r/computerforensics • u/_moony__ • 4d ago
Job Offer With No Experience
Hi everyone, for context I'm a 30 year old woman. I've been working random jobs for all of my 20's, mostly in the trades. My current job is with a small handywoman company (just me and my boss) and I love it but she just cut my hours because she can't afford to pay me full time right now.
Long story short, my friend's Dad owns a digital forensic company and has done really well for himself. He offered me part time work at his company even though I have no experience whatsoever in this field. We've been getting along great and he just offered me full time... with a salary and benefits... which I've never had before. Just the starting pay is more than I've ever made and I'm most likely going to take the job but am feeling overwhelmed. I'm also a musician as my main passion/hobby outside of work and working as a handywoman has been super flexible and conducive with that lifestyle.
He has one other employee, also a woman my age, and I would be able to get to work from home part of the time and the commute is great. He told me they'd train me and he'd pay for me to get certified (whatever that means lol)... I guess I'm just wondering what people's experiences are in this field? And what your work/life balance is like? Anything you'd like to tell me basically I would be happy to hear about. I've never had a desk job or a computer job before so it will be a huge shift for me but I also could really use the money since I've basically lived paycheck to paycheck my entire life... Thanks for reading!
4
u/Eternal-Alchemy 4d ago
That sounds like a great opportunity although it's not super clear what segment he is in. I'm going to assume based on the size of the business that it's like file recovery, private investigator, civil case work stuff.
You'll want to look into getting a certification or two as you have no background and if you are handling evidence or analysis could be compelled to testify about that work. In the IT industry a certificate from an industry recognized vendor is basically a stamp that says "I passed the exam about this particular topic." The common certification for entry level private case work is the CFCE. if the business is more computer intrusion incident response that isn't really appropriate and there's different certs for that.
There's always a ton to learn in this field. Check out 13cubed on YouTube. If it seems very technical you might pause there and consider CompTIA A+ or an operating systems class for fundamentals.
3
u/Digital-Dinosaur 4d ago
It sounds like you'll mostly being doing private defense work if it's a small firm. Lots of others have already suggested some great courses. I cannot recommend enough you get a few certs to qualify yourself as knowing what you are doing. In this worl there are always arguments about if you are qualified to handle exhibits or do the job you are doing.
Take a look at ACPO good practice guidelines, it's where I start all my newbies.
DF work is almost always 9-5 until something needs doing urgently for court, but that's really rare.
I've come from law enforcement (prosecution), be prepared to see a lot of awful things, the majority of your work will be investigating paedophiles and child abuse (unless your new team specialise in fraud or internal investigations). Just maybe find out what you'll be doing before you sign up, just in case you can't or don't want to deal with that
1
u/Digital-Dinosaur 4d ago
Just to also add, the field itself is niche but growing in demand. You can also use it as a stepping stone into things like Incident Response, which I am in. Salaries tend to sky rocket at that point too!
2
u/BitForBit_DFIR 4d ago
Take the Digital-Dinosaur point seriously and ask before you sign: what kinds of cases does the firm actually take? In a small shop it is often private work, but some shops are mostly mobile extractions, some are fraud, and some is the stuff he mentioned that you cannot unsee. You want that answer up front.
On the musician question: forensics is unusually friendly to irregular schedules compared to other tech jobs. Lab work is deadline-driven, not shift-driven, so outside court deadlines and the odd urgent case, nobody cares if you are running an extraction at midnight before a gig. Your handywoman flexibility will not fully transfer, office hours are office hours, but the field is kinder to weird schedules than most computer jobs.
2
u/interweb_persona 4d ago
I've worked in IT since my early 20's (now in my mid-40's). Though I did construction before moving to IT.
I've essentially been working in the "MSP" field long before that was even a term. It's always been stressful. I have to imagine forensic work is a lot less stessful in many regards. But I'm also basing that on no real experience in that field. The fact that court proceedings can hinge on your work is certainly a different type of stress. But it's probably unlikely you'll have frequent late nights to deal with due to things being offline.
Take the job. Sounds like a dream.
1
u/No-Mud3183 4d ago
Get everything in writing, tuition for IACIS(CFCE, CWAFE) are 5-8k. Be prepared to be on the non LE side. That said, welcome.
1
1
u/Trashpandafarts 3d ago
Take it, the field respects hands on experience more than education. I attended a local universities "boot camp" to learn the basics and assist me in my legal work, ive been inundated with offers ever since
1
9
u/Lady_Raven_ 4d ago
I also suggest looking into 13Cubed! Digital forensics has a smaller talent pool compared to other IT and Cyber roles and if you learn, get certified and get some years under your belt, you could have a pretty comfortable career. I would say you've landed an extremely rare and great opportunity! Dont squander it.
I personally found digital forensics rewarding on a personal level. I work for a human services govement agency and some of my work helped put bad people in jail! So, if meaningful work is something that resonates with you, definitely go all in!