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Career Choices
Any person of at least average intelligence will note that most distance education (distance learning, correspondence) organizations selling private investigation courses seem to "talk down" to the prospective customer.
They seem to assume that the person reading their website or promotional material is naïve, immature or of below average intelligence.
Despite these questionable marketing tactics, there is an element of truth in what they say. Private investigation can be exciting and can involve the investigator in some highly unusual and secretive activities.
For the most part, however, the best adjective to describe the work would be "interesting". The people you meet are often interesting, the problems presented by the various cases are often interesting, and the activities the investigator is involved in to successfully conclude these cases are often interesting. If you do not relish a 9 to 5 office job, or the repetitive work on an assembly line, then a career in private investigation may be the answer.
It is often asked…does a person have to have an aptitude for investigation work to be successful at it, or can anyone be trained to be successful? For the most successful investigators, probably a little of both is required.
Generally speaking, someone who has the interest and motivation to seek training in investigation work probably already has an aptitude for the work. If they had no aptitude, they wouldn't be seeking employment or training in this field.
Without question, the most important requirement to be a successful private investigator is training. You wouldn't expect a doctor, lawyer or police officer to be competent in performing their duties without adequate training and the private investigator, of course, is no exception.
Opportunities for private investigators are growing all the time. In most areas, the police have such an overwhelming workload, and are so understaffed, that they can only attend to the most important and urgent matters. This leaves a large field of opportunity for the private investigator. If a company, for example, is experiencing a great deal of internal thefts, most police forces will not even attempt to investigate these crimes.
One of the most prevalent crimes that occurs, on a daily basis, is insurance fraud.
Tens of thousands of claims are submitted to insurance companies every week, a large
portion of which are fraudulent. Very few of these frauds will be investigated by any
law enforcement agency so the insurance companies have no choice but to employ
private investigators.
Every medium and large size private investigation company is seeking good employees who are capable of doing what is required of them. They experience high turnover due to a severe shortage of trained and capable persons. The person who is trained and capable of doing the job can experience excellent job security.
Many people enter the private investigation field for the purpose of becoming self-employed. There are many opportunities for the enterprising private investigator who wishes to control his or her own destiny. It is usually best to obtain a year or two experience before forming your own company, but many people have been successful going into business for themselves immediately upon completing a basic training course when their training included information on how to start and operate their own company.
It is tempting to list all the areas in which a private investigator can find employment, however, that is almost an impossible task. Each person who phones or enters your office may present an investigation and a problem never encountered before.
The following is a short list of work opportunities for private investigators. Be aware, however, that this list is far from complete: