sister never supports me

I wasn't sure what to title this, so I'll just explain it.

I'm in year 11 and am very very interested in forensics/true crime and really want a job in that industry, specifically around crime scene investigation/analysis. I happily told my sister this and she was so unenthusiastic and said that I should pick something else, specifically something higher paying.

I looked into forensic psychology and gaslighted myself into believing I want to be one and my sister is practically coercing me into taking a psychology degree.

I do understand the whole salary thing but I'm just not passionate about psychology at all, I'm interested but not passionate.

Every single career path I've ever wanted to go into ever my sister has never been happy for me and it is so disheartening.

I don't want to be a forensic psychologist daydreaming of being a crime scene investigator. I know the salary isn't great but I don't know what else to do since I'm not really interested in anything else.

Reply 1

Anonymous #2

Original post by Anonymous

I wasn't sure what to title this, so I'll just explain it.

I'm in year 11 and am very very interested in forensics/true crime and really want a job in that industry, specifically around crime scene investigation/analysis. I happily told my sister this and she was so unenthusiastic and said that I should pick something else, specifically something higher paying.

I looked into forensic psychology and gaslighted myself into believing I want to be one and my sister is practically coercing me into taking a psychology degree.

I do understand the whole salary thing but I'm just not passionate about psychology at all, I'm interested but not passionate.

Every single career path I've ever wanted to go into ever my sister has never been happy for me and it is so disheartening.

I don't want to be a forensic psychologist daydreaming of being a crime scene investigator. I know the salary isn't great but I don't know what else to do since I'm not really interested in anything else.

I don't know why she thinks psychology is a higher paying profession than CSI; they're roughly the same. Whilst CSI is competitive, I think it's fairer to say psychology is a more competitive field to get into.

The convention of getting into CSI is to do a chemistry degree, but there are also accredited forensic science degrees out there that you can do (all would be looking into chemistry as a required A Level though). Degrees in biological science, physics or medical sciences would be good alternatives, but chemistry is likely to be the one you would look into more (if you're investigating a crime scene, they're more likely to analyse the chemicals)

The following are the job profiles for forensic scientists:
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/forensic-scientist
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/forensic-scientist
https://www.careerpilot.org.uk/job-sectors/data-network/job-profile/forensic-scientist

For the list of accredited degrees, see: https://www.csofs.org/quality-standards/accredited-course-search/

Do note: you might want to check the reality of what the job is actually like. They tend to overglamourise the job on TV; a lot of the job in real life is a lot more grueling. Speak to an existing forensic scientist to see what he/she says first.

Reply 2

Anonymous #3

Forensic psychology isn't an easy path to riches. Psychology as a degree is incredibly over subscribed. Over 40,000 people graduated with a psychology degree in the UK last year. Then you want to work in forensic psych to get a feel for it. Your best bet is getting a bank role as a Healthcare Assistant in a secure mental health facility. You then have to apply for an assistant psychologist role about £25k a year, also usually only for a fixed time period of a year. Except you're fighting those 40,000 other graduates for maybe 25 available roles at any given time. Often it is nece or desirable for you to have a mastersbfor an AP role. Say you get the AP role without the masters, okay great now to progress any further you need to do your masters.

So now you're looking at about £70k worth of debt just to be earning £25k a year. With a very competitive and stressful infrastructure. Source being: I worked in a medium secure psychiatric hospital for 4 years. Every second person you met was hoping to go into psychology. I also wouldn't suggest MH Nursing either. Every nurse I knew was miserable with their role. I initially started studying for my nursing and had a huge breakdown about the fact I didn't want to be miserable and hate my job like everyone else I met. I then fell into the job I do now which is working with teens in custody.

Now from what I can see a forensic crime scene investigator already earns about £3k more from entry level. It also appears much more straight forward to climb the ranks and progress. Also worth noting that the police and companies they outsource to tend to fund further study. So you could potentially get any post grad training paid for through work. With a specialty area and a good few years experience you could be looking at £50k a year. Which even in the current shambles of an economic climate is still a good salary.

I'd say that your dreams of becoming a forensic scientist are much more realistic to come to fruition and likely to be a lot more lucrative a lot quicker.

As for your sister not supporting you siblings can be mean. She possibly means well but don't let her dampen your dreams. I'd also suggest reading a book called "I want to die, but I want tteokbokki" the starting chapters have some good bits about siblings.

sister never supports me

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