LIsa Black
Cape Coral, FL
Female, 49
I spent the five happiest years of my life in a morgue. As a forensic scientist in the Cleveland coroner’s office I analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes. Now I'm a certified latent print examiner and CSI for a police department in Florida. I also write a series of forensic suspense novels, turning the day job into fiction. My books have been translated into six languages.
I think it would absolutely help your chances. But all agencies might not be looking for the same things. I would check the websites for all the agencies you’re interested in to see their job postings.
Best of luck to you!
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Wow, that’s a tough question! I’m not sure I could come up with ten.
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Our police officers do, but I'm a civilian forensic specialist, so I didn't. (I also don't carry a gun, don't interview or arrest people and make a lot less money.)
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Before I worked in forensics, I was a personnel secretary, a hotel maid, and an ice cream counter server and a gas station 'full service specialist'. My husband is an elevator field engineer. There is 'politics' in every profession. Every. Single. One.
Best of luck!
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Private Detective
What's the best Sherlock-Holmes-worthy detective work you've ever done?
Pharmacist
Why is an advanced degree required to dole out pills at a pharmacy?
Forensic Scientist
When did you know you wanted to work with the dead?
At my department I mostly work with fingerprints, analyzing and comparing fingerprints that I collect off pieces of evidence or pick up at crime scenes or ones that the officers submit after they collect them at crime scenes. I will also go to crime scenes, photograph, collect prints, items of evidence, maybe test for blood or collect samples of blood with sterile swabs. There’s also a lot of time spent writing up all this information in our reports and other paperwork. If I worked in DNA or ballistics or toxicology, I would probably spend all day in the lab doing those types of analysis. So it depends on where you work, what services they provide, and what your exact position is. I hope that helps!
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I don’t know what you mean by pure math. Most crime scene work, fingerprints, tool marks, serology, might need regular adding and subtracting, but I don’t know of any field that uses calculus or algebra. DNA analysis uses a lot of statistics and ballistics and traffic accident investigation might use physics and geometry. But those are the only examples I can think of.
Best of luck!
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That's an excellent question that unfortunately I can't answer. One probably would use it, but back when I did hairs and fibers it was generally thought that the only way was to extract the dye and do thin-layer chromatography, which we didn't have. We also didn't have a Ramen, so all I could do was microscopic comparison.
Best of luck!
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