Going Beyond the Glossy

As someone who has spoken at a number of UK Universities during the last eight years and worked with numerous new forensic graduates, I was interested to see Eric Huber's thoughts about academic courses in the forensic area.

In his blog, Eric Huber uses the classic John Lydon line from January 1978, 'ever feel you've been cheated' to open his piece about the variable quality of Forensic academic courses.  Rather worryingly, Eric states that in his experience many Forensic students - even with masters degrees -  are:

"unfit for purpose for entry level positions much less for positions that require a senior skill level."

As a recruiter in this field, I have to agree with Eric.  In fact, there are some Employers I know who won't even consider interviewing students from certain Universities due to the perceived poor quality of the course.

Eric continues that the blame rarely lies with the students but with the people running the courses:

"It’s almost universal that programs who have professors who do not have a digital forensics background are turning out students who don’t understand digital forensics. This seems like an obvious and intuitive statement, but given how many digital forensics programs there are who are being lead and taught by unqualified people, it apparently isn’t obvious enough."

In the final paragraph of his blog, Eric concludes with some great advice:

"We are in a time where there are many fine academic programs available to aspiring digital forensics people who wish to learn digital forensics and launch successful careers. Unfortunately, there are more bad programs than good ones. It’s vital if you are going to spend the time and money getting an education that you don’t get cheated. It’s your life and your responsibility to look beyond the glossy promotional material and make sure you are trusting the right people to get you where you want to go."