The difference between private investigators and police detectives is almost insignificant. The main distinction would be in the person who hires them and pays for the services. However, they are both very demanding jobs and require a lot of personal sacrifice and devotion. There are only a few which are willing to dedicate their life on the career and invest in better future. Many police detectives decide to retire as private investigators since they can’t let go of the thrill that this job brings. In order to be able to become better investigators and have a higher success rate on their cases a lot of private investigators decide to specialize in a certain area that can help them advance in their careers.

Associate Investigators

Private investigators often start their careers as associate investigators. Their job responsibilities are the same as those of the regular investigators, but they need to be supervised by the senior management. One of the most common tasks they work on is the employment screenings. These services are requested by companies that are planning on expanding their team and they need to check their potential employees. Sometimes companies want the private investigators to investigate their current staff members if they suspect in some irregularities on the work place. The employment screening refers to background checks of a number of records. Companies show most interest in the criminal records, as that can be crucial for the future of their business.

The associates are also capable of conducting surveillance, which has been one of the most popular services in the past few years. People usually hire the private investigator to get information in relation to their partners. These investigations never have a happy ending, regardless of the final outcome. People tend to become very emotional and deny the truth. The same thing happens to cases that refer to similar family matters. In such cases the private investigator needs to be very discreet and choose the words very carefully, as people find it hard to believe that their loved ones can be causing them so much pain.

Specialized Training

Some private investigators decide to undergo specialized training in order to become patent search analysts. These analysts investigate patens, infringements of rights and similar violations. The training enables them to strengthen their researching skills and be able to use them in other aspects of their work.

Those private investigators who have proven to be good human lie detectors, decide to become polygraph examiners. Not everyone can do this task, as the person needs to have strong intuition and to be able to read people’s body language without even looking at the polygraph. It should come as no surprise that many private investigators focus on accounting and audit procedures and are willing to become experts on finances. This expertise can be very beneficial when working on cases that refer to financial frauds. In conclusion, both private investigators and detectives work on complex missions that require a lot of knowledge in order to come to a faster resolution of the case.