Expert: Chris Wagoner - 1/9/2012

Question
I am 16 years old and I am trying to find out what career I want to do. I am deciding between a law enforcement job like detecitve or a federal job like a NCIS Special Agent. I have read that a lot of work is just paper work and it is not fun. I have a higher I.Q. than average, so a challenging job would be nice. I was looking into CIA, but living overseas for a long period of time didn't sound appealing. Plus a badge and firearm sounded great!! :) I was wondering if you had any advice on what you would recommend. I know you aren't a specialist in federal jobs, but any advice would be great.

I would enjoy investigating homicide. Solving crimes. I would love undercover work. And, is there ever a time where you pretend to be somebody else to just get information for a day? I only see long-time undercover work.

Thank you!

Answer
Good evening Jane,

while I applaud your forward-looking attitude in trying to determine a career for yourself at the age of 16 I think you may need to look further into what these jobs really entail. First off being a detective is a very broad area, and unless you work for a large agency you will be investigating all types of crimes not just one specific type. Only larger agencies have detectives who are assigned to specific types of crime investigation. These are generally large cities like Chicago, New York, Miami and those types of agencies.

Being a detective is a very interesting job, but you must first serve several years as a road patrol police officer before you can be promoted to the rank of detective. This is to give you an idea of crime in general and how police officers handle crimes, also how the department functions and how it uses its report writing programs and other things that are necessary for a detective to use. In addition there are several additional schools you will have to go to after the police Academy and after you been on the road for a few years before you can become a detective. There are basic crime scene investigation courses intermediate courses in advanced courses. Then if you specialize in a specific type of crime there are courses for that she will have to attend. There courses for homicide detectives, human trafficking detectives, child crime and sex crime detectives and many more.

NCIS Special Agent is nothing like you think it is. It is nothing like you see on TV. They are not nearly as exciting or busy as it appears.

Undercover work can be short or long-term depending on what type of undercover work you are doing, and that again is depending upon which department you work for and what types of crimes your investigating.

Homicide investigation of course is very interesting, but takes a vast amount of experience and knowledge in many areas to make you a good homicide detective. Physiology and anatomy, physics, knowledge of different chemicals and medications, and many other areas all go into being a good homicide detective.

In addition to what I told you above you can go to this website and it will also give you some insight as to what detectives do and the requirements to become one:
http://sites.google.com/site/flaleohelp/home/detectives

if you have any specific questions after reading what I've written above and reading that website please feel free to post follow-up question and I will try and answer for you.

Be safe and stay well,