Why do you want to be a forensic psychologist?
Is it the forensic side or psychologist side?
I used to work in prisons and I absolutely loved it!
But it’s a job you either love or hate and I would recommend getting some prison experience before you base your career around it.
Its also a very frustrating job as the system does not work and you are constantly fighting against a broken system, trying to help people that have usually already been failed and knowing that the system is going to fail them again and they’ll be back inside.
However, I am not a psychologist and so their experience of prisons may be a lot different.
I now work with teens who are at risk of being arrested.
Its fantastic but it’s mentally draining and not good money and so not a long term solution.
Before this I trained to be a secondary school teacher and worked with teens who’d been expelled.
I loved it and it was better money (and holidays) but again mentally draining and a lot of work.
Being a forensic psychologist is a fantastic career but it’s quite a narrow field (although you can branch out) if you don’t like working with offenders.
I would definitely get some forensic experience and perhaps look at careers in the police as they have psychologists too and I believe they’re paid better.
If it’s psychology you’re interested in but not sure about the forensic part then I would look into becoming a clinical psychologist and then doing extra training to be a forensic one, as being a clinical psychologist gives you much more freedom to move fields, although I’ve heard it’s incredibly difficult to get into.
What courses or jobs have you done?