Justin Bergh
Justin Bergh ’16 is a Private Investigator for DigiStream Investigations, a nationwide company that started in 2001, based out of California with approximately 100 field investigators.
Bergh was offered the job two weeks before graduating with his B.A. in Sociology-Criminology from the College of Arts & Sciences at Ohio University.
His office is in a city near Denver, the company’s only office in the state – and Bergh covers the whole state, as well as some surrounding states, primarily handling workers compensation cases for clients that are the insurance company or the workplace of the claimant.
“My main goal as an investigator is to get as much videotape film as possible of the claimant. A typical day consists of me reporting on scene to either where the person lives, or a medical appointment they have scheduled, and following them everywhere they go, yes, everywhere and I videotape it all.”
He says that social media helps him understand what kind of person they are, and can also tell him if there are events scheduled or certain activities they like to attend, which makes it easier for him to be a step ahead of the claimant. And his bosses noticed that he is good at what he does.
He gave an example of a request from a major airline for the first time and after running a social media check on the claimant, Bergh noticed that the claimant was very “active” and used this to obtain the evidence needed for the client. Soon after he turned everything in, he received a message from his CEO telling him what a good job he did, and that the client would do business with their organization again.
“Every day is different with my job, which is the kind of direction I wanted to take starting my professional career,” Bergh says.
He also explained that his experience at Ohio University equipped him with many skills that help him with what he does today. The first he mentioned was time management. He always finished his coursework first, then enjoyed his life outside of studying afterward. He says that his job can be demanding at times, but it is something he dealt with throughout his four years as an undergrad at OHIO.
He cannot point to specifics as to how Sociology-Criminology helps him with his job, but the general aspects apply greatly. He explains that his job involves a lot of research, and he took great interest in research and data analysis while at Ohio University.
While this was not the “ideal” job he wanted, when it was offered to him two weeks before graduating he could not turn it down.
“I want to get into criminal investigations, but most require experience writing complex reports and conducting investigations, which is what I am doing now. As I gain more experience, and hopefully move toward conducting criminal investigations, I expect to use the knowledge I learned throughout my criminology classes to a great extent. Until that time comes, I plan to stay with my company and move up within.
“What I enjoy most about my job is that I never have to go into a office. Yes, I work out of a vehicle. It sounds strange but I love it!”
Bergh goes into his office maybe once a month. He gets to travel periodically which he loves because as he says, “Colorado is an amazing and beautiful state, and I get to drive everywhere.” There are times that he has been at work and ended up following a claimant to the mountains, and then went hiking, or to a lake, either fishing, or all sorts of other outdoor activities. He gets to work and enjoy the outdoors at the same time.
“At times I think to myself, ‘Wow, I am getting paid to do this right now.'”
Another reason he loves what he does is because his company makes it easy to do his job well. As soon as he was hired, he got a company car (which he works out of), and all the necessary equipment used to perform the job, including camera, laptop, WIFI card, gas card, and phone. Hard work gets noticed and Bergh has earned the monthly bonus for investigator of the month in his office several times!
Bergh is currently their lead investigator due to his hard work – and the stats he has each month show it!
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