Assignment:

Watch this video and think about how the career of digital forensics investigators relate to the social sciences. Write a journal entry describing what you think about the speaker’s pathway to his career.

Answer:

In his speech the speaker said that schools and universities did not teach things like digital forensics, which makes sense because back then it was still pretty new and not widespread as today. He said that the only way you ended up in digital forensics is if you fell into it, because you were already interested in similar things, or because you were forced into it. He then explained that the way he fell into this position is that he started his career in a small accounting business and that they were looking for an IT person. He then accepted this job and started to become more interested in IT. He then had the opportunity to become the first national digital communication forensics practitioner in Australia and he thought to himself “That’s for me”. He told the audience the only reason he took it because the position had the words digital and forensics in it. He has now been working in this position for 17 years and it sounds like he still really enjoys it.

I think that this is an interesting way to enter a job like this but in the end it worked out perfectly for him. Sadly he was not able to learn anything about digital forensics beforehand because of the lack of classes at schools. However he was lucky to start at a small company that was looking for an IT person that sparked this interest in him. If he would not have accepted the IT position that essentially sparked his interest in IT he probably would have never found the position for digital forensics and would currently be in a job that he does not enjoy as much. Luckily, though, nowadays you can study all kinds of different IT jobs at colleges or universities giving students the possibility to explore important jobs like digital forensics and letting them see if it is something for them.