The real world of security?

[SecTrainer]

Yes, but by the same example a person who wants to be an orderly should realize that they aren't going to get a decent wage position in healthcare by staying an orderly and getting additional certifications.

I believe that was the point I was making throughout my post. "Security" is a field with many career opportunities, just like "healthcare" is a field with many opportunities ranging from low-level to high-level jobs. The people who remain on the bottom rung (whether by choice or for whatever other reason) should not tell the rest of the world that the ladder only has one rung just because they haven't climbed any higher.

But you do have to CLIMB - meaning, you have to expend some effort in this world in order to get ahead. No one's going to make an orderly a doctor unless he goes to medical school, and no one's going to make a guard a security consultant if he doesn't get the education, training and experience required to be a consultant.

I remind you that the original poster asked about the field of security - or types of jobs in security, to be specific. The answer has to be about much more than just the job of security guard.

[SecTrainer]

...Alternately, (where applicable) they can be turned into law enforcement positions that required guards to meet law enforcement hiring standards to keep their job.

You see a lot of security jobs being turned into law enforcement positions or requiring LE physical standards, do you? Odd that I hadn't noticed this wave crashing on the shore.

As for whether more in-house positions are being converted to contract positions any more now than in years past, I don't have any statistics on that either. Certainly there have been conversions, but there have always been conversions - both ways - to one degree or another. I don't think you have anything other than anecdotal evidence about that either.

Incidentally, my take on the increasing pressure to raise the minimum wage is that this trend could drive contract costs up to the point that some clients will decide that they may just as well hire their own security force, over which they would have a lot more quality control.

[Consolewatcher]

I believe that was the point I was making throughout my post. "Security" is a field with many career opportunities, just like "healthcare" is a field with many opportunities ranging from low-level to high-level jobs. The people who remain on the bottom rung (whether by choice or for whatever other reason) should not tell the rest of the world that the ladder only has one rung just because they haven't climbed any higher.

But you do have to CLIMB - meaning, you have to expend some effort in this world in order to get ahead. No one's going to make an orderly a doctor unless he goes to medical school, and no one's going to make a guard a security consultant if he doesn't get the education, training and experience required to be a consultant.

I remind you that the original poster asked about the field of security - or types of jobs in security, to be specific. The answer has to be about much more than just the job of security guard.

Fair enough, but in my example an orderly is not going to get a "career" type job by being an orderly; it's the things he does outside of the job (like going to nursing/medical school) that are going to get it for him.

A security guard is very unlikely to get a "career" security job solely by continuing to work as a guard and obtaining extra training or certification. To get those jobs, he is far better off leaving security guarding and getting a job in law enforcement, joining the military, getting a business degree, etc.

[jaime_lion]

thank guys, I have googles security in my area and have written down some phone numbers will be calling them to chat with them for 5 to 10 minutes about there job and wheather it would be a good fit for me.

[copelandamuffy]

thank guys, I have googles security in my area and have written down some phone numbers will be calling them to chat with them for 5 to 10 minutes about there job and wheather it would be a good fit for me.

Jamie: I will get some heat for this, but I would apply for a job as a floater with one of the big dogs in the figh t
{ Securitas, Allied Barton, U.S. Security Associates} You will be sent everywhere

Car dealerships
Grocery Stores
Manufacturing plants
Construction sites
LP in stores
Colleges
Office buildings

You will work every hour, every shift

You might find a place you like, and may want to there full time

[ContractSec Level III]

If you're going to contract security, I would suggest looking for a government contractor like Pinkerton to get with. I was never able to get a Secret Clearance, but I would suggest looking for these jobs. Contract critical infrastructure security guards also make good money. As far as having fun with security, it's not entirely realistic. I'm with SecTrainer, you might have enjoyed the anime convention itself, but that doesn't mean you would enjoy the field of security entirely.

[vitamin]

To OP, if that worries you then security is not for you.

[Guard Shark]

First of all you need to have some real world expectations about security and the industry in general. The first one is for the most part your not going to have a career in security. You might have a job but security is not a career path one should willingly follow. Between the low pay, the uniform requirements , the weird to borderline excessive hours most who are able to leave for a better job will do so after getting burned out. This combined with the cannon fodder treatment of the line guards one can not expect any kind of stability in your personal life. Next is the site selection, most of the sites like anime conventions, movie premiere and concerts are going to be reserved for the few guards who are part of the chosen few. Expect your site to be overnight at a construction site in the worst part of town with a supervisor who is late for a date to give you your onsite training for five minutes. Expect this training to be brief, incomplete and utterly lacking of details other then figure it out. When you hear the term floater run away. This means that your basically on call so you could be working 90 hours one week and 5 hours a week for the next 3 weeks. Not to mention the uniforms when issued are going to be designed for people who are short and fat. Being at 6'1 190lbs I have to say that the pants I was issued were 4 inches too short and the shirts were 3 sizes too large. My suggestion is to go thru and look at my postings on this site and see some of the crap I have been dealing with the dark side of security. If you like having enough to live on security is not the job for you.

Gotta say I agree with you. However, when I was in Massachusetts I had the honor of working for two companies that provided diligent, even stringent training for its guards. I worked there several years and only stopped when my car was about to die. I then got another job at another company that was the biggest in the area and yet was one where I received immediate responses to questions from the "top brass" and I never ever ever ever ever once felt clueless when working a site.

