Honest Advise - Career

[rupert]

I have no military experiance (well, a small amount with the TA) and have been thinking of a career move to CP/PSD for two years now.

I'm looking at getting my SIA lisence early this year, as well as maybe a specific PSD/Firearms course; I have done some door supervision and site security in the passed (I ran my own firm for a while) and got my SIA lisences during this time. My background is in business/management but I'm looking for a change.

Can anyone give me an honest appraisal of the prospect of work in the sector? I see that "security" will only become increasingly important to businesses and individuals in the future; but with the huge number of courses on offer and number of guys doing courses, is there a real demand for staff?

I have no problem working abroad or in high risk areas.

I just want an honest insiders opinion on the market before pushing down this path even further.

Many thanks in advance.

[co19]

I have not heard of anyone without a regular military background working on a PSD team, even though you are probably more than capable to do it.

My advice is to stay in security management

[apple27]

You could have possibly got a start in the early days of the Iraq conflict and from there you could have built yourself a reputation. To be honest I think you have missed the boat if you want a job as an operator. I agree with CO19, stick to the menagement side, or wait for Iran to kick off and get in there early!!!!
Good Luck.

[VIP BG]

The PSD work within the middle East is now completely saturated with Ex UK Forces or CIV lads with alot of tours/experience under their belts. This saturation of manpower has led to wages falling across the board as big name security companies are now dropping there tenders in order to win contracts as they know regrdless they will always be able to provide fairly cheap PSD's.

The Civ training companies dont tell you this and will take a couple of grand from you for a course regardless.

All the best.

[JR199]

VIP BG - "civ training companies" are not all alike, and some are actually honest and provide good courses and advice with which candidates are able to better themselves.

[CPO445]

Agree with JR199 on this one there are some bloody honest companies out there who do tell you the score so lets not tar em all with the same brush eh
As for some companies yes there are certainly some training companies who say they will get you work and to be quite honest some but not all are just complete bloody liars

[co19]

While I was with TASK INTERNATIONAL they found no work for any ex students as far as I am aware. I found work for some ex students(41), as did JL and RP.

MH (director of training) just did not give a truly honest view of what they could do in relation to work. So much so an ex student rang me a month a go and said he had been trying to ring MH for months asking for work and after a number of e-mails MH responded with "there is no work". Not very good is it.

[co19]

I am actually in court in Mid Feb to give a charachter reference for an ex student who could not get an SIA card because of a minor infringement on his CRB check. I do not think MH from TASK would do that for any ex student.

[hippy]

I would forget about the high risk side.. Lacking prior mil experience you are only;

1 Get yourself hurt
2 Get one or more of your team hurt

I would suggest you look at getting some work in the event side of security, establish yourself a name in those circles and move on to that side of 'cp' work..