Are you considering a career change? Want to give back to society and do some good in the world? Fancy getting paid a healthy wage for your efforts? If you answered yes to all three of those questions, you should seriously consider embarking on a career in law enforcement. No matter what specific role you choose to play within this field, you will have the opportunity to lead an exciting professional life on a daily basis.
To find eight benefits of a career in law enforcement, check out the article below.
1. You can save lives
If you’re a naturally caring person and want to play an active role in protecting the members of your community, law enforcement is the vocation for you. In this role, you will have the capacity to actually save people’s lives on a day-to-day basis. One thing’s for sure, the magnitude of this all-important responsibility cannot be recreated in too many other career pathways…
2. You can broaden your horizons
Policing isn’t the only form of law enforcement; this is an industry that is comprised of hundreds of different roles. Make no mistake about it; should you decide to enter this field, you will be afforded the opportunity to broaden your professional horizons far and wide.
So long as you obtain a degree in criminology, you will have the capacity to embark on a number of meaningful career routes. Some of these vocations include:
1. Criminal Justice Faculty
2. Crime Scene/Forensic Analyst
3. Corrections Officer
4. Private Investigator
5. Customers Officer
6. Probation Officer
7. Animal Cruelty Investigator
8. Youth Probation Officer
3. You will have the opportunity to advance
As well as offering you an array of career choices, law enforcement will also provide you with the opportunity to make substantial professional progression. Whether you choose to become an operative or a detective, you will have the chance to advance within your sector. This is down to the simple fact that there will always be a call for additional roles within the overarching law enforcement industry.
Advice on how to advance your career over the course of 2022 can be found here.
4. You will reap a whole host of additional benefits
As a reward for the important role that you will play in keeping society safe, you will be sure to reap a whole host of benefits during your tenure as a law enforcer. Every legal department and agency will offer different work perks, but you can be sure of the fact that you will be compensated fairly for putting your life on the line.
During your career in law enforcement, a healthy pension is one benefit that you will be likely to reap. Your state or federal agency (or maybe even both) will make sizeable contributions to your 401(k) fund, which means that you will be afforded more control over your eventual retirement plans. Should you wish to do so, this should allow you to retire earlier than your friends and family members who work in other professions.
5. You won’t be bored
In your role as a law enforcer, you won’t ever have to worry about boredom creeping in. Every day, you will be sure to encounter a whole host of weird and wonderful challenges. This is what makes law enforcement so unpredictable and exciting.
To ensure that you’re up to the task of handling each challenge that comes your way, it’s highly recommended that you learn how to stay calm under pressure. By managing to remain cool and composed in difficult situations, you will be much more likely to make prudent decisions regarding the way in which you enforce the law.
Eight top tips for remaining calm when faced with difficult situations include:
1. Remembering the fact that it’s not personal
2. Never be afraid to seek assistance from your colleagues
3. Taking care of your physical and mental health on a day-to-day basis
4. Putting difficult situations into perspective
5. Switching off and relaxing during your downtime periods
6. Focusing on the actual problem at hand rather than the stressor associated with it
7. Practicing breathing exercises (four seconds in through the nose, hold your breath for eight seconds, exhale slowly for seven seconds)
8. Getting plenty of sleep on a regular basis to ensure that you are never fatigued and always focused
6. You will have job security
Once you’re trained and qualified in your niche law enforcement sector, you will have the capacity to work anywhere. All countries and societies across the globe are constantly in desperate need of law enforcers, which means that you will very rarely need to worry about unemployment. With this high level of job security in place, you will be able to devote more of your time, effort, and focus to the all-important task of keeping the streets safe.
7. You will feel a sense of pride
Serving your community with distinction will be sure to fill you with a sense of pride on a day-to-day basis. Whether you save a life, remove a citizen from a potentially dangerous situation, or crack a crucial investigation, you will no doubt return home each day feeling satisfied with your work. Again, you’ll be hard stretched to recreate this level of fulfillment in other vocations…
8. You can be a trailblazer
The law enforcement industry is constantly changing, evolving, and becoming more inclusive. If you belong to a society or culture that is currently underrepresented within this field, you will be afforded the opportunity to be a trailblazer. This will help you to break down barriers in the present, and it will allow you to solidify your legacy in the future. It really is a win-win situation!
Want to embark on a scalable and stable career pathway? If so, look no further than law enforcement. This is an industry full of opportunities, surprises, and success stories. So long as you work hard and put the above advice into practice, there’s no reason why you can’t fulfill your professional potential within this difficult yet rewarding field.