Got to agree with Shortty; I've done twenty years in the job and worked hard to be where I am but would give it all up for something that payed better. The Job itself is good and your colleagues become friends, but the petty politics ruins it. The Thinkers upset the Doers. I would never dissuade someone for joining, but would urge against the idealistic notion that you can change the world and make a difference to the bigger picture. If you join, take for what it is; it pays the mortgage and the CSA. Thirty years ago, being a police officer was a vocation. Then came Edmond Davies and the huge pay increase. Twenty years ago this was a career (I always expected to do thirty). Now it's a job. Peope come in and leave within five years, because they don't like the discipline and they don't like the way the public treat them and they don't like the seedier aspects of the work.
And you don't get rank straight off. There is a process, and it makes no sense at all.
Apart from that; enjoy!