Although not all places require schooling, it’s important to obtain the …show more content…
Personal characteristics are embodiment of an individual and our natural habits. These skills include: organization, attention to detail, flexibility, adaptability (Lon 2). Also, a person needs to be a team player. Organization and paying attention to detail is an important characteristic of a probation officer because of all the paperwork and different cases a person will be handling. At court, judges expect all the paperwork to be ready and organized. Flexibility and adaptability are related; a probation officer must be able to work in different environments and with a lot of different people (McKay 1). Being able to work with others and groups well is another personal characteristic needed for the job. Probation officers spend a lot of time at a court, with families and with the offender (Probation 3). Rarely are they alone and even when they are there 's still people at the office and bosses (Alpert 1). If someone doesn’t have the personal characteristics for this job, it would be difficult to accomplish everything …show more content…
As a probation officer the person 's job is to focus on the offender 's behavior and what programs would best fit them. For this job, people should dig a little deeper as to why the offender committed a crime and what can be done to help this person out. Having “strong moral/ethical character, demonstrating fairness, and having emotional stability and psychological soundness” (Lon 1) are all crucial to being an effective probation officer and helping them psychologically. Someone who doesn’t have the key characteristics isn’t going to be able to get through to someone easily. To help someone psychologically make better decisions, the probation officer needs to be a good person themselves. Showing fairness shows the offender everyone has to follow these rules and that you aren’t above them (Probation 5). Earning trust from the offender is essential to having an effective relationship with the