• Question: How did you go from wanting to be a computer programmer to working as a business change officer?

    Asked by itchymist to Richard on 12 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Richard Case

      Richard Case answered on 12 Jun 2011:

      Wow.. how do I shorten 20 years of career decisions into a few paragraphs :-s

      Well…. when I was at school I was a total computer nerd, and was already creating games and applications, and was totally focussed on going to uni to take a degree in computer science; but something happened which made me reconsider my options, and I left school after my A-Levels to find work.

      Although I had a number of work options, I decided to take a lesser paid job in South Wales Police as it offered job security and work in a large organisation with opportunities in a number of different areas. I began working in administration within the “fingerprint bureau”. This was in the days before there were forensic programs on the tv (except for Quincy). I soon got a kick out of the chance to solve crimes scientifically and passed a 5 year on-the-job training programme.

      In 2001 another personal decision took me north to work at Greater Manchester Police. As Manchester is a huge city,it gave me the chance to work on more serious cases like murders and terrorist offences; I got to give advice at serious crime scenes; I had opportunities to visit mortuaries to take the fingerprints from dead bodies to help identify them…. and (as I still had an interest in computers), I got involved in some IT projects.

      I enjoyed some of the project work and in 2009 decided to apply for the job at the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), which meant that I could help police forces make the most out of their forensics, which gives me huge satisfaction because my work should result in more bad guys being caught.

      I am now starting on the road to get the degree I always wanted… but this time in Fingerprints, Forensics and Criminology.

      ADVICE – Whatever decisions you make, whether voluntarily or required, make the most of the challenges they present and don’t dwell on any regrets 😉

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