What can I learn from all of this?
Good morning! Can you believe that it’s already August? While my husband and kids are getting ready to go back to school, I’m in the middle of what I lovingly refer to as “deco-season.”
If you’re new to the newsletter, check out my blog Life Stories of a Death Investigator at www.forensicsfound.com. You can learn more about the normal path to an abnormal job and all the things I’ve learned along the way.
When we moved our family to our current location, I found a job as a part time on-call investigator for a state office. After about two years, a full time position became available at another state medical examiner office and I was in! I presented the chief with a trauma analysis case report I’d worked on a RICO case in New Jersey. While my experience at medical examiner’s offices would have been enough to get the job, highlighting my extra knowledge and skills sealed the deal.
Never forget to advocate for yourself during the interview process – you are NOT bragging – this is a chance for you to shine a light on you and all of the wonderful things you can bring. Many medical examiners and coroners offices do not have Forensic Anthropology postings or titles but the more we use our those skills in front of forensic pathologists, the more jobs there will be in the future. When you gain their trust by proving our worth, you lay the groundwork for future anthropologists!
I quickly learned that this full time job would not be like my last one.
My last office had an overnight shift, which I lovingly avoided unless I wanted some overtime.
In this office, you rotated call overnight and on weekends, which meant answering my cell phone while I was sleeping and then leaving my bed to jump in my work truck.
My last office had a livery service, which meant waiting (sometimes for hours) for someone else to come and remove the decedent from whatever crazy position they’d died in.
In this office, I did that.
My last office had forensic photographers and morgue technicians who were a one-stop-shop after the body arrived in the morgue.
In this office, I weighed the bodies, checked them in, photographed them and their personal effects, helped eviscerate and tag evidence, called the funeral homes, and so on.
It took some time to get used to the new system. I talked about New Jersey a lot in the early days, trying to make sense of the differences, good and bad. I was probably annoying about it but I was processing the change. In the end, I started to find the gift in the “new way” of doing things. I like to think of call shifts as a bad boyfriend – in the beginning I loved not having to sit in the office on weekends. I liked being the one and only person everyone went to for questions and response. I actually liked removing the decedent’s myself; I didn’t have to wait for anyone else, I felt like Superman when EMS wore their breathing apparatuses, and I had no other choice but to be hands on.
But this is the office where I crashed and burned out. Looking back, I know now that I was set up to fail. I know it’s not my fault; that I didn’t have the tools to handle that much. So over the past three years, I’ve created the tools people like us need to thrive in jobs like those. Next week – I’ll start to share them!
(If you’d like to learn more now, check out a recording of my live webinar from Thursday)
Kat
