I need a job now please help me!
So you need a job now! Well, this article is about finding work in the executive protection industry. Having executive protection training and experience are assets that would enable you to do your job right. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the nature of the beast is that you are faced with an enormous amount of competitors targeting a very select market. Allow me to give you an example that perhaps will help you see this point from a different perspective.
For the sake of the argument let’s say that you are in a room with two hundred other people the same gender as you and you are all dressed the same way; remember, your physical appearance doesn’t matter and you all possess the same or very similar qualifications, experience, and executive protection training.
From a distance, you all look the same; the question is how you will make the potential employer pick you over everybody else? Sure, you can be the court jester, start jumping around yelling “pick me, pick me.” Realistically that approach will not get you the job, so making a fool out of yourself is not recommended.
I need a job now in Executive Protection.
What you need is to understand that the niche of executive protection employers you are targeting is specialized and has very specific needs. It’s your job, and yours only to find work. If your idea of executive protection job hunting is that the employer will come and knock on your door while you are in your pajamas at home browsing the internet, tweeting how you spent your night or playing Farmville games on Facebook, you are severely deceived.
The reality is that it is up to you, and only you to make yourself available, find and utilize resources to get you where you are envisioning yourself to be. There is no genie that will jump out of the oil lamp and will inform you that you have three wishes available at your disposal. In other words, you need a plan.
Having orientation as to where you are and where you are heading is a vital factor to your success. By now you understand that nobody will take you by the hand and place you in the job site; you are in terms with the fact that you have a lot of work ahead of you. Great! That’s half the battle right there.
Then what? You will hear many people in several different industries talking about networking. Indeed networking is a vital component of your plan. Now you say, “That’s all fine and dandy, but how do I contact people?” Here’s where your executive protection research of resources and reading material comes handy. You made an excellent decision to read this article on executive protection which will get you started in the right direction. Is that enough? I will let you answer this question on your own later. In the meanwhile, let’s go back to our plan.
Earlier I gave you a scenario that you are in the same room with two hundred other people that look exactly like you. How do you differentiate yourself? The only way to make you stand out from the crowd is to be creative. You have to think outside of the box in order to attract positive attention to your executive protection skills, your intelligence, and make the employer offer YOU the job and not any one of the other one hundred and ninety-nine candidates.
The most boring part of your job hunting experience, but yet another vital took to your professional survival is writing that “killer” resume and cover letter that will get you the interview. Yes it is a tedious process to write resumes, but its part of the process and undeniably you
have to be able to represent yourself as best you can via a sheet of A4 size paper.
Employers will see your resume before they see you, remember that! Your resume should give them a good reason to invite you for an interview and your creativity should not stop now. Be professional, attentive to the slightest of details, and always keep in mind that your goal is to impress them before you even get there.
Then comes the deal breaker moment: the interview. Adequate research of your employer, an advance perhaps about your employer will speak volumes about you. You care enough to do your research prior to getting to the interview.
Picture this scenario: You arrive for an interview with a CEO of a major financial institution. The media has reported stories that he is followed by a stalker. The first “official” interview question is: “What do you know about me or the company I represent?” If your answer is, “not much really,” you might as well show yourself out the door because you just failed your interview miserably. The moral of the story: arrive at your interview prepared.
Use social media to keep up with information about potential employers, networking opportunities, celebrities, and high-end executive gossip. I know it sounds silly to read the tabloids, but think about it: if the paparazzi know about a potential threat of a celebrity you are soliciting your services to, you better know as well. After all, those celebrities are your future clientele.
Finally, use executive protection recruiters to help you get in touch with employment opportunities. Leave no stone left unturned; if you don’t ask the right people the right questions, you will never get the right answers and chances are you will spend more time looking for work than actually working. So here’s a parting bit of advice, do the work, and success is guaranteed.
billy
Ok guys, lets start with the basic approach
that comes with any job search.
1- Who do you KNOW? This alone fills in a lot
of the previous gaps listed in the comments.
We all have fell victim to this in the past.
No matter what your qualifications show- Personal
reference from another source takes front roll seat.
So, as previously mentioned, NETWORKING is KEY.
Romeo46th
Thanks Mr Austin…you’ll given more inspirationally for me to be tough and skillfully aheads through the future…Gladly to have someone as a guidiances on what you wanted to be…thank you…
Alonzo Gomez
I also see an enormous number of rookies in my AO. And by rookies, I mean people not just with no EP experience, but with no training either. Although employed myself, and usually in a supervisory position, it’s been difficult to deal with guys who need to learn the very basics while on the job AND to face the clients when things don’t go as smoothly as they expect, given how much they get charged. I’ve also been scratching my head as to why I kept being sent greener and greener ‘agents’ to introduce to the clients (or to apologize for).
Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching people and have used sites like this one to get people in the right mindset – it’s rewarding to see people get it. But if I have to babysit people daily who already have an oversized ego from working for a Big Name straight out of the service and with a still wet guard card while vetted pros are going hungry… there IS a problem.
Without going into why some experienced guys can’t get work (yes, sometimes it’s them, and it’s a whole other story often addressed here, like in Hucky’s article), I see a few reasons for this state of affairs:
1. Employers prefer fresh guys that they can control better and underpay.
2. Some clients (the young celebrity circus here in LA) prefer people under 30 in their entourage, and have in their mind that an experienced guy is a graying retired cop with a gut who can’t keep up or stay awake.
3. Too many clients want EP on the cheap, like $30-40 billable hour, and WILL go for the lowest bidder (I saw a billionaire do this). No way you can provide pros at these rates.
Needless to say, I don’t see too many freelancers in this environment. I’ve had my license a while myself, but am sitting it out given the market and the depressingly low quality of the new blood.
Doc Rogers
This is an excellent article and a great learning experience!
Vince Jackson
That is a sad, but real observation Stuart. It seems to me that ‘agents’ with these qualifications are getting work because the clients are not really educated on what a serious E.P. Agent’s qualifications should be. I think what should be highlighted here is that these guys did manage to get work. So what did they do to get work is the question? They must have done something right just to get in front of a client! The part of this article that stood out the most to me is what it says about doing research on the potential client just in case they do ask a question like the one mentioned. GREAT PIECE OF ADVICE!!
stuart ferguson
My comment is that what really greaves me is that i have been in the security industry for 28 years ten of those years C.P and at the moment it is very difficult to get work then you hear of a guy who was in the marines 20 years ago get work or a guy who,s been in the services 8 months and he gets work iv forgot more about security than he knows. Because these people have been in the services at some time it dosnt make them supermen, What do you think about that sort of thing.