Although you can go to school and take a Private Investigator's course, it is no guarantee that you will be more successful because of it. Your sense of personal integrity, physical fitness, communication skills, tactfulness, inquiring mind and respect for detail will be attributes that will go a long way to ensuring your success as a private investigator.



That being said, taking courses in criminal justice and policing will be an asset to anyone planning on becoming a private investigator. There are several schools in Alberta that offer training to become a private investigator. Just look in the phone book under Private Schools to find out which ones are in your area.

A Private Investigator is an equal opportunity job, suitable to men or women. A lot of private investigators are self-employed or use it to moonlight, in order to supplement a regular job. Many private investigators are hired by firms to find missing persons, or to find evidence in cases where people are suspected of cheating in a marriage or for any reason that may involve some sort of fraud or dishonesty. The will have to do surveillance, make phone calls to verify facts, visit's the subject workplace and do background checks. The work will require patience, as you will sometimes have to sit and observe a site for many hours on end. Some of the drawbacks to becoming a private investigator is the irregular, long hours, often alone and the risk of occasional dangerous confrontations.

Some other areas where a private investigator's expertise will be needed is for robberies, stolen vehicles, organized crime, fraud, burglary, narcotics, sex crimes and street crimes. With the evolution of the internet, investigators will also be working to curtail computer crimes and child pornography. Clues are everywhere, you just have to know here to look, which is the forte of the private investigator

In order to work as a private investigator in Alberta, you must be eighteen years of age, buy a bond of $5,000, be a resident of the province, have no criminal record, and have yourself fingerprinted by police. Private Investigators can earn anywhere from forty to one hundred dollars per hour, with the average being forty to fifty dollars. So your income will depend on how many clients you are able to find, and how many hours you want to work. Being a private investigator can be a rewarding career for the right person.