• Crime scene investigators do the majority of their work in the lab — not chasing down bad guys. The investigators portrayed in CSI type shows tend to be do-everything kind of folks — they’re not just processing evidence and running DNA tests, they’re also the ones nabbing the criminals.  Real-life investigators actually spend most of their time in the lab — they don’t often need to visit crime scenes, and the majority of them aren’t actual officers, so they can’t make arrests.
• Lab work takes more time. In the shows, lab work — or any kind of a test, really — is quick and painless.  Whether it’s a fingerprint or a DNA sample, you just plug it into a machine and hey, presto! You’ve got results.  Real life forensics tests, however, take days or even weeks to get results, usually because reality is messier and because there isn’t some fancy machine to do the work for you.  Fingerprints, for instance, aren’t often clear, and typically the match has to be made visually by a specialist, rather than by a machine.
• There’s not just one lab for everything. Crime investigation shows make it seem like there’s just ”the lab,” and all the work gets done in the same place.  In reality, however, labs are specialized, with one for fingerprinting, one for DNA testing, and so on.  Also, small departments often don’t have the budget for their own labs and equipment, so certain things such as DNA samples have to be sent to the state lab for testing.
• The fancy equipment in the shows often doesn’t exist, or at least is way beyond budget. According to real life crime scene investigators, the technology you see in the shows is often unrealistic, or at least the budget required to buy all that equipment is.  Many small departments have to send evidence to the state lab for testing, which — again — means lots of waiting until the results come back.  Other equipment on the shows are actually a mechanism for accomplishing real-life results in a fraction of the time; for instance, instead of having technicians visually comparing fingerprints to find a match, you have a machine that identifies the bad guy within a matter of seconds.
• Solving cases takes more weeks or even months. The hallmark of CSI and similar shows is that the case is almost always wrapped up during the hour-long episode.  In reality, though, it takes weeks or even months to gather, process, and document the evidence.  While TV shows like to present cases as having a quick resolution, with all the loose strings tied off neatly at the end of the episode, this is rarely the case.

Now, this isn’t to say that forensics work isn’t interesting.  Real-life crime scene investigators love their work and find it both fascinating and challenging.  It’s just not as dramatic as prime time TV would have you believe! If you’re still interested in pursuing a career in crime scene investigation, then you might just be the perfect fit for the forensic psychology graduate program.

This is one of those internships that looks like it will be hell and for some people it will be. You will end up going away from home for the summer and you will work long days, but you will earn some pretty good money. The exact amounts will depend on you and your sales skills. There is some training involved before hand as well.

None of that is what you hear about when talking to an alumni, so it seems safe to assume it isn’t the life changing part about working for Southwestern Company . What you do tend to hear about is what happens while you are out of your normal environment.

You knock on doors all over the city. In the process you meet people of every race and background. You talk to people of every religion and will get a perspective on life in a whole new way. Your place in the world will look different when you come back home. You will learn about how these people think, and what they value. They will tell you about their passions and about their loves. You will meet cranky people, and people who aren’t quite cranky, but they will try to bring you down to their level. You will also meet people who will rise you up and let you soar as you understand their life and their needs and they feed back to you kindness. How you deal with each of these people will affect your character forever.

To a lesser degree other internships seem to do this as well. Being so unconventional it is no wonder there are a number of people talking about it. For people who have never left their backyard it sounds daunting, and for those wishing to explore it sounds like an adventure. Either way it can be dangerous and can not be taken as lightly as any other internship.

Those who go through with it seem to view it fondly at the end and often develop a love for the company itself. One of the nice things is that they planned for this and when it is over, if you want to, you will be able to stay somewhat close to it . Southwestern Company hires back a lot of their interns both for new summer jobs and to bring into the company.

A great example of this is seen among people who choose to get their Cisco certification. These people go through a Cisco training course and get specifically certified in a particular area of the field that they already work in. This shows employers that the individual is not only educated but willing to specialize and capable of staying on top of the latest things happening in that field.

No one is saying that getting a Cisco certification will guarantee that you get a new job. However making yourself more appealing to employers by enhancing your education is going to make it more likely that you’ll stand out from other applicants in the job hunt. As an employer would you hire the person with the most recent relevant education or the one who only has a work history? The answer is clear.