An Exploratory Study on University Students’ Career Choice and Job Perceptions of the Private Investigation Profession

This study investigates university students’ career attitudes and occupational perceptions of the private investigation profession, with a focus on identifying conditions for enhancing awareness and promoting career development in this emerging field. Although the 2020 amendment to the Credit Information Use and Protection Act formally permitted limited private investigative activities, the profession in Korea continues to lack a robust legal-institutional framework and remains constrained by insufficient societal trust. To examine how students construct meanings around this profession, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 undergraduate students majoring in Police Administration at universities in the Chungcheong region. The analysis demonstrates that students’ career orientations are shaped through the interplay of social recognition, institutional stability, educational opportunities, and personal value orientations. Social prejudice, regulatory uncertainty, and concerns over employment security were identified as critical barriers, whereas institutional reform, the establishment of systematic educational and training infrastructures, improvements in public image, and collaborative support across academia, industry, and government were regarded as prerequisites for increasing career acceptance. These findings suggest that the professionalization of private investigation in Korea requires not only legal and institutional consolidation but also educational development and the cultivation of positive societal recognition in order to position it as a legitimate and sustainable career pathway for university students.