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Three days after finishing my last exam I started my first job out of university – working in an office. Six weeks later I started my second job out of university – working in an office. Six weeks after that I was bored out of my mind and getting stressed about arriving at work in time to fill up the sales team’s fruit bowl. I was suffering severe post-degree disillusionment and trying to resign myself to another forty-five years of hating my job
Then one day I opened the paper to see an advert for a ‘Trainee Private Detective’. . |
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I applied although I couldn’t help thinking that it was probably all some elaborate joke – my natural paranoia. After the first interview with Answers Investigation I spent the whole drive home checking my mirror to see if I was being followed (a few weeks later I began to spend car journeys practising following other people). I started with a week of training, although by the second day the plans had been thrown out the window and we were all off to different parts of the South East for some genuine experience. |
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My introduction involved sitting on a bench for about 7 hours watching a building and filming anyone who came in or out of it on a video camera subtly hidden under my scarf (I managed to get a good amount of footage of my scarf as well…). Whilst after a few hours I was wishing the bench had a cushion and wondering when I’d be able to make a break for the loo, I enjoyed being out on my own and working independently, using my own initiative, without someone looking over my shoulder all the time. |
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Since then I’ve dressed up as a schoolgirl, served papers and pretended to deliver flowers from a florist. I actually didn’t expect to use my drama degree when I left university but it’s come in handy. It’s not all action and adventure (one of the questions I get asked by my male friends is “do you get a gun?”) but – nerd that I am – even the office-based research interests me. |
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After spending a day in the Family Records Office in London leafing through forty years of Marriage records – that’s about 160 volumes – I remarked to a colleague how quickly the time had gone. I was met with the word “geek” and a pitying look. Regardless of that I am really looking forward to getting involved with the tracing services that Answers offer and the chance to help people on a personal level. |
