Cop Overview
Cop Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a cop. For example, did you know that they make an average of $54.93 an hour? That's $114,260 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 37,500 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Cop Do
There are certain skills that many cops 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, empathy and good judgment.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a cop, we found that a lot of resumes listed 29.5% of cops included market conditions, while 23.0% of resumes included situational awareness, and 20.2% of resumes included control systems. 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 cop job title. But what industry to start with? Most cops actually find jobs in the health care and government industries.
How To Become a Cop
If you're interested in becoming a cop, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 45.5% of cops have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 9.1% of cops have master's degrees. Even though most cops have a college degree, it's possible 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 a cop. When we researched the most common majors for a cop, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on cop resumes include master's degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a cop. In fact, many cop jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many cops also have previous career experience in roles such as internship or reporter.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
Cop 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, a cop can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as manager, progress to a title such as project manager and then eventually end up with the title service delivery manager.
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.
Top Skills For a Cop
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, 29.5% of cops listed market conditions on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and empathy are important as well.
- Market Conditions, 29.5%
- Situational Awareness, 23.0%
- Control Systems, 20.2%
- Gccs, 12.7%
- Climate, 5.9%
- Other Skills, 8.7% See All Cop Skills