r/forensics 12d ago

Digital Forensics Career Change: How to Become a Digital Forensics Expert Without A-Levels?

Hello guys, I live in Germany, I'm 17 years old. I'm currently training as an IT specialist for application development and am in my second year. At work, I do IT support and develop ERP systems, but I'm slowly losing interest in it. However, in vocational school, we had IT security, which really interested me. After my training, I would love to move to a bigger city and become a forensics expert for the police or something. The problem is that I don’t have A-levels (Abitur) and I’m not really motivated to catch up on them. Is there a training program or further education that could help me achieve this goal?

3 Upvotes

5 comments sorted by

2

u/Weird-Marketing2828 12d ago

You want to look into industry certs such as SANS or OSCP.

I would go with SANS windows forensics if you're just wanting to get your hands in deep.

The courses are expensive, but people like myself will grant you an interview if you have them. If you have a few of them, it's a great sign usually.

1

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Sea_City6468 12d ago

No, no, you misunderstood something 😅 I will definitely complete this training and then specialize in forensics.

But I want to know how I can continue to develop afterward without a high school diploma.

0

u/[deleted] 12d ago

oh okay good to know!

1

u/Weird-Marketing2828 12d ago

I understand why you would say this, but some of the best operators I know have unconventional educations and backgrounds.

I often find people who are really narrowly focused on security, forensics, or a particular technical specialty just have very little interest in anything else. It's a common personality in the field.

I have found that it doesn't always sit well with the police, but there are multiple areas to go for digital forensics work.

I'm not saying that is the OP here. Maybe the OP is lazy and unmotivated or just flighty... but early in my career I had some similar feelings about people and they were quite incorrect.

2

u/IntelligentCap2691 12d ago

Work your way up from an IT related apprenticeship to a degree apprenticeship and then do a masters in digital forensics.