Crime Scene Investigator as a career choice.?

I am a nurse and I hate it. I only did it for the money.
Can any CSI's (field or lab) tell me about going to school, job demand and pay?
Additional Details
Really I want to be a Pathologist's assistant. But there aren't any schools for that in Texas. So my second choice would be Forensic Scientist in the lab. Maybe specialize in fibers. I just need a career change. I am 34 and I really don't like people. I mean I like co-workers I just don't like patients, clients, students, customers or anything of the sort.. Please give me some career choices. I am more than willing to go back to school.

Princess Leia

Have you thought about being a deputy coroner? You usually have to have peace officer certification and don't need a M.D. (at least in one Southern California county that I know of).

For a CSI, you also need to have peace officer certification and you'd better hurry because most cities/counties have a maximum age for beginning peace officer school/training (and that age is 35 years old). As one of the posters said, it's actually a combination of jobs, but it is a peace officer.

A forensic technician - again, in one Southern California county - requires the following:
Education: Completion of 20 semester or 30 quarter units in Criminology, Administration of Justice, Police Science, or a closely related field. (One year of receiving, cataloging, and maintaining custody of evidence in a law enforcement agency, or a closely related law enforcement assignment may be substituted for the required education.)

Knowledge of: crime scene investigation techniques and procedures; knowledge of fingerprint processing methods; knowledge of traditional photography and digital imaging techniques and equipment; the relationship of law enforcement to the community at large.

Ability to: learn collection, identification, and comparison of physical evidence at crime scenes; coordinate information obtained from a variety of sources; interpret such information; draw logical conclusions; apply fingerprinting methods to the tasks of identification; take, develop, and print clear photographs; follow oral and written instructions; maintain effective working relationships; write clear, concise reports; stand, stoop, bend, stretch, reach and extend arms above shoulder, stand for prolonged periods of time and lift and carry camera and evidence collection equipment. This position also requires the incumbent to work around offensive sights and smells.

RomeyM

The demand for CSI's is not high at all around here but go to this website, once you get there scroll down and click on occupations, that will tell you the demand, earnings by area and everything you need to know about any career, you just have to type in the career choice.

http://www.bls.gov/

Your welcome. Why not specialize in forensic nursing, I want to do that when I get my license.

Jennifer D

The "CSI" job you see on TV is really a bunch of jobs combined into one - detective, balistic analyst, DNA expert, etc. Demand for these amalgamated roles is relatively low, so you should consider picking an area of specialization. Do you want to be a detective or are you more interested in the scientific analysis aspect of the career? Another thing to consider is that many people expect that criminologists will have to testify as to the nature of serial killers, which they find very intriguing, however there has been an extrmely low demand for profilers.

I think what you need to do is investigate a little further before deciding this is a viable career path...

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