Adult probation officers supervise offenders completing their probation time. They use various techniques to monitor their clients and liaise between members of the court and the offenders.
As a probation officer, it will be your job to check on your clients regularly in person or by phone. You will have to track their progress in finding a job and stabilizing their living situations. You will be the one making sure they abide by the rules of their probation, such as not leaving the state and other similar restrictions.
You will create reports tracking the probationers' progress and make sure they understand their probation terms. You will recommend rehabilitation plans and provide support to the people under your watch to reach their goals by motivating them not to give up.
Adult Probation Officer Overview
Adult Probation Officer Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an adult probation officer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.45 an hour? That's $42,543 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 3,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Adult Probation Officer Do
There are certain skills that many adult probation officers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, emotional stability and organizational skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an adult probation officer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 13.5% of adult probation officers included caseload, while 12.2% of resumes included court proceedings, and 6.6% of resumes included treatment plans. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the adult probation officer job title. But what industry to start with? Most adult probation officers actually find jobs in the health care and non profits industries.
How To Become an Adult Probation Officer
If you're interested in becoming an adult probation officer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 58.4% of adult probation officers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 32.8% of adult probation officers have master's degrees. Even though most adult probation officers have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an adult probation officer. When we researched the most common majors for an adult probation officer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on adult probation officer resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an adult probation officer. In fact, many adult probation officer jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many adult probation officers also have previous career experience in roles such as juvenile probation officer or correction officer.
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Adult Probation Officer Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, an adult probation officer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as case manager, progress to a title such as clinical supervisor and then eventually end up with the title clinical director.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for an Adult Probation Officer
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Lake County Health Dept Adult Probation Officer (Pretrial Field) Adult Probation Officer (Pretrial Field) | Lake County Health Dept Lake County Health Dept | 01/21/2021 01/21/2021 | $45,23501/21/2021 $45,235 |
Lake County Il Adult Probation Officer (Pretrial Field) Adult Probation Officer (Pretrial Field) | Lake County Il Lake County Il | 01/21/2021 01/21/2021 | $45,23501/21/2021 $45,235 |
Lake County, Illinois Adult Probation Officer (Pretrial Field) Adult Probation Officer (Pretrial Field) | Lake County, Illinois Lake County, Illinois | 01/20/2021 01/20/2021 | $45,23501/20/2021 $45,235 |
State of Wyoming Soap-00069-Adult Probation Officer-Statewide Soap-00069-Adult Probation Officer-Statewide | State of Wyoming State of Wyoming | 01/20/2021 01/20/2021 | $48,91901/20/2021 $48,919 |
Indy gov Probation Officer-Adult Casework Probation Officer-Adult Casework | Indy gov Indy gov | 01/13/2021 01/13/2021 | $36,33401/13/2021 $36,334 |
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Top Colleges for Adult Probation Officers
1. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Public
2. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Public
3. University of Washington
Seattle, WA • Public
4. University of South Florida
Tampa, FL • Public
5. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Public
6. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Public
7. Howard University
Washington, DC • Private
8. SUNY at Albany
Albany, NY • Public
9. San Jose State University
San Jose, CA • Public
10. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
Top Skills For an Adult Probation Officer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 13.5% of adult probation officers listed caseload on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and emotional stability are important as well.
- Caseload, 13.5%
- Court Proceedings, 12.2%
- Treatment Plans, 6.6%
- Mental Health, 6.5%
- Successful Completion, 4.9%
- Other Skills, 56.3% See All Adult Probation Officer Skills
Best States For an Adult Probation Officer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an adult probation officer. The best states for people in this position are New York, Arizona, Alaska, and New Jersey. Adult probation officers make the most in New York with an average salary of $56,255. Whereas in Arizona and Alaska, they would average $48,702 and $46,985, respectively. While adult probation officers would only make an average of $46,591 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Arizona
$48,702
Avg. Salary
2. North Dakota
$46,453
Avg. Salary
3. New York
$56,255
Avg. Salary