Student Officer Sam Egdell

When I was younger, I always thought I would end up following in my dad’s footsteps and join the military. I knew I wanted a role where I could make a difference and help people.

After sixth form I ended up going to an international beauty school. It wasn’t what I thought I would do but it led to a great career, running my own beauty therapy business in the UK and Cyprus, as well as working in spas on cruise ships. I also did some freelance makeup work for Rankin Film and at London Fashion Week. After having my daughter seven years ago, I qualified as a tutor and became a trainer for several skincare brands and MenoHealth, supporting women during menopause.

I took some time away from beauty therapy and went to work in financial services. I really enjoyed the challenge, especially the fraud investigations, but returned to beauty therapy after four years to fit around family life.

After Covid, things in the beauty and wellness industry just weren’t the same and I didn’t feel I was being challenged enough. I have always been very inquisitive and loved watching 24 Hours in Police Custody, and having previously worked in investigations I knew there was something else I needed to be doing. I was having lunch with my mum, and she could see I wasn’t happy, so we chatted about what I wanted to do. I remembered really enjoying psychology and criminology in sixth form and we started looking at roles in the police. I found the accelerated detective programme and knew instantly that I wanted to apply so I went to an open day to get a better idea of what to expect and joined in February 2023.

Initially, I was worried that I would be too old to join at 35 and, being a single parent, I had a lot of worries around childcare. These were soon put at ease after speaking to the training team and other parents on our cohort.

The programme is fantastic, we have had so much support from our trainers and staff. I love going to work and feel very lucky to be part of a great cohort of trainees. I have made some great friends and everyone has been so helpful. We’ve been fortunate to have had the chance to take part in several local exercises and have had some great presentations from lots of different departments in the force. At times it has been hard adjusting to the new role, juggling home life, taking on lots of new information, as well as exams, but it’s given me so much confidence.

While it is going to be challenging, I feel like I’ve made the right choice and wish I’d done it sooner. I’ve learnt a lot about myself, and no two days are the same. I think the biggest challenge is going to be revising for the National Investigators’ Exam while working on response policing, but I am really looking forward to getting out there, before going on to investigations, and can’t wait to see where the programme takes me.