r/forensics

Currently I’m a CSI with three years under my belt and I have an opportunity to possibly work with our medical examiners office as a death investigator. One of the reasons I’d like to switch is because sure I feel like our agency isn’t as busy as it used to be and now we are on shift work so there’s even a smaller window of opportunity to work a call. I think I would enjoy being busier.

Another reason I’d like to switch is because a major part of my job I enjoy is working death calls. Shootings, stabbing, assaults etc are…fun enough I guess? Vehicle processing, search warrants, and burglaries are my least favorite and I feel like now that’s mostly what I’ve been doing this year.

Anywho, I guess I’m just reaching out to see if anyone has made the switch and what your experience has been like doing so?

Thank you so much!

Sooo what are some ideal routes if I want to go into forensic toxicology? I’m in undergrad rn in biochemistry. I chose that degree because I liked how broad it was. I didn’t want to limit myself too much because you never know. I thought that for my masters I can be more specific and do forensic toxicology yk? Im a second year rn so I’m barley going into ochem and jsut starting to cold-email to try to get into some labs, but I’ve been thinking and I don’t really have any idea where I’m heading after this. I live in California and doing my degree at ucsd. I wouldn’t mind going out-of-state for my grad school but, and where I’m going with this post, I’m just not too well-versed in where I should look. I’ve looked up on google and other Reddit threads but idk. Still not sure what grad school I could look at. Not only that, but as much as I love UCSD, there’s not much on forensics here. I’m from San Diego county so it’s local for me, but I think I would want to explore out of state options, or rather, I guess not limit myself to in-state schools. Anyone has suggestions for me to look at? Also if anyone knows any opportunities that are more geared to forensic toxicology please let me know. I’ve accepted that the analytical skills is what I’ll have to settle for (which ofc still useful) when deciding who to cold-email because there are not many toxicology options here ): its majority bio, chem, or neuro really so I resort to getting experience with analytical skills bc either way I do really love lab environments!! I always knew I wanted to go into forensics but wasn’t sure what aspect of it, until high school when I had my first experience in a lab and found i loveee lab environments. But yeah anyways, i do wish there was more forensic opportunities here. Anyways, I’d love to start getting to shadow and get a glimpse of what I want to do. So if anyone more experienced than me has suggestions and knows anything pls share 🙏😔 I need some advice from people in the field. I appreciate you guys