• Question: How did you end up being and why did you become a digital forensics scientist?

    Asked by anon-260045 to Holly on 25 Sep 2020.
    • Photo: Holly Duns

      Holly Duns answered on 25 Sep 2020:

      The why is probably a little more straight forward than the how!

      I never really knew what i wanted to do but i always liked the idea of policing but during school I was far more interested in sport and horses to really put my mind to anything. When I left school I wasn’t sure that I was ready to go straight into the police and my mum convinced me to go to uni as a bit of a back up. I chose do to Criminology as it was a little more generic but still tied into policing.

      I completed my undergrad and went travelling for a couple of years before deciding it was time to focus on my career. Still interested in policing with the added experience of travelling and relying heavily on technology to communicate and get around i was a more interested in the investigation and forensic side of policing. Basically, fell for the CSI life!

      I did some research and I wasn’t very keen to complete another undergrad, I’m Scottish so this would have been another 4 years. I looked specifically for MSc’s in forensics and investigations which led me to attend Cranfield University open day where I met the digital forensics team and they convinced me that digital forensics was the way forward.

      It took a bit to convince me as my computing experience was limited to Googling and using Word to write an essay and as this was a masters and at one of the top universities for this degree I was in for a tough ride!

      That year at uni was certainly the biggest challenge of my life so far, but now knowing I could learn so much in such a short space of time, in an extremely fast paced industry has certainly served me well moving forward with my career. Things are always more exciting when you push yourself out of your comfort zone!

      Being a digital forensics scientist is not only really interesting but its also a really rewarding as now I spend time engaging with law enforcement officers and assisting with all sorts of different investigations.

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