What kind of private investigator are you looking into?

There are "general" investigators who sort of take on whatever, and then there are investigators with specialities/fields.

There are A LOT of different fields; fraud (medical, welfare fraud), accident reconstruction. There's corporate investigators (due diligence like looking into other companies during merging, potential investments, and employee dishonesty/harassment).

The list goes on and on; investigators looking for missing people either for worried families or for debts that need to be owed (that last one is referred to as skip tracing and can often be done from home). A lot of companies fit the work that PIs do into their business; with collection departments, Human Resources and security. PIs still have their use as they generally have a license to snoop, which helps with legalities.

Some private investigators work for political parties, lawyers, big companies, insurance firms or are in business for themselves/part of an agency. A lot of security companies also have private investigators that work for them. The money is okay, but being in business for yourself and having steady clientele/contracts is where it's at.

Invoicing is usually hourly; expenses like paying for information (info merchants, court houses), mileage, gas, food is also billed to the client. Some PIs have retainers. Some PIs have a flat fee, which is usually just for retrieving info. There are a ton of public records available, usually require some paperwork (freedom of information request).

Investigators get different training depending on where they work. Some states/countries require you to take a course and write a test in order to get a license. You learn a lot about laws involved with privacy, trespassing and ethics. A lot of the real training is on the job, shadowing an experienced PI.

If you get hired on with a firm, it's usually because you know somebody or have some sort of relevant experience (police, sometimes security depending on what kind) or you stand out in your own way (women make great PIs, people rarely suspect them).

Feel free to PM for more questions. I was a PI almost a decade ago.

Alternatively, the idiots guide to private investigations can really clear up a lot of this.

You can find a used copy on amazon for super cheap. It's written by an ex-FBI turned PI.