Help me become an Illinois P.I.

December 6, 2005 8:46 AM

Any ideas on how to go about becoming a private detective in Illinois? Read on...

See, it's like this: 1) in Illinois, you need three years' experience to become a licensed private detective. 2) Those three years must be spent working for a detective who IS licensed in Illinois. 3) Most detectives I've talked to don't want to hire you unless you've already worked for a detective.

Enter recursive loop 1 -> 2-> 3-> 2-> 3-> 2-> 3 -> etc.

So, any ideas? Are there agencies that do appreticeships? Schools (real, accredited schools, not BS correspondence courses,) that help with career placement upon graduation? So far, my typical conversation with local agencies has gone along the lines of:

Them: "Check Illinois' website for requirements. Goodbye."

Me: "Right, I've read it, and I was calling to see if you do anything along the lines of an appreticeship... hello? hello?"

Also, as an aside: I don't expect this career path to turn me into Mickey Spillaine with a long-legged dame at my side... but it's a career where I can work towards being my own boss and take advantage of where my skills lie. (Namely, dealing with people and doing research.)

posted by ggypsy to work & money (9 comments total)

Can you volunteer with a private detective for a short while so as to get the experience on your resume? Then you could get a real job with a detective and get the 3 years of required experience.
posted by reverendX at 9:19 AM on December 6, 2005

Can you lie?

Then again, if someone is able to sniff out falsification of credentials, it would probably be a PI. Scratch that.
posted by unixrat at 10:00 AM on December 6, 2005

You don't really speak much about your work experience or credentials. If you don't have anything remotely related to private investigation, I would venture that that is the reason most PIs want nothing to do with you. Perhaps you should start your career by getting into law enforcement, or as an investigator with a government agency (state's attorney, DCFS, etc).

I believe that many community colleges offer programs in things like criminal justice, perhaps this might be something else.
posted by MrZero at 10:43 AM on December 6, 2005

How far are you from a state border? Maybe you could try getting basic experience with a PI in a neighboring state, then re-apply to the local agencies (hopefully with networking assistance from your out-of-state mentor).

Hmm, networking...that's another possibility. Are there any local professional groups for Illinois PIs? Try to join up there. You get to know them, they get to know you... Or if the org won't let you join, someone there might at least be willing to answer some of your questions.

Once for a business management class, we all had to an "informational interview" of a local entrepreneur. It seemed very intrusive to expect someone to give up an hour to a college punk instead of earning a living, but surprisingly many people were gracious about doing it as long as the discussion could be by appointment instead of a random call in the middle of the day. Trying calling back and asking for 15-30 minutes for a discussion about their profession. Stress that you will NOT be asking for a job or any other favor. You are simply trying to learn, and would appreciate the chance to learn something from them. (Several classmates--who were NOT looking for work--got a call from their interview subject the next time a job opened.)

Check with your college alumni association or job placement office. They should be able to hook you up with a fellow alum who's in the profession. Someone like that may be more receptive to being an interview subject or mentor, school loyalty and all.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 10:48 AM on December 6, 2005

Is there only one license option in Illinois? In Minnesota, I was able to receive licensing to work for a licensed investigation agency but not on my own. I don't believe there was a requirement for a certain number of hours worked (if there was, it was much less than three years) and I just had to complete a number of training classes. I would look into that option if you can.

As far as getting a job with a company, do you have any specific skills other than "dealing with people and doing research?" If not, I'd start learning what sort of records are available to the public, which ones are available to private investigators, how to retrieve them, differences in state availability, major databases and what they can provide, etc. If you do get a job, it's probably going to be doing grunt work and pulling records is likely to be some of it. I have some pretty decent resource books that I can recommend when I get home if you'd like.
posted by undertone at 10:50 AM on December 6, 2005

To all above: Thanks for the advice! I'm loathe to pursue law enforcement, just because the local market is fairly saturated (friends have been completed testing and ready to start work on local forces, and still been on waiting lists for two years or more.) It seems kinda roundabout to apply for a hard-to-get job I'm not that interested in to get experience for the hard-to-get job I AM interested in. ;)

Undertone: I previously was a licensed PERC employee when I did security in Illinois, which is a Permanent Employee Registration Card you need to do any job related to the Privacy and Security Act of 1983. So that's the most directly-related experience I have. Otherwise, my (relatively successful) background is in sales... I've managed the internet dept. of a car dealership and done retail phone sales. Classes or grunt work are no problem to me... I just need to figure out which classes, or where the grunt work is.

(My last call was responded to with, "Yeah, like I'm going to train my f***ing competetion. Nice try, f***-o." I was going to explain that I would certainly provide service in equal compensation for my training, but realized I probably didn't want to work for that fellow in particular...)
posted by ggypsy at 11:06 AM on December 6, 2005

Just offer someone your assistance. Say that you are interested in the business and can you come in for a while, help out, and just watch what's going on. Turn it into a full time thing from there.
posted by xammerboy at 2:54 PM on December 6, 2005

If you're willing to go back to school, you might want to think about taking some paralegal courses and working for your local district attorney's office, or a defense lawyer - as a paralegal, not a PI. Some law firms specializing in civil litigation or criminal law may even hire you while you're going to school, although you will probably start out as a file clerk and gradually have to work your way up. But you gotta start somewhere, right? Here in Orange county, I've heard stories about paralegals who work for the local DA having to go out on stakeouts, as well as doing a lot of investigative research, however YMMV. Even if this is only a stepping stone to becoming a full-time private investigator, working as a paralegal can help plump up your resume, as well as help you build on what you already know, when it comes to doing intensive research.

Note: if you do end up doing this, make sure to go with an ABA-certified paralegal certificate program, not one of those advertised on TV in the early morning hours. It will look much better on your resume if it says you've attended an ABA-approved program, and the quality of education will be much higher.

I hope this helps, good luck w/your endeavors.
posted by invisible ink at 4:39 PM on December 6, 2005

In the past, a friend has talked about the same general problem, although in another state.

The world of private detectiving is insular, incestuous, and dominated by ex-law-enforcement. They all pretty much already know each other and so forth. It's just one of those professional worlds that has itself well protected from the outside, legislation included.

This is bizarre in many ways, since it's a tedious, poorly-paying job, except for an elite few who have corporate contracts for security, background checks, insurance investigations, and the like. That said, there are other routes to the same sort of work, including the insurance industry. I once interviewed (as a computer guy) for an outfit in the Chicago suburbs that claimed to be the world's largest insurance investigator. That sort of business is large enough that there' probably a certain amount of turnover and internal job-switching opportunities -- so I'd look there first if I were looking to "break in" to this more-or-less thankless job.

Law enforcement is a great opportunity right now, though. I'm not sure why your area is such an employer's market -- I understand the post 9/11 federal security expansion has limited the available people for municipal and state jobs. So consider that whole range of jobs -- it may be pretty easy to get one or the other, if you're not picky.
posted by dhartung at 6:51 PM on December 6, 2005