I'm at my wits end trying to find a job. My self esteem is taking a beating, and I keep being told I do not have enough experience to get a job.
I have a BEng, MEng, and and MSc in digital forensics, and 3 1/2 years experience.
People keep telling me it should be so easy for me to get a job, and yet…Nothing..urg.
Anyway, I am trying to think of ways to make myself more employable, and short of wasting money on industry certs, I thought I should maybe try and volunteer to gain more experience in digital forensics.
Do police services even take civilian volunteers? Does anyone know of a place (I am in Ontario) where I could volunteer? Or does anyone have any actual tips on making myself a better candidate?
Thanks in advance to everyone.
Have you been looking into the accounting sector at all?
All the major accounting firms (and plenty of 2nd and 3rd tier firms) have IT Forensic sections.
Also plenty of vendors and software companies such as IBM and Microsoft also have IT forensic teams.
It is very unlikely that law enforcement agencies will accept volunteers do to digital forensic work. Forensic staff ussually require some legal qualification that comes with being a civil servant to be allowed to write police/evidence reports. Also any evidence that gets analysed will eventually end up in court and then you have to state what your role is within the police. If you say "volunteer" then lawyer/judges may wel not aprove of your expertise.
Even if you do work that is not case related, there is so much confidential information where you work that its just not desirable to have a volunteer working in that environment. Law enforcement staff get heavy screening and forensics experts get some of the highest screenings because of the privilidged information they have access too. The screenings are expensive and can take months at a time. I doubt they would make that investment for a volunteer.
However, it is possible to do a internship within law enforcement (depending on the country/system/unit ect…) If your doing a degree at a university. They will have you work on non-case work and your project/thesis will be in the interest of the law enforcement agency. There will have to be some agreement of the use of your product within the law enforcement agency and about the distribution(trusted persons, according to agreements) of your thesis.
Best of luck in your search.
Thank for both really helpful replies! You guys are awesome. Thank you so much!!
I graduated 3 years ago from my masters in digital forensics, and now I am applying for jobs in Ontario for law enforcement and the big firms, but all of them keep turning me down saying I do not have enough experience.
I have worked with the police on cases that have spilled over into my current job, including helping write warrants, and handle evidence, and I am trained in chain of custody etc. all that stuff.
I have been looking for a forensic job for well over a year now, and found nothing, which is really getting me down, hence me thinking of volunteering. No one will give me an internship because I have already graduated, and I dont really want to go back to school as I already have 3 degrees haha!
Any idea how I could gain experience outwith law enforcement then? I am new to Canada, and new to the work force, so im pretty cluless.
Afternoon LittleMiss,
If you have reasonable coding skills (.net / java), then consider approaching a few of the firms that develop forensic software solutions or maybe talk to a few labs and draft a few handy enscripts to solve their particular problems. Application developers are always looking for people to test features, squash bugs, revise user manuals, provide feedback on the UI, or code new functionality.
Best,
Ross