I may have posted this on the old site, but I don’t remember…  Taking my Forensic Science class here, taught by a retired detective, reminded me of the thought.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a police officer who has changed jobs. I’ve heard of military people ending up in office jobs and cooks becoming teachers and janitors becoming construction workers, but I’ve never, ever heard of a police officer who become something else.

I’m sure it happens sometimes, but it seems to me that it happens much less frequently. And I think that’s a good sign of when you know a job is something you might like: when no one ever stops doing it until they’re forced to. Of course I haven’t interviewed thousands of people to develop this theory, so it could very easily be inaccurate.

But it’s also supported by the fact that policework is one of those things people always seem to love talking about. I’m not even sure what one of my uncles does. He works in the financial industry and doesn’t seem to like his job. He’s never said, “I have to tell you what happened last week!” But run into a retired cop and they could talk all day about their time on the job. Again, I’m drawing on limited experience talking to retired cops, so I could be wrong. But I’m not so sure I am.

I wonder if there’s a place that compiles statistics on this. I’d be interested to see what other jobs have low career-change numbers. Which are the highest? Waiters? Does that count, though? Not many people expect that to become a career. Is it linked to training? Being a police officer takes a lot of specialized training that won’t help you at all if you decide to become, say, an accountant. But being an accountant takes lots of specialized training, too. Do accountants have mid-life crises and become construction workers often?