Private Eye Detective Careers
When thinking about private detectives, you usually picture the glamorous and exciting lives of Sam Spade or Mike Hammer. In real life, the life of a private eye isn’t always quite as exciting but it still can be a very interesting and rewarding career path.
Who should be a private eye?
Being a detective is all about seeking the truth, and truth is found from the preponderance of evidence. Collecting evidence is all about being patient and meticulousness throughout your investigation. A person who could spend hours doing puzzles, riddles and researching would enjoy detective work.
Furthermore, to be a successful private eye, you must be extremely calm under pressure. If you tend to be emotional and get attached to people easily, this line of work isn’t for you. You will be dealing with many highly emotional situations such as cheating spouses and child custody disputes.
Education
The educational background of a private eye varies but it’s desirable to have some sort of security, police or military background. This is due to the highly emotional situations that will bring some risk of bodily harm; “getting the dirt” on people isn’t going to make them feel kindly towards you and retaliation is a possibility. You should be emotionally and physically prepared for that contingency.
However, not all private investigation involves following people around. Some P.I.’s specialize in computer forensics, which is mostly recovering data off a computer. Obviously, this sort of work would require extensive computer training. Still other investigators exclusively analyze financial fraud for private companies; for this assignment you will need a CPA or other financial experience.
Expenses
Many private eyes are self-employed; therefore, they need to purchase their own surveillance equipment such as a computer with Internet, cell phone, printer, high-quality camera with zoom lens, low-profile car for stealth surveillance and possibly a registered weapon for self-defense purposes.