So You Want To Be A Forensic Scientist?

when I started my degree there was about 220 people my first lecture they said to us it's not what you see in the TV shows it's completely different [Music] hey guys welcome back to my channel so I know it's been a while and with everything that's going on you know we're in a social lockdown I think it I might as well do another video so today's topic is so you want to be a forensic scientist so what most of you might not know is I actually have a degree in forensic science I haven't practiced forensic science because I didn't actually get a job in forensic science I decided to go out and do another degree and a crime job in my rhythm that's a whole other story um okay so essentially forensic science is sort of a misconception between a lot of people and that's a purely because of what you see in TV shows so for example when I started my degree there was about 220 people my first lecture they said to us it's not what you see in the TV show it's completely different and that window down ups down to about 80 students and about 60 graduated so there's other 20 we went on to do it pure science degrees but essentially I'm going to be going through what you need to do as a forensic scientist what you actually want so in Australia I was in Sydney there are two degrees that could possibly do one was forensic science at ETS or forensic science at Western Sydney University which is now Western Sydney University is what it's called now it was a different name that so I obviously picked Western Sydney University is degree and that was purely because when you did their degree at UTS you did it purely in forensic chemistry or forensic biology and that meant that when you went out you physically had only learnt those two forensic skills because when you're outside of this learning area and what they don't tell you in the TV shows is you're stuck to one specific discipline so CSI or CSI Miami if you watch them they go out to a crime scene collect all the evidence take it back they do all the processing on it they go through all the blood samples they go through all the thin dope fingerprints they physically do everything in one and that is not how it works in the real world in the real world you're part of a team and specifically part of that team is what you're doing so you literally do that one little area when I was at was in Sydney University they gave us a broader range of things to learn so forensic archaeology forensic chemistry forensic biology genetics crime scene investigation I think might have been open but you could pop but you but in the whole area we also do forensic environmental forensics so you had a whole broader range of subjects which is what I appreciated more out of the degree because when you finish your degree you go out and do four years of training on-site in that specific field of forensic science that you want it so essentially when you look at a forensic science unit you're looking at someone who does forensic biology forensic chemistry fire firearms toxicology you've got a photography in it that cooler does photographs you've got crime scene investigation normally you might have someone that does like document examination depending on what country you're in there's a fingerprint group as well there's there's a whole bunch of like a little specific groups and niches in the forensic science field so when you go out and you become this forensic scientist people go okay cool so you do everything you don't do everything and you will never do everything you're specifically doing one thing the entire time in your career so for example for me what I essentially went through my friends a science degree I was told that in the first first run and they gave us like a list of possible jobs that you could do and I really wanted to go into firearms because I thought that was really interesting but in Australia you don't really have that many firearms experts and that's purely because we don't all have guns unlike America which I still don't understand why America has that me and I right to bear arms at all but anyway so essentially I was like ok cool that sounds great but am I going to crime scene investigation because that's really interesting so I went through all of my subjects I found out what I blacked from what I didn't like and crime scene investigation was probably my favorite subject out of everything that I did um so I went and applied for jobs and in Australia it's bit hard he'd had to fly I applied to the Australian Federal Police which I did and a lot of the times any companies that were hiring that were external or even this round federal place they would be hiring for someone who had some sort of experience oh that's especially back then which was a bummer for everyone I graduated with me because we couldn't get jobs because generally we didn't have any experience where graduates coming out to find jobs so hence why I went and did another degree instead so when you're looking at forensics you've got the forensic science part which is like these sort of things and then I'm hoping you can see this these sort of things and then you've got different types of forensics which essentially forensic psychology forensic odontology which is teeth you've got forensic engineering so car crashing is playing crashes all that sort of stuff and then you've got computer forensics so that's like daughter analysis and guy throwing people and all that sort of stuff and then there's also a lot of forensics for the government for tax fraud and all that sort of stuff as a forensic accounting so there are a lot of forensic field out there but you have to decide what you want to go into so if you're any of the forensics like the psychology on ontology engineering computer you do not do a forensic science degree they do not come under forensic science whatsoever because they're technically not science and you have to physically go out and do an engineering degree a psychology degree and you will have a subject that will be called forensic whatever and you will have one subject that is based on that and that is essentially where that comes into play so those topics generally you go out and you get experience and then and then you get a cow I want to go into forensics in this topic whereas forensic science you've got your list of that you could possibly do it and you have to pick one and go and do it so essentially there's some things that you have to think about if you want to become a forensic scientist you can't go out and just become a forensic scientist um if you are watching TV shows nc is probably the closest to a good example of a forensic scientist and that is purely because the actress that plays Abby Sciuto actually was a forensic scientist and she made sure that she pushed a lot of those frenzied elements in there but obviously the only thing that she does is she does absolutely everything not just the one but she does it a lot more appropriately then what CSI does she does a lot of she doesn't with hand masks and all the lovely stuff that do you want save it she doesn't go out to the crime scenes and take the photos and do a blood samples that's obviously like the beginning kids and all that that I've gone out to collect that said that technical part is technically right which what happens but yes that's probably the closest that you find one massive thing people get confused all the time and obviously if you're researching about forensic scientists you probably would know this by now but we're not coroner's so when they say oh my god you go ahead and play with dead bodies and stuff that's not awesome we don't go out and play with their boys if you want to play with dead bodies you have to become a coroner and that's purely because you're looking at those bodies but we're doing a lot of like a lot of biology essentially you're doing exactly what a doctor would do but I'm someone who's dead and that's I think where a lot of people don't realize where the separation occurs so yes we go out to the crime scene get the samples and everything like that but we don't sit down there okay let's open up this body and see what's happened like that's not what a forensic scientist does and again NCIS is a good example of that because they actually have a coroner and you can actually see how the carbon is work with forensic scientists and essentially that is how it works so if you want to become a forensic scientist hopefully this video is giving you a good indication of what you would need to think about what you would want to know before going into a forensic science degree and also to research the degrees that are out there especially in Sydney I'm giving you my view if you're a chemistry and biology person um you could probably go to get yes if you're wanting into something more all-round so you get the feel of everything so you know what you want to go into uws be my pick a WSU yeah so yeah definitely if you want to know a little bit more or if you have any questions for me you feel free to leave it in the comments I can give you my best information that I possibly know from spending three years at uni do any forensics if you also want to know a bit more about each specific forensic field also let me know in the comments and I can do a specific video on them for you and yeah hopefully it hasn't been too long and hasn't been a drag of me just talking about prejudice but I've got a guys I've been playing with spend the entire time I hope good day guys um I hope you enjoyed this video and I hope to see you

Channel: Nerds the Word

Views: 894

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: science, forensic science, study, education, learn, forensic

Id: VZ0m5R36ZNo

Length: 10min 27sec (627 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 19 2020