Exciting Private Investigation Profession?

Is the private investigation field exciting? Yes, in it's own right. The PI profession offers a huge variety of specializations. Common examples are background checks, surveillance and stake outs, infidelity among couples (and not necessarily man and woman) legal investigations, computer forensics, locating missing persons, wrongful deaths, child custody cases, counter intelligence, business intelligence and due diligence, defense and criminal investigations and the list goes on. Now is the PI field exciting like one sees on television. The answer is hardly. First clue, it’s only TV or the movies that makes these assignments glamorous. This is not to say there are never times when your heart is pounding because you’ re prowling around in the middle of the night and might be discovered “spying”. But for the most part, the excitement is derived from the variety of assignments and the thrill of taking a case to a successful conclusion. That’s where the thrill comes. But even “successful conclusions” can be elusive in the private investigation business.
Many times, the case is not cut and dry. You have obtained some bits of information for your client, but perhaps either you or the client expected not all that. But, there is always the challenge of the next assignment that gets you going again.

A few Characteristics of a good private investigator.

Private investigation is a fascinating field that attracts a wide variety of talent into its profession. The fact is many investigators advertise a huge number of specialties they profess to have expertise in, but in fact, they lack the true knowledge to get the job done. Many investigators are excellent in only several specialties, bearing in mind that the skills needed in specialties do overlap. However, it is difficult to make a case for a forensic computer expert, based upon an investigators expertise in finding missing persons. For my agency, one of the most important criteria for selecting a “new hire investigator” is the “talent” or hobby that he has a passion for. A 22 year old with no real investigative experience may be a dynamite surveillance guy with a camera. Insurance companies and worker’s compensation cases require good photography ability, to capture on video or still photos a 90% disabled man carrying bricks in his backyard. But other factors enter into the characteristics of a good private investigator. In this case, if the guy has excellent photography skills, but is ADD, we have problems. Insurance investigations will surely need an investigator who can spend hours on end waiting in a parked car for the target to leave his home, maybe at 3AM in the morning. I will discuss more desirable cartelistic of a good investigator later.