Employment at Sherlock Investigations

Because Sherlock Investigations receives so many inquiries about working here, I posted a special section on our web site dealing only with jobs. I don't think it made the impression that I had hoped for, as we still get applications from people who have no specific skills.

First of all, if you really don't know a lot about private investigations, I strongly recommend that you go to www.amazon.com and order former FBI agent Steven Kerry Brown's excellent book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Private Investigation. (Mr. Brown should give us a commission for all the people we send his way.)

The people we hire have unique specialties. For example, one member of our surveillance team is a professional photographer and filmmaker. We can always count on him getting the money shot. (His identity will remain anonymous.)

Another investigator, Ruby Moore, specializes in locating people. She got into this almost by accident over a family matter. Soon, she was locating people for family and friends. When Ruby came to Sherlock Investigations, she was a seasoned veteran.

Rian Mitchell has played with computers since he was a kid. He's an Internet and email pioneer. He know computers and communications inside and out. Rian can trace email, hunt down fraudulent sellers on eBay, locate cyberstalkers, and provide electronic security. And, as they say on TV, "But wait, there's more...!" (For another time.)

Other members of our staff have the ability to convince people to tell them things. There is always someone who knows the information a client seeks. The trick is finding that person, and then getting them to tell.

Librarians and researchers have become excellent private investigators. Being able to track down information, whether on a business or a person, is invaluable in this business.

Many private investigators are ex-police officers, but the only area that we use ex-police officers in is surveillance. This is because we can handle the few criminal cases we have, even though ex-detectives are good at this. And, ex-cops lose much of their power when they leave the job...they surrender their badge and gun. As private investigators, we can't knock on a door and flash a badge through the peep hole. Ex-cops, though, have a lot of street smarts and often excel in surveillance jobs.

Our investigators come with specific skills from different fields other than law enforcement. When they came to us, they convinced us that they could do the job by showing us what they could do.

Now, one thing you can do if you want to get into this business is to see how much information you can get on yourself. Go on the Internet, to the phone company, the utility company, your high school and college. The more hard-to-find information you can get, the better. (Of course, you already know this information. The trick is to get other people to tell you the information as if you don't know it.) Then, with their permission, do the same thing on a friend.

The bottom line is, if you want to get into private investigations, hone a specific skill. Be a specialist and not a generalist.