Platypusfattypus
VIP Member
Yes and no.That sounds interesting and they are pretty different! I have a psychology degree but I never knew what I wanted to do with it. I’m not a very confident person so I just sort of faded into this behind the scenes job and never really pushed myself to do anything worthwhile. Did you enjoy the probation officer role?
I loved court, and preparing reports for court. I enjoyed working with offenders and the rare times where people really managed to turn their lives around it was brilliant to see. I liked going into the prisons, though was always glad to leave them.
However you work with some really horrible people, who have committed vile crimes. Sometimes those you feel shouldn't get parole do despite you advising against it, and then they know you were against it and you get their anger too. Sometimes people reoffended and more harm was caused. You would get shouted at, had high caseload numbers and had to work overtime. There were some sad stories. I had cases that were unhappy with the decisions I made. Ultimately I left because I had a young family and it gave me a skewed view of the world (everyone was a paedophile). I do miss it at times though.