The glamorized world of television crime drama has given viewers a glimpse into the lives of fictional criminal justice professionals. The reality of a criminal justice professional’s day-to-day work may be very different, but the fundamental goals (whether a security guard or lawyer) remain the same: help rid communities of crime, uphold the law, and ensure the overall safety of society.
A meaningful career can seem hard to come by in today’s workforce. Work is about getting paid, but a career should be about more than just making a living. A career should be about doing something you’re proud of, something that makes the world a better place.
In the wealthiest, most advanced nation in the history of the world, over half of Americans are unhappy with the job they have. The Conference Board, a global market research firm, has conducted a widely-cited job satisfaction study for over 20 years. Their first survey, in 1987, found that over 61% of people were satisfied with their career. By last year, that number had dropped to an all-time low of 45.3%. It’s not just that people aren’t making enough money - many feel frustrated and bored by the repetitiveness of their workday and the lack of end result in their daily tasks.
Many of us choose to define ourselves by what we do – "I’m a mechanic, I'm a sales manager, I'm a police officer." What does it mean when almost 55% percent of us are unsatisfied with the career path we’ve chosen? Something is terribly wrong.
We at University Bound believe in the American Dream. We believe that every person has the right to do something they love. Beyond that, we believe that with dedication, smart choices, and hard work, every person has the ability to succeed. You may not have the honed powers of deduction to be the next Sherlock Holmes; you may be too old to go to astronaut school, and unfortunately, "pirate" is not a legitimate profession, but it’s not too late to have an exciting, rewarding, and fulfilling job in the criminal justice field. It is a job sector that is expanding as the population grows and demands higher standards of public safety.
These are exciting, desirable jobs in a growing market: all of our criminal justice school subcategories (security guards, probation officers and correctional treatment specialists, etc.) have healthy growth rates, most substantially higher than the 8.2% expansion for all civilian jobs forecasted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for 2008-2018. The BLS predicts that security guard jobs will expand by 14%,probation officers and correctional treatment specialists by 19%, private detectives and investigators by 22%, and so on. Paralegals and legal assistants will see the highest growth rate in the criminal justice field, a staggering 28%. There are a growing number of good jobs available, but openings are expected to be competitive.