What Background Investigators Do
Background Investigator Careers

Everyone has a past & skeletons in their closet. Background investigators dig it up & find them. Learn if a background investigator career is right for you!

Those who investigate the background of others are employed by a number of different organizations. It is their job to determine the past actions and investigate the history of individuals the organization wants assessed.

Everyone has a past, and sometimes that past can get you or your employer into trouble. So there are jobs that exist to see exactly what kind of trouble you have gotten into.

Background Investigator Career Info

Background investigation covers a lot of territory. If you want to become one, you could potentially be employed to do a number of different tasks, including:

Researching criminal histories for police forces
Studying potential employees' records to clear them for hire
Gathering financial information for claims of bankruptcy

Investigating someone's background can land you a job working for the government, for law firms or attorneys, for private corporations, or even for other private investigators who need some extra help in the research department.

Working in this capacity, you can be expected to run several different kinds of background checks, like:

Employment references
Character references
Identity and address verifications
Criminal histories
Credit histories

More than any other investigative career, this career involves spending plenty of time at a desk, looking through papers and browsing computer databases.

This is a job that absolutely requires close attention to detail, utter patience, and potentially long hours. If you are someone who naturally has a great deal of focus, then this job may be perfect for you.

Background Investigator Salary Information

The average salary in the United States for digging up skeletons is around $60,000 per year, but this doesn't mean you can't earn more.

There are positions in the background investigation field that earn nearly $80,000 annually, and that's working for the government. Traditionally, the private sector pays much more than the public one, so if you can find a high-end job working privately, you may find yourself making a small fortune every year.

It all depends on your willingness to work hard and make yourself more employable. This means furthering your education and training at any chance you can. In many cases, employers require that all potential employees have a bachelor's degree in a related discipline or previous experience doing the job.

More often than not, you'll need a degree in criminal justice or computer forensics before employers will take you seriously as a candidate for hire.

In order to get your degree and start making a background investigation salary, you can take classes from an online university or college. This will allow you to keep your day job, maintain your own schedule, and stay in your place of residence. It's a great way to grow without uprooting.