1. Employment Profile: What exactly does a n Investigator (private) do? |
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 What field is your job in?
Corporate Investigation / private investigation / research
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What is your job title?
Investigator (private)
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Please provide a brief description of the firm or organization that you currently work for
(size and general description of what type of organization it is)
We are a corporate investigations firm, made up of about 50 people. The main office is in New York and we have smaller offices in Washington D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Los Angeles, London and an affiliate in Zurich. The majority of our clients are international law firms, investment banks and executive search firms. Check out www.mintzgroup.com for more details.
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How long have you been employed in this position?
1 year and 7 months (but who's counting!); staring May 31, 2005
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How many hours do you work a week on average?
45-50 hours
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Please provide a BRIEF description of your duties and responsibilities. (job description)
I conduct online research of databases (public record information like civil and criminal cases, property records, corporate records, professional licensing and press coverage) in doing background checks on individuals and companies and write reports on my findings/analysis. The purpose is to check for any adverse information on these people/entities so our clients can decide if they want to hire them/do business with them/invest in them.
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What was your gross income last year? Please include any bonuses or incentives received.
$50,000 plus $6,000 in bonuses
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What is your expected gross income for this year? Please include any bonuses or incentives you expect to receive.
55000
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Please
list any benefits you have (Please include number of weeks vacation,
sick leave and type of health insurance, retirement plan 401k)
Health insurance, including general medical, dental and vision; flex spending; tax-free metrocards.
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Do you feel you are under/well/over compensated at your current position?
Under for the amount of hours we are expected to work (pressure we are under to work late, etc.) and because I work/live in Manhattan. If I lived somewhere where the cost of living is cheaper then I think I would feel like I was adequately paid.
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2. Work environment! |
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Does
your job entail you working with others on a daily basis? Is this
something you like/dislike about your job? Explain
Not really-- I work mostly by myself, which is nice because I can basically organize a case I am working on my way and have almost complete autonomy. However, that being said, it would be nice to have more contact with others. I often will go to colleagues for brainstorming questions, suggestions, opinions but not really officially "working together."
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Do you work collaboratively with supervisors/managers?
Yes
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Do you work collaboratively with your co-workers?
Yes
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Describe
your work location (e.g., office, home, theatre, in the field) and what
you like/dislike about working in it
Office-- sit a desk in front of a computer (all day!!). I do like working in an office setting-- having a nice computer with internet access all day, etc. And for the type of job that I have I need this setting 100%. But I do wish that I got out of the office more, whether it be to meet clients (I never do this, more senior people in company do) or just do something a little bit different. My eyesight has literally worsened over the past year from staring at the computer all day.
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Please rank in order of importance from 1-8 (1- most important 8- least important) Assign each number once.
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3 Income
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8 Work Environment - co-workers
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6 Work Environment - supervisors
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7 Benefits
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4 Hours
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2 Level of responsibility
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1 The actual "work" you do at your job
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5 Job Title
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3. How should someone new to the workforce get a J-O-B like yours? |
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If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
If the person is still in school, I would say focus on writing and researching skills. I took this as a pre-law school position, so an interest in law, criminal justice or even business (we work with/for a lot of investment bankers) would be good. Taking classes relevant to that or internships where you prove your research skills.
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What
skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a
position like yours? Please be specific and explain why (e.g., social
skills, organization skills, technical skills)
Learn research skills; be a good writer; think intuitively and be able to come up with new ideas; be meticulous in your research. Most importantly for my job, be a fast learner and a self-starter. I had very little real training when I first started here and my co-workers have admitted that it's kind of a "sink or swim" culture. If you can't pick up things quickly on your own (and of course be willing to ask lots of questions) this job would be hard.
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Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
Yes and no-- I don't think you necessarily need a specific type of degree/training to work here (there are English, Psychology, Criminal Justice, Journalism majors here) but I do think you need a good undergraduate degree where you can show that you at least are capable of being trained.
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What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
Be prepared to work hard for not a ton of money and work your way up--- this job looks great on paper and really does give you skills that are applicable to most jobs. This is a great "just out of college" job. You can get a lot out of it, if you're willing to put in a lot of hours and effort, but then the payoff would be for advancing in this field to another company perhaps or to another field altogether.
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