Forensic Science Career

Where does TV end and career start?

If you have just begun thinking about a career in forensics, please begin by asking yourself one thing: "what do I like to do?". Forensics is such a diverse field encompassing biology, physics, anthropology, pathology and history that your gut feeling will lead you to a more specialized area. Each of these specialties needs its own focused training, and most a college degree, so you will want to seriously consider colleges both online and traditional to qualify for the best jobs.

Here are a few things to consider:

1. Do I like math and working out complex, abstract problems? Ballistics is a focused and mathematically based field using geometry, physics and physical characteristics of people and places to figure out what occurred.

2. Do you like to read or write stories ? Reconstructing the timeline of a crime through forensic anthropology using disparate parts of the scene could be a career. Could you weave a plausible theory out of a picture and gathered facts?

3. Do you like order, methods and procedures? The lab environment where rigorous analysis of evidence using strict protocols would be ideal. You might analyze DNA, sift through sand or reconstruct a piece of evidence to support a criminalist’s theory.

No matter what the glamor of the TV shows portray, remember that forensic science is a job about science, not gun toting arresting of criminals.