Forensic Scientist

I have my first interview out of college for a forensic chemist position. Do you have any tips for a first timer? Are there any questions I should really prepare for?

Asked by MIKE about 4 years ago

Wow, best of luck!! I would suggest you Google the heck out of the facility and find out everything you can about what they do—if it’s a state lab, what kind of evidence they accept from the state agencies. They probably test for illegal drugs, but are they testing the actual drugs seized, or bodily fluids from arrested people, or blood/urine/gastric samples from medical examiners or coroners offices—or all three. If you can’t find the information then that’s a good and reasonable question to ask. They’re sure to ask you what kind of instrumentation you’ve worked with, in class or in an internship, etc.—GC Mass Spec, IR, etc., how much experience and what kind of samples you tested. PS If it’s not posted you might want to ask about hours and/or overtime. They might be 9-5 M-F or they might be 24/7, depending on the size and location.

Best of luck!!

Hello,

How do you go back and re construct the last 24 hours of someone’s life

Asked by Margarita over 4 years ago

I’m sorry but I have no idea. that would be the detective’s job, not mine.

Best of luck!

Browse through some of the other forums too and you will see the same trends and writing styles. Crazy stories, posting links, asking dumb questions, asking the same question over and over just in a different way, trying to get people mad, spamming, and fhe list goes on the bus drivers seems to he the worst and the wearher guy before he went away was getting spammed every day

Asked by Jessica almost 5 years ago

Some people don't have enough to do!

Haha what if some of your old co workers see your post LAMO that’s too funny

Asked by Mike almost 5 years ago

What's the best way to highlight and uncover gloveprints left by Nitrile gloves from a surface?

Asked by Richard almost 5 years ago

Usually simple black powder will show gloveprints as well as fingerprints. The bubbly sort of pattern they make will be visible.

If a attacker OC sprayed someone and robbed them is there chemical tests to see if the spray that was on the victims face and the Pepper spray on the suspect to see who did it

Asked by Question about 4 years ago

That’s a good question that I’m afraid I can’t answer. I’m sure there is some way to determine the chemicals used in pepper spray. But this would be affected by a) how long does it remain on the skin before the skin absorbs it and b) most forensic chemistry labs are set up to detect illegal drugs in urine, blood or gastric contents. Identifying any kind of poison or other substance may require equipment or reference databases they don’t have.

Proving it’s the same batch of pepper spray may or may not be possible. I”m not personally involved in this kind of testing, but I can assure you it is not like television. We had a series of cases and wanted to determine the exact composition of drugs with percentages of fentanyl, heroin etc. Turned out while nearly every crime lab can determine if a drug is present, there were only one or two labs in the entire country we could find that could determine percentages, and they charged an arm and a leg. 

Sorry I can’t be more help.

When you first started interviewing and working in the forensics field, what made you determine if the jobs you were looking at were right for you? I am going through that situation now.

Asked by Jason. B about 4 years ago

Usually job vacancies aren't that plentiful that you can be too choosy. Are all or most of the duties similar to what you want to do? Is the location acceptable to you (local, or someplace you wouldn't mind relocating to)? Is there a good chance you will meet their expectations sufficiently that they will offer you a job? If the answer to all three is yes, then I would suggest you take it. If the answer to only the first two is yes, try anyway.

Best of luck to you!