Elementary school teacher or police officer?

What should I do?

  • Elementary Teacher

    Votes: 7 58.3%

  • Police Officer with intention of becoming a dectective

    Votes: 5 41.7%
  • Total voters
    12
Soda Jack said:
Its not like that around here. Its rare for a patrol job to come open. Have to wait until someone gets promoted, dies, or retires. Most cops around here come out of academy, either apply for a state job as highway patrol and move away, or get a job at the jail as a CO and move up from there. I suppose its possible to start as patrol if you are willing to move anywhere in the state.
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Same around me, I have several friends that are police officers, they all had to wait what seemed like ages to get in a dept. My wife's cousin finally got picked up after 6 years, only because 5-6 full time officers are retiring. Then, like others have said there are the "office politics" which can be downright insane.

If you live near any college towns you could try getting a job at a campus PD. You'd get a taste of the police academy, a bit of "police work" and make some good connections to further your career in law enforcement. A lot of the colleges around me have "retired" higher ranking town/state police officers as campus chiefs.
 
BDaddyK said:
Same around me, I have several friends that are police officers, they all had to wait what seemed like ages to get in a dept. My wife's cousin finally got picked up after 6 years, only because 5-6 full time officers are retiring. Then, like others have said there are the "office politics" which can be downright insane.

If you live near any college towns you could try getting a job at a campus PD. You'd get a taste of the police academy, a bit of "police work" and make some good connections to further your career in law enforcement. A lot of the colleges around me have "retired" higher ranking town/state police officers as campus chiefs.
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Its the same here. A lot of it doesn't come down to how qualified a person is, but who a person knows.
 
Call me lack of ambition, but I wanted to be a house husband. LOL. No kidding.
 
BDaddyK said:
House husband and that would be cool, add kids to that mix and your days of gaming are out the window...
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Isnt that the truth. Dealing with kids all day is work. I respect anyone, man or woman, that deals with house work and kids all day. My brother is a stay at home dad. He has a 5 year old, a 4 year old, and an infant. His house is like an insane asylum when all 3 get going.
 
Just remember Plainview, both jobs get plenty of this:

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I haven't done either, so my advice is pretty useless. I would talk to people who have the job, ask them questions. People are usually willing to talk about what their jobs are like. I wish I'd done that. I picked my career based solely on my interests and what I felt most drawn towards. I think that's a good way to do it, but in retrospect, I wish I had also done more interviewing of people who were in the field. I really didn't know what I was getting into.

About the police gig, you mention "large salary." You sure about that? I've heard police officers are not very well paid. Also, you say that you'd want to make detective or forget it. I think a lot of people want to be detectives -- it's popularized on TV, and that draws a lot of people in. So just be aware, there will probably be a lot of competition for the detective jobs.
 
Be a software developer. That's what I'm going to be when I grow up.
 
@Andy Police officers make a pretty good base salary, then they also have pay for other areas of training too, and then there is always the lucrative "detail" work. I don't know if the state you live in have police officers for road detail, but here in Ma. we do. The pay goes by rank, patrolman, Sgt, Lt, etc, it starts out at like $25 hr then up close to $40, 4 hr min. So they could "work" for an hour and get paid for 4, a lot of police in towns around me easily make 6 figures and are among the highest paid town employees.
 
BDaddyK said:
@Andy Police officers make a pretty good base salary, then they also have pay for other areas of training too, and then there is always the lucrative "detail" work. I don't know if the state you live in have police officers for road detail, but here in Ma. we do. The pay goes by rank, patrolman, Sgt, Lt, etc, it starts out at like $25 hr then up close to $40, 4 hr min. So they could "work" for an hour and get paid for 4, a lot of police in towns around me easily make 6 figures and are among the highest paid town employees.
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That's cool. I must've been misinformed about that. Now that you mention it, I did read an early retirement forum for a while, and I remember a few police officers in the mix. It was mostly financial/business people, but you'd see a few public servant types here and there, cops among them. I think the government pensions help, too.
 
Be a game developer Plainview! Make a living of your hobby! Let the gaming idea you have become a reality, & enjoyed by others.
 
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Think about The Wire. Would you consider yourself a McNulty? Or more of a Carver?

As a teacher who works a day and a half a week... I love my job. But when it was 2 and a half days, I hated it.
 
I know you're not a fresh grad with time to burn, but maybe do a kind of try out period. Can you do some volunteer work at a local elementary school for a few months and see if you dig it?
 
Andy said:
That's cool. I must've been misinformed about that. Now that you mention it, I did read an early retirement forum for a while, and I remember a few police officers in the mix. It was mostly financial/business people, but you'd see a few public servant types here and there, cops among them. I think the government pensions help, too.
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Yeah their retirements can be pretty good. In Ma. they take the average of your 3 highest earning years, people like to transfer to better paying positions for a few years to max out. Plus you get pay increases for continued education and what not. A popular thing for law enforcement to do is work for their 20 years, get their pension and then work at a college. There are a few higher ranking "retired" police at colleges collecting pensions upwards of $100k and then on top of that making almost that as a campus chief...
 
I would think being a game developer would ruin gaming for you. There wouldn't be much "wow factor" as you would recognize the methods used in a games creation.
 
Soda Jack said:
I would think being a game developer would ruin gaming for you. There wouldn't be much "wow factor" as you would recognize the methods used in a games creation.
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I think that's the real trouble with doing something that you love, you might end up extinguishing that flame. I really like working on cars, though I know if I had to work in other people's nightmares all day it'd kill the enthusiasm for my own.
 
I have an Associates in law enforcement with intentions to be a police officer but I decided to go back for IT. That said in IT I'm in a school district so while not a teacher, I have other ways to affect students. I still wouldn't mind being a police officer though... so I really haven't helped you at all.
 
Viktor said:
I have an Associates in law enforcement with intentions to be a police officer but I decided to go back for IT. That said in IT I'm in a school district so while not a teacher, I have other ways to affect students. I still wouldn't mind being a police officer though... so I really haven't helped you at all.
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Can you help me get into IT?
 
Soda Jack said:
I would think being a game developer would ruin gaming for you. There wouldn't be much "wow factor" as you would recognize the methods used in a games creation.
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Or you will appreciate the game more. You will notice details that you would otherwise not notice. You start to think of the game/level design & why it was design this way, the smoke & mirrors that was used, where they cut corners, & the amount of work that go through a game etc
 
starseeker said:
Or you will appreciate the game more. You will notice details that you would otherwise not notice. You start to think of the game/level design & why it was design this way, the smoke & mirrors that was used, where they cut corners, & the amount of work that go through a game etc
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That doesn't really sound like it would make a game more fun, at least not to me. I can already appreciate a game for its design. The smoke&mirrors, cut corners, and amount of work put into a game, Im happily ignorant to those things.
 
Soda Jack said:
I would think being a game developer would ruin gaming for you. There wouldn't be much "wow factor" as you would recognize the methods used in a games creation.
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Truth is, a real good game maker won't have much time to play games outside of a vacation. Obviously it depends on what part of the game you're working on as well, but ultimately, it's a pretty damn busy job that requires lots of time to produce quality.
 
sharkboy1200 said:
Truth is, a real good game maker won't have much time to play games outside of a vacation. Obviously it depends on what part of the game you're working on as well, but ultimately, it's a pretty damn busy job that requires lots of time to produce quality.
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Of course, but the satisfactory will be worth it. But yes, its not for everyone.
 
Get with me offline and I'd be happy to go into as much detail as you'd like on being a cop. It's just literally too much to type.
 
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