career change: Probation officer (employees, interview, jobs, careers)
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My son is thinking about changing careers. He is 30 and has been speaking to a former probation officer and thinks he'd enjoy that work. Anyone out there have any advice, pros and cons...?
My son is thinking about changing careers. He is 30 and has been speaking to a former probation officer and thinks he'd enjoy that work. Anyone out there have any advice, pros and cons...?
He should do it. I worked for Federal Probation with probation officers. Some handled the probation part, others handled the presentencing part. It would be a fantastic opportunity. I say, go for it!
It is a great job. It is not extremely difficult to learn and things don't change much from year to year. There are many different units within most offices (gender specific, sex offender, intensive supervision) so even if you don't advance, there is always a different unit to move to and challenge yourself. The negative would be some places have extremely high caseloads 100 - 300 cases, usually the adult system. The con to the juvenile system is the parents, but working with juveniles, particularly their parents you will learn that the quote "the apple does not fall too far from the tree" is more than justb a cliche. If he is the type of person that gets off on having that law enforcement respect their is some of that, although not quite on the level of a police officer in most instances. I can say that I have a "clean" driving record and I have been stopped on multiple occassions. FYI, most juvenile PO's are females. The last interview panel I was on (2 weeks ago) was all female interviewees. It is also a bit easier to get a job in the juvenile system.
The only con I have heard is it is tough to transition out of a PO job should a person want to make a career change later on. You don't end up with a lot of transferable skills.
I have a friend that graduated college last year and was hired on as a probation officer and he hates it. He tells me of threats, and over burden of cases with a boss breathing down your neck, also forget normal office hours, it's an all day job.
I am a juvenile probation officer. The type of unit I am assigned to is very demanding. Management sets unrealistic goals and create an enviornment where 90% of the staff transfer away when they are eligible (we are required to stay on one assignment for 2yrs before we can transfer). We work 8-5 monday - friday, however in order to accomplish the various tasks of the job (and receive a passing yearly evaluation) we actually work from 7am-10 or 11pm plus a few more hours on saturdays and sundays. If the labor board really knew what was going on, there would be a major lawsuit. There is no overtime pay, no compensation at all for the additional hours worked but the expectation is always there to complete all reports, see all kids, see their parents, and visit the group homes. The written reports are subjective and as a result, if one works with a "bad" supervisor, he will require a much more time intensive report to be written for each and every situation, even when it is not necessary. But for the officers he likes, he will allow them to submit brief reports for similar circumstances. Many officers grin and bear it, others chummy up and take his rude comments, yelling, ugly jokes, etc to avoid poor evaluations and harassment from management which would harm ones opportunities to transfer to another work assignment at the end of the 2 yr period. The salary is good but the working environment is simply awful. Add to this, a generous dallop of gossiping, backstabbing, manipulation, God I cant wait to leave. Sorry to vent, but I guess I needed that. Thanks!
I am interested to hear what it is like in other places.
Albert 1 - Where (city/state) does your friend work? Does he work with adults or juveniles? Does he work parole or probation (two different things).
GW - Where (city/state) exactly do you work? One thing I will say is most people don't retire from the juvenile system. There is a lot of burnout. Working with adults is completely different.
It's hard to believe that there's no overtime pay. You mean to tell me that you will stay 4 hours past the time you're suppose to, and your not being paid? Your annual
salary is all you make? With workloads like that, you should be able to make an extra 20k. Explain to me how working for fee is legal
And it's very political. All law enforcement jobs are political these days. That's why I left. I couldn't handle the BS that went with it. (County SO, no PO, but same lines)
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