FlightWay / Careers / Detectives and Criminal Investigators

Law

Detectives and Criminal Investigators

Conduct investigations related to suspected violations of federal, state, or local laws to prevent or solve crimes.

Sector: Law
Preparation: Zone 3 — medium preparation needed
O*NET code: 33-3021.00

What you'll actually do

The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.

Getting Information

central to the job — rated 94/100 for importance.
Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates

central to the job — rated 90/100 for importance.
Making Decisions and Solving Problems

central to the job — rated 88/100 for importance.
Documenting/Recording Information

central to the job — rated 86/100 for importance.
Performing for or Working Directly with the Public

central to the job — rated 86/100 for importance.
Communicating with People Outside the Organization

central to the job — rated 86/100 for importance.

Conduct investigations related to suspected violations of federal, state, or local laws to prevent or solve crimes.

What it takes

Two numbers per line: the level the work expects, and how important it is to doing the job well. Both are O*NET ratings, already on a 0–100 scale.

Skills

Active Listening

Needed at a high level (63/100), and rated 85/100 for importance.
Speaking

Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 81/100 for importance.
Critical Thinking

Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 78/100 for importance.
Reading Comprehension

Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
Social Perceptiveness

Needed at a solid working level (55/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.

Knowledge

Law and Government

Needed at a high level (72/100), and rated 96/100 for importance.
Public Safety and Security

Needed at a high level (73/100), and rated 90/100 for importance.
English Language

Needed at a high level (64/100), and rated 80/100 for importance.
Customer and Personal Service

Needed at expert level (78/100), and rated 76/100 for importance.

Abilities

Inductive Reasoning

Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 85/100 for importance.
Oral Comprehension

Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 85/100 for importance.
Problem Sensitivity

Needed at a high level (63/100), and rated 78/100 for importance.
Deductive Reasoning

Needed at a high level (61/100), and rated 78/100 for importance.

How people get in

O*NET places this occupation in Zone 3 — medium preparation needed. That is a statement about what employers typically require, not a rule about you.

Education

Vocational training, an associate degree, or equivalent on-the-job experience.

Experience

One to two years of related experience is typical.

Training

Employers expect you to arrive with the core skill already.

What it pays

These are typical law compensation bands by employer tier — sector-level figures, not a measured salary for Detectives and Criminal Investigators specifically. Treat them as the shape of the market, then check a real posting for the number.

BigLaw (Cravath Scale)

$215k – $500k+

Regional Law Firms

$90k – $160k

Solo & Small Practices

$55k – $100k

How the work tends to run

Each line below is read off a single O*NET activity rating for this occupation — named, so you can disagree with it.

Most of the day happens at a screen.From “Working with Computers”
The work is physical — you are on your feet and handling things, not sitting still.From “Performing General Physical Activities”
You are in front of the public, so the job is partly performance.From “Performing for or Working Directly with the Public”
Long-running relationships carry the work; the same people come back.From “Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships”
You own decisions rather than execute someone else’s.From “Making Decisions and Solving Problems”

How FlightWay scores your fit against this

No black box. Here is the whole method, factor by factor.

1. You answer a short quiz: Your answers build a profile across the same 161 O*NET dimensions this page is describing — skills, knowledge, abilities and work activities. Same axes, so the comparison is like-for-like.
2. We correlate the two profiles: Fit is a mean-centered cosine — a correlation between the SHAPE of your profile and the shape of Detectives and Criminal Investigators. Centering matters: raw similarity between any two occupations sits at 0.70–0.85 because all work shares a common profile, so without it every career would look like a match.
3. The number you see is personality fit only: "Would I want this work" and "am I ready for this work" are different questions, and averaging them answers neither. So readiness — what your résumé, coursework and projects prove — is scored separately and shown next to fit, never blended into it.
4. Every factor is visible: You can open any match and see which dimensions pushed it up and which pulled it down. If you disagree with the number, you can see exactly where it came from.

More in Law

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See your fit for Detectives and Criminal Investigators

Ten questions, about 90 seconds. You get your match against Detectives and Criminal Investigators and 782+ other real careers — with the reasoning shown.

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Occupational data on this page comes from the O*NET 30.3 Database, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET is a registered trademark of USDOL/ETA. FlightWay is not endorsed by, and USDOL/ETA is not responsible for, anything built on that data — see our terms. What is ours is the comparison, the score and the plan.