Probation Officer Duties

Probation officers get assigned to offenders that got out of going to jail, and sentenced to probation by the court. The officers focus is to help rehabilitate the offenders, and prevent recidivism. The work could be dangerous depending on the probationer, and the area that the officer is sent to work in. On the job, they have many different responsibilities. They generally are assigned many probationers at a single time. They interview the offenders that they are assigned to, and monitor their progress. They’ll set up programs for the probationer to attend depending on their needs, and the courts sentencing. They’ll keep case folders, and write reports about the progress the offender is making. Probation officers will do random checkups on
their probationers to make sure that they are staying out of trouble, and meeting the guidelines of their probation. Also, depending on the situation, the officer will administer random drug, and alcohol tests to make sure the offender is not breaking the rules of their probation either.
The general education level for the people that work in this field is a bachelor’s degree. There was a small percentage of people with a master’s degree, and with some college, or no degree. Some of the majors that could apply to this job are psychology, criminal justice, criminology, or sociology. These jobs require a significant amount of training, and prefer some sort of related experience. The median wage for this job in 2015 was $23.14 an hour, and $49,360 annually. It looks like the projected growth of these jobs are slower than what the national average is. There is projected to be a 2%-4% growth between 2014-2024, and 21,300 job openings.
This career has a lot of basic skills that match with the ones that I already have. Some of them are speaking, writing, reading comprehension, service orientation, problem solving, decision making, and listening. It also has some that I would need to work on like negotiating, and persuading. It matches my interests of doing something in the criminal justice field,

communicating with others, and helping others. I can learn more about this career probably at the Pomerantz Career Center at the University of Iowa, and on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website.
I think that there are parts of this job that fits with my MBTI type of INFP. It fits with the concepts of communication and one-on-one relationships. Also, it works with the idea of having a service job that helps people. I’ve read that it is a high risk/high stress job, which doesn’t go with my personality type. Also, this job usually gives you a significant number of clients to work with at one time, whereas mediators are to focus their attention on only a few. It is difficult for a mediator to find a perfect job, so this may be as close to perfect as I could get.
My interest code has one piece that fits in with this job, and that’s social.
The code for this job is social, enterprising, and conventional (SEC). Enterprising occupations includes doing a job from start to finish. They lead people to make many decisions, and require some risk taking. Conventional occupations involve the worker to follow a set of procedures, and routines to complete their job. The work includes working with data and details, and less with ideas. My interest code is social, realistic, and investigative (SRI). Realistic occupations are more hands on, with work outside, and does not include a lot of paperwork or working with others. Investigative occupations involve lots of ideas, and requires you to think. Realistic and investigative do not seem to match up with this job. Especially investigative, because it seems to be the opposite of
conventional.
This job particularly interested me, because it’s like being a case worker for offenders. I like how it’s sort of the opposite of a police officer. The police take someone to jail, and the probation officer helps them not return to the same situation that they were in before. I think that

this job could take a toll on you emotionally just like other jobs including social work. Although, I think this work could really make me feel like I’m making a difference in people’s lives. I’ve always been more interested in the corrections side of criminal justice, but I still can’t quite figure out if I can see myself doing a job in it. I like the fact that each day would never be the same as the one before, and that you’re always interacting and meeting new people. But it also sounds like it would be more like an indoor desk job, which I do not prefer. This job has many factors that draws me in towards it, and that pushes me away from it.
I’m probably not going to pursue this career any further immediately.
My next steps to figure out if this would be a career that fits me is to take some classes offered by the University of Iowa next semester. I’ve done some research on some of the classes that they offer, and they offer a fair number of corrections classes for their criminal justice major. Also, they offer a wide array of different internships that I could utilize. They have some that deal with corrections, and others that deal with social services. So maybe I could try one of each, I could get some important experience. If I utilize all the classes, and internships opportunities at the University of Iowa, then I should start getting a good idea of what direction I want to go in. Also during that time, I should be able to meet a lot of new people that are familiar with the job, and maybe get some new references or connections as well. I liked this essay, because it made me look deeper into this job than what I’ve previously done. I’ve always thought that this could be an interesting job to have, but I never took the time to research
it.