Getting a job is how you avoid living the rest of your life surviving on baked beans and rainwater.

It’s also a life-affirming, fun time, providing you enter the right job for you. The Insiders is your passport to what some of the most popular careers are really like.

From Teacher to Police Officer to Doctors, and more, we give you the lowdown on the highs and lows of the job, with need-to-know insights from those on the inside.

These guides, and the accompanying Insiders show, are your first step into the arena of work, and about a million times more helpful than an apathetic chat with any careers adviser.

Let’s go to work! Are you ready to be in the frontline in the fight against crime? Do you think you can handle a tough, unpredictable job that gets little thanks from much of the community? If so, you’ll be helping to make the lives of those around you happier and safer. It’s potentially the most rewarding thing you’ll ever do and, frankly, we salute you.

Police officer get work experience. Many police forces around the country run established work experience schemes and placements for a number of different roles, from an Administration Assistant to training with the Forces Physical Training Instructor.

This is looked upon favorably when you go through the full application procedure. Police wages, although not terrible, are not high. While your mates might go on to earn big money at a relatively early age, you will be on a pay scale that can take a while to increase. The starting pay is around £21,534 a year, but after the initial training (roughly six months) your pay goes up to £24,039.

The top amount you can earn as a PC is £32,985 a year (but this takes many years to achieve), top pay as a sergeant is £37,071, an inspector’s top pay is £45,843 and a chief inspector’s top pay is £48,705. The final salary pension is pretty good though.

Although there are no longer any minimum or maximum height requirements for police officers, you are still expected to have a reasonable level of fitness. The fitness tests vary slightly from force to force and you can retake them up to three times if you fail, but they usually entail a shuttle run/bleep test and pulling and pushing exercises. For obvious reasons, those with criminal convictions are unlikely to be recruited as police officers.

That said, you may still be eligible if you have minor convictions or cautions. Your chosen local police force can advise further on this. Finance problems, bad debt, IVAs and bankruptcy will also result in applications being rejected until they are cleared off.

Your current employer, if you have one, will also be contacted for an in-depth reference. If you have tattoos on your hands, neck, forearms or face, then it’s best if you look for another profession.

No one wants a bloke with swallows on his neck and ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’ on his hands telling them that their cat’s been run over. training.

There are no minimum educational requirements for joining the police service, although applicants will have to display good skills in English, maths and verbal reasoning. Comprehensive details of the six-step application process can be found here: It’s also worth looking at buying an advice pack that will help you through the recruitment process.

The recommended advice can be bought here: More details of the requirements for your local police force are here: five top tips for success with the police service.
learn to budget.
get fit.
keep your nose clean.
don’t get inked.

www.policeoracle.com/careers/how_to_become_a_police_officer.html www.patrolstore.com/How-2-Become---A-UK-Police-Officer-p-10439.html?affiliate=149 www.police.uk/forces.htm