Digital Forensic Analyst Review

I did not enjoy my experience with the SFO. I was not given much work to do that increased my skills or learning, which was the point in the placement. I spent a lot of days not doing anything just browsing the internet or playing games. This was not due to lack of me asking for work.

The majority of the staff I worked with were lovely and were the only thing that made the experience bearable. However there is a high turnover of staff due to the office politics and staff dissatisfaction.

I had two managers. One was great and asked me what sort of thing I was hoping to gain experience with and worked with me to achieve my personal goals. However for the majority of the time I had a different manager who barely gave me any work to do or if he did it was menial tasks that no one else wanted to do which in no way increased my learning. I had several meetings in which I expressed my concerns and a plan was put in place as to how they could be rectified, however the plans were never followed.

For the majority of the time I sat around playing on my phone or otherwise being given tasks merely as a way to stop me asking for work rather than to expand my knowledge in any way.

Everything I did had to be supervised, even tasks I had been doing for ages. This was in part due to external regulations, however there was not a lot of effort to find other things for me to do around this which in any way assisted my learning. At times I felt like a child who needed constant supervision and couldn't be trusted to do even the simplest tasks.

I did not learn anything I didn't already know or that I couldn't have picked up elsewhere.

Fairly low morale generally due to the poor management and awful office politics.

Very poorly. Having done nothing constructive for 2 months I asked my manager for a plan for the remainder of my placement with regard to what I could expect to achieve. I was ignored for 3 days while he wrote up a plan and then I was told I should have received it at the start of the placement. I got the impression a plan was only made when I had pushed for it. Several higher up staff left during my placement which meant there was more work to be done and less people available to oversee my work, therefore I was actively told I could not have work when I asked for it as there was no one to watch me. Staff leaving could not have been foreseen, however no contingency plan was put in place for this circumstance and even when another member of staff tried to organise a meeting with managers to discuss this prior to the staff leaving he was ignored.

I had a few introductions to different departments but other than that there has been none.

I will never work here again.

I have made some very good friends and will be sad to say goodbye to them. They are the only thing that it has been worth continuing my placement for.

Very expensive as it is in central London!

I didn't go out really because I was too tired and down from work and just wanted to go to bed. There are lots of nice bars and restaurants though so the availability is there.

There were a few quizzes etc throughout the year which were good fun.