More Private Investigator Mentors are Needed

I believe mentorship in various forms was instrumental in my growth and success early on as a private investigator. For investigators to truly flourish beyond the basics and to build a good foundation, it is important to have a mentor to come alongside investigators to help and guide them on their path. I will share my experiences with mentorship and why there isn’t more mentorship in the industry.  One thing is for sure these days, more private investigator mentors are needed.

My Early Mentorship

When I entered the private investigation industry I think I was pretty fortunate. I started with a nationwide investigation company that had a training program where they would fly you to Clearwater, Florida, put you up in a hotel for a week, and have 8 hours of investigation training each day.  The training was basic but they did exercises where it required new investigators to get comfortable with things that might otherwise be uncomfortable. It was a good foundation for the time they had to train us, and get us familiar with our equipment, report writing, and logistics.

After the training in Florida, investigators would fly home and then be assigned to an investigator to train on actual cases.  I still remember at the end of one surveillance day I was tasked to conduct physical pretexts on folks in a neighborhood to get comfortable with it and to find out a piece of information from the people I contacted.  I was learning how to craft a pretext which was pretty cool.

After training, I was always on the phone with my supervisor/mentors asking questions about different situations as every day brought something new.  This continued for quite a while until I felt confident in the things I did during surveillance.

I eventually became a supervisor and then a territory manager for the company and I outgrew and surpassed the knowledge of those I once turned to for guidance. 

What I realized is that I had incredible growth early on in my career through mentorship and that early training but it eventually stopped because there was no one to mentor me at a higher level.  There was no next step after reaching that manager position. There was no one walking beside me and working with me on a personal level to get me to the next level and I craved and desired it to happen.  I wanted someone to pour into me.

Over the next 15 years (ish) I worked for other people/companies (nationwide) alongside owning my own business and I kept noticing a similar trend with the lack of training and mentorship in the investigative community as it relates internally to companies. I also noticed it in the investigative community as well. That is one of many reasons I started PI Advice.  

Working For a Small Investigation Company

My experience working for a small investigation company was a terrible experience.  The owner had a lack of integrity. And the unsaid philosophy of the company was basically just go out and get video and don’t ask questions or challenge anything within the company. 

The employees were territorial and created a bad culture within the company and the owner had no intention or awareness to change it. 

The mentorship was nonexistent.  The decision-maker in the company was the owner and he had a lack of skill set, communication, and as I mentioned before lack of integrity.  There was no investigator that was new to the industry that learned anything other than to just drive to a house and videotape. They weren’t taught anything.  Investigators didn’t even know how to prelim their own cases. We never even knew the clients we were serving.

I believe that the owner was so paranoid he wanted to keep his investigators uninformed.  It is also my belief that he wanted to be the smartest guy in the room at all times and he cultivated that environment within his company which was incredibly toxic. 

Why Is There Not More Mentoring?

Not Enough Time or Structure

In the big investigation companies typically there is one supervisor that runs a specific territory which usually includes many states.  And that specific territory could include 40 or more investigators working on any given day in that territory that they are responsible for.  Those same supervisors are more than likely overwhelmed making sure daily investigative notes are submitted, reports are completed and submitted, video is submitted, talking to clients, and dealing with a ton of other issues that come up in the course of a day.  More times than not these supervisors are spread incredibly thin and they are trying to keep their heads above water.

On that same note, companies just don’t build mentorship into the structure of their business.  They don’t have a training system for new investigators nor any programs for ongoing training or development to make their investigators better in their investigative roles.

There Isn’t Enough Experience 

There has been a trend in the investigative community where many leaders and supervisors have little to no actual investigative experience.  They don’t know the daily issues that come up during the course of an investigation and they can’t relate or resonate with investigators. They are not in a position to mentor anyone in the field.

How can someone develop someone if they don’t have the actual knowledge in a particular topic to mentor someone?  

Insecurity

I have observed investigators (with businesses) and leadership at all different levels that are worried if they help others grow and succeed that they will be passed up in a company or that they will lose work to someone else in the industry.  

Success to them is survival instead of raising up others.  This also plays into the next reason, ego.

Ego

There are plenty of folks with plenty of knowledge that will take credit for every success instead of giving it to those that deserve it instead.  Some folks believe people are only there to serve them and in turn they are just takers, not givers. 

These are the same folks that hire and promote inferior people to make sure their position will always be secure.  They have no intention of helping folks grow more. They have to be the smartest person in the room and if they aren’t they will try to make it appear that they are.

Unable to See People’s Strengths or areas of Needed Developement

Many people are so wrapped up in their own world they can’t see the strengths of those around them.  They may be unable to see someone’s leadership ability, communication skills, or superpowers (I will talk about that in another article).  

If you can’t see someone’s strengths, how would you know where to encourage them and help them grow in their strengths.  They may have to do with a lack of awareness or emotional intelligence.

Don’t Know How to be a Private Investigator Mentor

Mentoring is not teaching. Mentors don’t just decimate information like an instructor.  Mentors come alongside people and pour into them. Some folks have never been mentored so they don’t know how to do it themselves.  Mentoring isn’t a class you can take in school or college. If someone never experienced it and it wasn’t modeled for them they typically will not know how to do it.  If you want to mentor investigators I have written about it here.

What can you do?

Sometimes we just don’t have a choice when it comes to who we work for. Sometimes we are desperate for work and we will work for anyone. Sometimes we have a lack of choice because we need to get the private investigation experience. There are other times we just work for anyone because we need the money.

But if we have the choice we want to choose the company and the people we work for carefully.  Why is it so important to pick your boss carefully? Your boss/supervisor/manager is someone you are going to have to communicate with frequently.  Your boss will have an influence on how much work you have, promotion opportunities, the company culture, the amount of travel you will have, how much money you make, and how happy you are.  A great way to do this is by asking the right questions during your private investigation job interview.

It is hard to find good mentors these days but if you are mindful of who you learn from and who you work for you may avoid some of the same situations I have had to weather over the years.

Finding a good mentor can speed up your learning curves and walk beside you as you learn the ins and outs of being a private investigator and the investigation industry.