I moved to WA state and had a false sense of continence of quality when I worked contract security at a Bio-tech in Seattle. The site supervisor was doing a test where this site was basically off limits to interference from standard security people like patrols, roving supervisors, etc. When guards had problems we called our site sup. or called each other. We were super tight, felt super respected, felt empowered and valued. We lived and breathed and would have died for that site. We were such a close group of guards we not only worked together, we shopped together, went to movies together, helped each other with broken down vehicles, with rides, with moving from apartments.

Then the company lost the contract (due to asking for an insane raise when the economy was in a downturn) and reality smacked me in the face. I was then introduced to the world of bully guards, know-nothing supervisors, unavailable bosses and the like. If I had ten bucks for every time I was given wrong addresses, sent to sites we did not even have a contract for, or was called up in the middle of the night, or on Thanksgiving and threatened with termination for being NCNS (No Call No Show) at sites I had never once worked at or been contacted about...well.....I could buy everyone here a nice steak and still have money left for beer.

It is a wonder that more people have not died as a result of criminal stupidity in they way some contract security companies are run. And add to that the reality that when stuff does hit the fan it is almost always the guard who ends up paying.

The most vile insult is not just suffering or attempting to weather through the chronic, toxic mismanagement, but when you look online and actually see some of the CEOs and bosses writing "success articles" on sites like Self Growth. Equally vile perhaps is when you see your company or former company bragging on their websites about the quality and effective training they provide. There ought to be a law against clearly misleading people.

In my view the company usually promises a client a flesh covered Robo-Cop/007 experienced Officer and then puts someone who hasn't even been trained on a site. It is no wonder why we get leered at sometimes. We can't always live up to the hype. So, sadly we slowly accept that we will not be trained, not be covered, not be respected and that makes the ENTIRE security industry suffer. This is why I am joining together with guards and former guards to try to get stricter training standards written into law in my state. Security can be an okay job, even emotionally rewarding, but bad management is ruining the industry, or at least tarnishing it. I have worked for quality companies before...and man do I miss those days.

[Condo Guard]

I think the issue in WA and other states is actual enforcement of the regulations on the books. I've worked for companies that met the initial training requirements, and that's it. I f you look at the regs in WA, "continuing education" is required to maintain your guard card. I wonder how much of that is going on.

Site training is a whole other matter - there's no way the state could enforce that, so I think it is really the client's responsiblity (ha ha), or, as I've said before, the insurance company. The in house department I work for gets reviewed about every five years or so by the insurance co., and you better believe we have our manuals up to date and current CPR cards, etc.

[Guard Shark]

Condo Guard,

Thanks for the intelligent response. I agree with you. Perhaps bring the insurance industry into this as well would help. Also to educate clients that they should DEMAND in writing (some sites do) that guards be trained and sign off on the fact that they received at least (enter number) hours of training. What would often happen however was that I was paid a training wage for a site I showed up at alone and was never trained on. That sucks too because if it ever hits the fan the company will tell the client that the guards are all trained. Sadly they are very much often not.

[Consolewatcher]

Condo Guard,

Thanks for the intelligent response. I agree with you. Perhaps bring the insurance industry into this as well would help. Also to educate clients that they should DEMAND in writing (some sites do) that guards be trained and sign off on the fact that they received at least (enter number) hours of training. What would often happen however was that I was paid a training wage for a site I showed up at alone and was never trained on. That sucks too because if it ever hits the fan the company will tell the client that the guards are all trained. Sadly they are very much often not.

I once guarded a strawberry field (honest! They had a problem with drunk people coming by and picking strawberries late at night). I was told over the phone by the company dispatcher that a note containing post orders would be left on site for me (the shift was 1800-0400, with no employees or guards there at 1800).

I get there and I see a handwritten note on the cashier's stool by the shed. It read, in it's entirety:

Security Work Instructions:
Please keep people away from our field. If they ask tell them we open at 7am. Thanks.

[Guard Shark]

Tell me, you did give into the temptation to sing Strawberry Fields Forever, didn't you?

[The Enforcer]

Security Work Instructions:
Please keep people away from our field. If they ask tell them we open at 7am. Thanks.[/QUOTE]

Now THAT is how all post orders should be devised. Short, sweet, and simple. Too many guidelines, too many problems.

[ContractSec Level III]

Security Work Instructions:
Please keep people away from our field. If they ask tell them we open at 7am. Thanks.

Now THAT is how all post orders should be devised. Short, sweet, and simple. Too many guidelines, too many problems.[/QUOTE]

Yeah but it is also important to know what the client expects the guard to do. Like if he sees someone picking strawberries, should he physically intervene, or just call the police?

[The Enforcer]

Now THAT is how all post orders should be devised. Short, sweet, and simple. Too many guidelines, too many problems.

Yeah but it is also important to know what the client expects the guard to do. Like if he sees someone picking strawberries, should he physically intervene, or just call the police?[/QUOTE]

Yes unfortunately in the real world it is as you say. More details are needed in this day and age due to liability, etc...

But the point I aim to make here is that all post orders should be written as short as humanly possible, therefore simple to understand for all concerned. Any obscure situation, as they often arise, should require a call to the supervisor, client, or using whichever chain of command in place.