First a quick backgrounder: I’m working in a glass cube, no promotions, no laterals…an after affect of working for the state in a job that was classed higher than it should to attract dot com talent…with no managed employees…which means I can’t get ANOTHER job at this level, nor can I get experience in management to get to the NEXT level. I’m 36, been with the state 12 years, and at this rate will have a nifty state retirement in 13 years…13 years working in the same glass cube.
There’s another position in a wierd Federal/State Police entity doing computer forensics. really cool equipment, lots and lots of stuff I’m qualified for. I can do this job.
Pros: it gets me out of the cube and jumpstarts my career again. Cool toys. sounds like something that would positively add to my karma.
Cons:
-The actual position in question is as a contractor, renewed annually, for the same salary but not with the state retirement. That’s not a deal breaker as I might be able to negotiate the difference in salary, or move over to the feds or state police, possibly saving my investment in retirement fund.
Biggest Con:
One of the big downers is the exposure to the worst the Internet has to offer. Lots and LOTS of child pornography. Not just as an accidental google image search, but with the possible interaction in the legal system with the scum behind the camera.
The job is purely forensic. Unlike the CSI channel, this is purely codifying, protecting, and offering the data up for others to prosecute. But it would require the occasional testifying as an expert witness. Hence the interaction with these people.
I’ve seen an awful lot of the nasty stuff the internet has…the stuff you want to scrub out of your head and unsee, but I’m a little wary of what I’d encounter in the course of my work…would it be like the folks that run the adult book stores? Do you get desensitized to it? Or not?
How do people in these positions cope? I’d imagine there’s a difference between real life and how it’s all characterized on TV and in the movies.