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.
Usually job vacancies aren't that plentiful that you can be too choosy. Are all or most of the duties similar to what you want to do? Is the location acceptable to you (local, or someplace you wouldn't mind relocating to)? Is there a good chance you will meet their expectations sufficiently that they will offer you a job? If the answer to all three is yes, then I would suggest you take it. If the answer to only the first two is yes, try anyway.
Best of luck to you!
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Trace Evidence, my first book, was optioned and I wrote the screenplay for it. But the producers couldn’t sell it and had to give up. I’ve had nibbles on other books but nothing yet. I keep hoping!
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My guess is it depends on what you want to do. If you want to work in a lab, then biology for DNA or trace evidence or chemistry for toxicology would be the way to go. If you want to work in the field, mostly at the crime scene, then you might want the more general forensic science. Go on the websites of agencies and professional organizations, look at their vacancy postings, and see what they ask for. Best of luck!
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Why do you post questions that need to be deleted? Most people have better things to do.
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Flight Attendant
How do you handle belligerent passengers?
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What do you think that New York does better or worse than other States?
Some people don't have enough to do!
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That is a great question that I can’t answer! So sorry, but I never worked with a GC or Mass Spec. That was the toxicology department.
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No. I do lots of stuff detectives don’t do, like lab analysis, scene reconstruction, latent print comparison, etc. And they do tons of stuff I don’t do, like track down victims/witnesses/suspects and interview them, run criminal histories, request search warrants, and so on. So our jobs are really very different. We are there to provide the forensic support for the case, but forensic topics are only part of any case. Hope that helps!
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