After a lifelong plan to join the police force, undertaking a placement with Victoria Police was the obvious choice for Olga Chatzigiannis. ‘On placement I was mainly observing police work. I moved around with different officers and departments, mainly observing. I helped with a couple of witness reports where the officer interviewed the witness and took notes and I entered it into the system,’ she says.
Having this inside view of policing was life-changing for Olga in ways that she didn’t expect. ‘I actually thought it would be completely different,’ she says. ‘It was my dream since I was a little girl to join the police force but during my placement I realised that policing is not the right career for me. We were in the storage room with guns and other equipment and after some discussions with the officers I realised that I’m not the right person to use force on others.’
While this discovery was upsetting at first, the placement opened new doors for Olga. ‘If I didn’t have this opportunity I would have pursued a career that I didn’t like,’ she says. ‘I’m still interested in the idea of being an unsworn member of Victoria Police and working with storage of property, guns, drugs and evidence for court. I’m also very keen to work in offender rehabilitation, with a career in Child Protection as my back-up.’
Olga says she thinks all criminology students should pursue work experience: ‘You get opportunity to build your skills and knowledge and gain an insight into the industry that you are interested in so you can decide from there whether it is the right career for you.’
Read more about students’ criminology work experience.
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