Hayden
What additional skills and strengths do I need for a career in security?
Hi my name is Hayden B. I'm a student at Glen Rose HS, I am a freshmen. I'm interested in a career in security. I'm skills include working outside, hard worker, taking orders. In my spare time I workout. What additional skills would I need?
#security
9 answers
Michael Mason
Michael’s Answer
The word "security" conjures up a wide variety of careers one could pursue ranging from security officers working for private companies to law enforcement officials working for city, state or federal agencies. However, a successful career in any security field requires intelligent, articulate, independent thinking individuals. I believe you need to be passionate about helping people and creating allies in the community and not lording over people by virtue of your position. This is a field that requires patience, compassion and empathy. The depiction of individuals working in security one finds on television and the movies are typically unrealistic. First of all, the average police officer will never fire his or her weapon in a hostile situation...and that's a very good thing. Security personnel must be mature and must have good decision making capabilities. Over the course of your career you will be placed in many situations that do not come with a fixed playbook. It will be your job to ensure situations are not exacerbated in a manner that leads to a less than optimal outcome. You will need the ability to deal with a wide variety of people without losing your patience. If you are capable of using persuasion long before the need to exercise authority, then a career in security will be a good choice for you. Naturally maintaining good physical conditioning is a must as well. If you plan on pursuing a career in law enforcement, you will need to be in good physical shape before you attend a police training academy. When I joined the law enforcement agency at which I spent 23 years, we were given a physical fitness test the second day at the academy. Failing that test was one's ticket back home. So getting into a good physical conditioning program early in your life is something you should seriously consider if you want to successfully pursue a career in security.
Finally, one should never forget that the successful pursuit of a career in security requires a candidate to be able to pass a thorough background check which will focus on any problems the candidate has had with law enforcement to include matters involving drugs or abuse of alcohol. If you live your life with integrity and follow your own path versus the easier path of going along with the crowd, you should find yourself as a competitive candidate for a security position.
Michael recommends the following next steps:
Monique Clarke
Monique’s Answer
Physical Security is securing a location, following guidelines and standards set by Management. Staying healthy and physically fit is a must in the world of physical security.
But also Technical Security or Logical Security takes all your preferences and uses them in a different way. Technically you can work from anywhere, still having to follow policies established by Sr Management as they make the decisions. Staying physically fit will help with your body and mind wellness balance.
Listening skills are a must being aware of what's going on in your field. Either at the physical location your securing or that specific area of Security that you are passionate about.
Communication is another skill you will need, communication is key, understanding your audience, knowing what words to use as not to confuse or make anyone feel as if your talking over there heads.
Understand that what ever role you play in Security its important. People are depending you to secure their assets. That includes people safety.
Being adaptable to change, because in the field of Security policies and regulations change in an instant. What was good today may not be the way to go a year later.
Steven Vargas, CFE, CPP®
Steven’s Answer
As many others have stated, it really depends on what type of Security career you're interested in pursing. There are numerous avenues of security (physical, operational, executive, cyber, etc.) you can develop a career in. Ultimately, find what brings you emotional and mental fulfillment - what gets you excited (for me, it's investigations and audits). From there go online and conduct your research online. For example, if you're interested in Physical Security Operations, I would suggest reviewing colleges/programs with a reputable Security Management program, specifically one that will provide you with the necessary business/corporate acumen to understand the language of budgets, Capex, Opex, etc. which is highly valuable and sought after. I would also focus on enhancing public speaking and report writing as these are also crucial to a successful career.
Best of luck!
GABRIEL ESPOSITO
GABRIEL’s Answer
Birbal Jakhar
Birbal’s Answer
Hey Hayden,
if you wanted to build your career into security then you have to be sound enough with networking fundamentals, basic network security concepts, and basic ideas about the network security devices which are in industry, and most important is learning hunger.
Kadia M
Kadia’s Answer
Hi Hayden,
It depends on what career path you would like to pursue. If you are interested in offensive security, such as finding security vulnerabilities, I would suggest to get active in Bug Bounty programs (ie HackerOne.com or BugCrowd.com etc).
I would also suggest to look into coding, pick a language (Python, Go, C ++, etc.) and try to work on small side projects. Almost every technical Security Job will require you to read/write some code at some point.
If you are not interested in the technical side of Security, I would suggest looking into compliance & privacy (GDPR etc.) regulations that drive Security controls/strategies. There are also certifications (ie: CISA Certification) that explain Security Management and various controls that several companies have implemented.
I hope this helps, let me know if you need me to dive deeper into any of the topics I've mentioned above.
Cami Lewis
Cami’s Answer
Gowthami Rao
Gowthami’s Answer
if you are looking for Network Security then CCIE security is the gateway.
