Working as a private investigator is an exciting and rewarding prospect. But be under no illusions, there are many difficult aspects of the job. Coupled with the excitement, there can also be a lot of boredom sitting on stakeouts or sifting through documents. You don’t necessarily deal with happy people all the time, on the contrary. It can also be a very seasonal job, with irregular hours and income.
Before you even begin the process, you need to decide whether it’s really for you. You need to ask yourself a lot of questions. Later in the book I’ll go through a ‘typical’ day which will give you some idea of what to expect.
In the meantime, have a look at these questions and honestly answer with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
- You prefer to work normal daytime hours, and you like to be able to go home from work, switch your phone off and not have to think about it until the next day.
- You can’t afford to take a pay cut, and you certainly couldn’t go for a few months without any income while you get trained.
- You don’t like to have uncomfortable conversations with people, and you don’t like confrontation.
- You like a steady paycheck; you like to know exactly how much you’re going to earn each month.
- You get bored easily and you don’t like waiting. You couldn’t sit in car for a few hours with potentially nothing happening.
- You don’t like writing reports.
- You don’t have very good attention to detail.
- You always like to feel safe and comfortable. You don’t like any risk.
If you said ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you need to think seriously about whether this is the right career for you. It’s not an automatic disqualification, but if you can’t find a way to turn that ‘yes’ into a ‘no’, then you’re going to have a difficult time of it.
If you honestly said ‘no’ to most, or all of the questions, then congratulations, you’re ready to take the next step.
Interested in private investigation? I publish a regular newsletter: https://kurtbreetvelt.substack.com
I wrote a book on how to become a PI: https://bit.ly/3ifm474