Planning and Research Skills



You should be able to plan your moves to acquire the most valuable information in the least possible time and expense. What you see on movies and television is often unrealistic as not all the pertinent persons and places are on hand all the time. There is also the fact that footages from a micro video camera installed in the target's place of work and residence is not as easily accessed as movie discs in a video rental store!

Thus, research, research and more research is key to success. Since you cannot claim a monopoly on the world's vast store of knowledge, you have to visit libraries and surf the Net to get preliminary information. It also pays to acquire knowledge of the spy gear needed, including the best micro video camera, for your actual investigation.

Enthusiasm, Initiative and Resourcefulness

The company or individual hiring your services as an undercover reporter will not tell you what to do and how to do your investigative activities. What they will tell you are the written reports required, the time frame, the compensation package and expense accounts provided, and the evidence necessary. This means that you have to be a good writer and negotiator, too!

Your sense of initiative and resourcefulness will come in very handy. In effect, you are on your own in the field, which requires enthusiasm to sustain the rigorous demands of the job. Lest you ask what is so rigorous about sitting around videotaping somebody with your micro video camera, you need to try doing surveillance for hours on end, rain or shine, with a lying conscience to boot!

Technical Savvy and Knowledge

Unless the company or individual hiring you is flush with money, you need to know your way around spy gear as delicate (and as expensive, in some instances) as a micro video camera. Often, you will be required to receive and transmit footages to and from your micro video camera, which means that you should know how the thingamajig works!

Often, you will be the one strapping the video and audio bugs to your body. A fair knowledge of technical specifications, applications and maintenance of high-tech bugs will be to your advantage.

Supreme Self-Confidence and Self-Defense Skills

Last but definitely not least, you have to be supremely self-confident. You need to believe that you can do it, you can lie to other people, you can bail yourself out of trouble, and you can live to tell another tale!

You need not be James Bond himself. You only need to possess self-defense skills to avoid sticky situations; how about learning how to run as fast as Usain Bolt, maybe?

When you are looking for a more adventurous and more challenging job than your desk job now, you can always try your hand at being an undercover reporter. Not only will you get more excitement in your life (and hopefully, be part of the solution to the problems of this world), but you will also be paid doing them. How does 300-500 dollars sound to you, all expenses covered?