FlightWay / Careers / Correctional Officers and Jailers

Law

Correctional Officers and Jailers

Guard inmates in penal or rehabilitative institutions in accordance with established regulations and procedures.

Sector: Law
Preparation: Zone 2 — some preparation needed
O*NET code: 33-3012.00

What you'll actually do

The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.

Making Decisions and Solving Problems

a major part of the work — rated 84/100 for importance.
Resolving Conflicts and Negotiating with Others

a major part of the work — rated 80/100 for importance.
Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates

a major part of the work — rated 80/100 for importance.
Documenting/Recording Information

a major part of the work — rated 78/100 for importance.
Getting Information

a major part of the work — rated 76/100 for importance.
Training and Teaching Others

a major part of the work — rated 74/100 for importance.

Guard inmates in penal or rehabilitative institutions in accordance with established regulations and procedures. May guard prisoners in transit between jail, courtroom, prison, or other point. Includes deputy sheriffs and police who spend the majority of their time guarding prisoners in correctional institutions.

What it takes

Two numbers per line: the level the work expects, and how important it is to doing the job well. Both are O*NET ratings, already on a 0–100 scale.

Skills

Monitoring

Needed at a solid working level (54/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Social Perceptiveness

Needed at a solid working level (54/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Active Listening

Needed at a solid working level (50/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Speaking

Needed at a solid working level (50/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
Critical Thinking

Needed at a solid working level (52/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.

Knowledge

Public Safety and Security

Needed at a solid working level (56/100), and rated 79/100 for importance.
English Language

Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Law and Government

Needed at a solid working level (55/100), and rated 70/100 for importance.
Customer and Personal Service

Needed at a high level (60/100), and rated 63/100 for importance.

Abilities

Problem Sensitivity

Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Oral Comprehension

Needed at a solid working level (55/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Oral Expression

Needed at a solid working level (55/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Inductive Reasoning

Needed at a solid working level (54/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.

How people get in

O*NET places this occupation in Zone 2 — some preparation needed. That is a statement about what employers typically require, not a rule about you.

Education

A high-school diploma is the usual starting point.

Experience

Some prior work experience helps but is rarely required.

Training

Expect a few months to a year of on-the-job training.

What it pays

These are typical law compensation bands by employer tier — sector-level figures, not a measured salary for Correctional Officers and Jailers specifically. Treat them as the shape of the market, then check a real posting for the number.

BigLaw (Cravath Scale)

$215k – $500k+

Regional Law Firms

$90k – $160k

Solo & Small Practices

$55k – $100k

How the work tends to run

Each line below is read off a single O*NET activity rating for this occupation — named, so you can disagree with it.

Most of the day happens at a screen.From “Working with Computers”
The work is physical — you are on your feet and handling things, not sitting still.From “Performing General Physical Activities”
Part of the job is other people’s output, not only your own.From “Coordinating the Work and Activities of Others”
You own decisions rather than execute someone else’s.From “Making Decisions and Solving Problems”
Rules and standards are checkable and someone checks them.From “Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards”

How FlightWay scores your fit against this

No black box. Here is the whole method, factor by factor.

1. You answer a short quiz: Your answers build a profile across the same 161 O*NET dimensions this page is describing — skills, knowledge, abilities and work activities. Same axes, so the comparison is like-for-like.
2. We correlate the two profiles: Fit is a mean-centered cosine — a correlation between the SHAPE of your profile and the shape of Correctional Officers and Jailers. Centering matters: raw similarity between any two occupations sits at 0.70–0.85 because all work shares a common profile, so without it every career would look like a match.
3. The number you see is personality fit only: "Would I want this work" and "am I ready for this work" are different questions, and averaging them answers neither. So readiness — what your résumé, coursework and projects prove — is scored separately and shown next to fit, never blended into it.
4. Every factor is visible: You can open any match and see which dimensions pushed it up and which pulled it down. If you disagree with the number, you can see exactly where it came from.

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See your fit for Correctional Officers and Jailers

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Occupational data on this page comes from the O*NET 30.3 Database, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET is a registered trademark of USDOL/ETA. FlightWay is not endorsed by, and USDOL/ETA is not responsible for, anything built on that data — see our terms. What is ours is the comparison, the score and the plan.