Security Guards: Expectations Vs Reality

We interviewed two security guards about their experience in the security industry

The first person we interviewed is RyanJohn Staples, you can check him out on LinkedIn here: Ryan’s Linkedin. He has 4 years of security Guard and loss prevention investigations experience. When asked what led him to become a security guard, RyanJohn said:

We also asked him what he thought a security guard would be like and he said: “From first starting off at the local bar I expected it to be slow some nights and full of incidents and issues on other nights. All in all, I find as long as you treat people with respect no matter the incident and remain calm you will have great days. I always tell people new to security to absolutely never take anything personally and always be professional as we are the ones to defuse any issues that may occur.”

According to RyanJohn nothing for him changed in terms of expectations and reality while working in the security industry. We also asked RyanJohn if he could change anything what would it be his response was “More in-person training courses would be a bonus. I am always looking to learn new things to better myself, gain more knowledge.” 

Another question that was asked is how has covid affected his work.

He said “ Gave me more opportunities and more jobs.” 

If there was anything that could change about being a security guard RyanJohn said he would prefer more in-person training as he is always looking to learn and gain more knowledge.

Another guest we interviewed was Damien Rickus, you can check him out on LinkedIn here: Damien’s Linkedin. His background experience is in the Armed forces and he has also been  Security Officer. One of the questions we asked Damien is about what led him to become a security guard as we wanted to learn more about what inspired him to become one.

He said  “It is a good career path when you become self employed as you can be earning £20 up, the main reason is that I can gain so many qualifications and have access to similar career paths through the same courses.” Another question that was asked was what did he think working as a security guard will be like and he said “I thought that security guards be under pressure from employers and that there would be something happening every day”

How did that differ from reality?

“There’s not much happening every day in the sense of this is serious, I learnt that the main thing is to be vigilant to deter crime and help the community but keeping everyone safe due to the fact that security guards are trained in first aid, fire safety and security, this means we are ready to tackle a multitude of problems.”

Damien also answered our question related to how covid affected his work and said “Covid has shut down a lot of venues meaning work has not been available however once everything opened back up there are more jobs for security than the country has guards.”

With his experience as a security officer and working in the armed forces, we wanted to find out if he could change anything about being a security guard what it would be and he said “I would change the pay rate as security and safety are essentials in the world if the pay increased the number of trained guards would increase making the nation a safer place to be.”