country.
In Australia the corporate forensics world is very under developed and as such the complexity of the cases I've worked on has been the exact opposite to rmarchewka.
When I was LE I was working on far more complex cases that I am now. I moved to one of the largest Accounting firms outside of the Big4, so while we have a massive global presence, the work I'm doing is quite mundane and most of my time is about building the business and making our clients aware of what we do and how we can help.
So in one respect I get to do all the BD stuff and have much more client facing time than most people Big4 at my level, down side is I don't get as much techie work which is what I love….but hey thems the breaks. )
Big4 will look good on your CV, I guess I'm just cautious about jumping there first because a bad experience could sour you on private industry very quickly and Big4 tends to be very ruthless. I would recommend moving 2nd tier first to cut your teeth and learn the corporate world before swimming with the sharks, for what it's worth.
Thank you rmarchewka and Adam for sharing your experiences.
My concern would be the amount of e-discovery work required compared to your tradition forensic work I do now. I get real buzz and love my job. However I recognise I may have to move on if I am to progress.
It's too bad you're not in the U.S. I might have a job for you.
I was never in LE, and my experience is in a middle-tier accounting firm in the US, but there are some considerations about public accounting (and any consultancy, I imagine) that you should know.
First, billable hours are king. Billable time is money. If you're not billable, you may be shown the door. This, IMO, is hard to do in CF. Pure research is hard to justify. Want to experiment with Windows 8 to see how it works before you get a case with it? You may be doing that on your own time.
Second, practice development is required. In LE, cases come to you. In private practice, you have to recruit your clients. Depending on where you go, you may be just a newbie and not expected to bring in your own business, but as you progress, your ability to bring in business will be more important than even your ability to perform the work itself. This can be stressful for someone who is not used to selling themself.
Third, the types of cases you work on will differ greatly from that of your LE experience. If you enjoy the types of cases you work on now, you may not enjoy the corporate theft, or marital, or fraud cases you are asked to work on.
Fourth, travel will be unpredictable and required. Working for a regional firm, I am never sent abroad on a case, and the varied state laws here in the U.S. mean I often can't work in another state. As a result, I don't usually travel far. However, I may get a call that sends me to another city on a moment's notice. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, I'm expected to drop everything and go. With Big 4, as others have mentioned, you may see much longer and more frequent travel.
Bulldawg - Great post and some very interesting points you raised which relate to what I'm hearing from others.
Your spot on about the work. I love vast array of cases that come through the door. However I see myself as young and ambitious person that does not wish to be pigeon holed until a position becomes available. So if that means I have to move away, then so be it.
The travel aspect does not concern me. However working completely on e-discovery does. As you say the opportunity to work on the latest operating system like Windows 8 would probably have to be done in my own time. I love the thrill of finding evidence and then trying to provide some sort of providence.
Another point you mention about at the start of your post "It's too bad you're not in the U.S. I might have a job for you" Believe me when I say it's a life long dream to work abroad, especially the U.S. or Canada. However getting into the U.S. I found is near impossible! Canada on the other hand seems quite viable. Having the opportunity to work abroad is a key reason why the private sector is appealing to me.
Thanks again for your input Bulldawg.
PS. If you have any advice on being able to move and work abroad, i.e. U.S. then please do tell.
I sent you a PM.
I don't really know anything about moving to the US for work. I assume it's possible, and I imagine it's easier if you already have a job lined up, but otherwise I'm clueless.
When moving to another country, you also have to consider the differences in the legal systems. I know very little about the UK legal system, but here in the US, it is a fragmented mess of federal, state, and county courts and the rules will be different for the different venues.