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Requirements for Becoming a Private Investigator

As a private investigator you will be working with individuals, attorneys, and a variety of businesses to find and analyze different information.  You will be responsible for discovering certain facts regarding financial, legal and personal matters. But private investigators also offer several services not just restricted to finding information.  Investigators may provide protection for celebrities and corporate executives, perform individual background profiles and do pre-employment verification.  Not to mention you may also find yourself working for someone's wife/husband to uncover infidelity. 

Here are the steps to become a Private Investigator:

  • Ideally, you'll want to have a military or law enforcement background. Others have college degrees in business, criminal justice education or political science. They are your competition for jobs. You can instantly receive free information from an accredited universities by selecting a school in the list at the bottom of the page.
  • You will need to enroll in a detective school if you don't have any of the experience. You'll be taught the skills that a private investigator needs to have, including fingerprinting, taking samples of evidence, write reports and the use of particular firearms.
  • Constantly work on your writing skills. Since you'll be frequently writing reports, you'll want to hone in the skills necessary to improve your writing
  • Become familiar with searches such as Lexis-Nexis. This skill can be your entry into working for a professional firm.
  • Since most states require a license, you'll need to apply for one through your local local police department or a local detective agency.

Work hours are very often irregular, and sometimes dangerous.  Early morning, weekend, nights, and holidays are usually common working days.  Most of a private investigators work is done through a computer, as in recovering deleted e-mails or documents but a computer is sometimes a private investigators best friend.  You may search for records of someone's prior arrests, telephone numbers, motor vehicle registrations, clubs memberships, even photographs.  There will be times though that will require you to perform physical searches and surveillance.  Visiting a persons workplace to verify employment may be one of these tasks.

Select a Private Investigator Training Program