Just a student

[i_Ryan]

Hello all,

I am Ryan and I am from California. I am currently a student and am studying Criminal Justice and am going for my Bachelors degree. I am not currently, nor ever have been, employed in the security industry. My current plan is to ultimately go into law enforcement. However, recently I have looked into the possibility of joining the military after college to join as an officer.

I stumbled on this site while browsing Officer.com. To be honest, before I started reading posts, (which I have been doing for the past few months on here) I only thought of security guards as stereotypical warm body guard.

I also used to think a lot of Guards armed with more than a flashlight were "wannabes". The word "wannabe" seems to have a very negative connotation. This is probably due to almost all movies, and the media, that feature security guards as aspiring police officers who just couldn't make it. However, after looking at the word "wannabe", the actual denotation of the word is just that; you "want-to-be" a law enforcement officer. Which I believe a good percentage of young security officers aspire to be.

After reading hundreds of posts over the past few month, my perception of security officers and the security industry has changed completely. To give the due credit, SecTrainer, Bill W.(Can't remember his last name), and Curtis Baillie have changed my perception of the security industry. I now understand why trained security officers are so ever important to not only protect properties and persons from terrorism, crime, enforce rules & regulations, and protect client's from civil liability.

While it seems SecTrainer constantly apologizes for his long winded posts, I thoroughly enjoy all of them. Even his posts about marketing interest me, even though that has nothing to do with any field I am looking to get into, but it does help me understand the business world a little bit more.

While I will not be able to ever give a professional opinion on topics, nor pull from a vast amount of real life experience, I can definitely give my theoretical opinions and my idealistic views.

I look forward to speaking to you all!

[zm88]

It's an interesting industry. You can have a guy with all the tools of the trade that simply does nothing but O&R verse and unarmed guard whose expected to go hands on with no back up, a very strange and interesting industry to work. Welcome to the site.

[Curtis Baillie]

Hello all,

I am Ryan and I am from California. I am currently a student and am studying Criminal Justice and am going for my Bachelors degree. I am not currently, nor ever have been, employed in the security industry. My current plan is to ultimately go into law enforcement. However, recently I have looked into the possibility of joining the military after college to join as an officer.

I look forward to speaking to you all!

I appreciate your posting. If I had to do it all over again I would stay away from the Criminal Justice degree. My oldest son did it this way:

In HS he decided he wanted to be in law enforcement. He talked with a number of FBI Agents and they told him the very best was was to get qualified for the ARMY Intelligence program before graduation. He did just that. His plan was to go to the US Marshall or the FBI. He took all the pre-qualification exams and was accepted. He when to all the schooling and had all the clearances. I won't tell you what his job in the ARMY was as he would have to kill me.

After the service he accepted a position in Iraq that paid him an ungodly amount of money for the exact same work he was doing in the ARMY. He spent a year there and after he got back he went to work for the FBI.

I'm not suggesting your follow the same path as he did, but he was far more smarter about it than I was. To date, I don't see where a Criminal Justice program ever helped me and I'm near the end of my career.

[Pop pop]

Well done young man, You said, (I have looked into the possibility of joining the military after college to join as an officer.)

As Curtis, I too have a son who was in the military deployed twice, graduated from school after six long years and and not only did he start his career in Security the year before he graduated, but a month after he graduated from school, he started his caeer path on boarding process and sworn back into service with the DHS. Any degree is good, but without the military training and your BA the chances of you working for uncle sam is slim to none. Including being a Police Officer, a lot of young men are coming home from deployment and getting five points off the top for being a Vet. You need to be the complete package. Good Luck trooper.


Pop pop

[tacticalguy]

"Just a student". If only all people approached Life in that humble fashion. I'm also "just a student" when compared to many in here such as Sec Trainer, Curtis, Pop pop and others, even though I've been in security for ten years and an armed security officer since '05. I've been an instructor for close quarters combat for years and I still tiptoe up to Pop pop and tug on his robe to ask for advice. Approach this industry with enthusiasm, self confidence and a genuine interest in helping others and you can't go wrong. Welcome to our family!