An extensive background check will also be needed for new physical security positions. If you're looking for more physical security info, be sure to read further.
This type of physical security and protection job is one that recruits heavily from ex-military personnel. This applies especially to people who are either qualified for Ranger tabs or who went through Special Forces training. They're looking for bright, motivated, detail oriented people who are adrenaline junkies, and have the discipline to follow orders, and the initiative to take charge of a situation when it all goes to pieces.
The typical level of training needed to maintain the skills at their requisite peak performance to do this job well, includes range time with firearms, and continual training on threat assessment, situational awareness, and security and policy issues. While armed security consultants are not part of the US Military Chain of Command, they do have an obligation to their contracting agency (usually the State Department) to not create incidents. With the way the world is, one of the best ways to interfere with American objectives overseas is to embroil an armed physical security contractor in a situation beyond their training and claim they went over the line in trying to carry out their duties.
This means that you have the responsibility of knowing when to escalate an incident to the use of deadly force, but you can be left high and dry — there is no direct chain of command that can vouch for your actions. You have responsibility, but no authority. This can be a dangerous job.
On the other hand, the compensation for these positions is quite high. Most independent security contractors doing armed physical security and related jobs for sensitive installations overseas make $80,000 as a starting salary, with full medical benefits. These positions appeal to ex military personnel because here they are re-using the same skills that they got drilled on in the military — keeping an active perimeter, remaining alert, looking for possible hostiles — and are getting a considerably better pay. It's not unusual for security contractors doing armed physical security to get paid in the low six figures, especially if they have certain certifications.
Valuable skills required — beyond basic marksmanship — include 'combat driving' courses, medical training (EMTs make large amounts of money in this field), computer knowledge, law enforcement expertise, interrogation and investigation techniques, and language skills, especially Arabic, or any of the languages (primarily Pashtun) used in Afghanistan.
Armed physical security personnel aren't just sent back to Kuwait or Afghanistan, and they aren't always assigned to government agencies. Security contractors are also hired by major engineering and contracting firms (such as Exxon-Mobil, Haliburtan, or Kaiser) to provide physical security for infrastructure projects. Providing physical security for a pipeline may not make the news like providing security for State Department personnel in the Green Zone, but it may ultimately be more important. It may also take you to some of the remotest parts of the world: to construction of roads in Somalia, or building of schools in Ethiopia.
Even so, armed contract security is an enriching position and one where you can help bring the benefits of organized society to the wildest parts of the world. You can be hands on with work that materially improves the lives and security of not just Western personnel working on infrastructure, but also the people who live there.
Being a successful armed security professional requires the traits that are necessary for a good soldier. Solid positional and situational awareness are key, as is the discipline to know when not to react to provocations; the focus should be on the mission above all else. You will need to be loyal to your comrades, and take your employer's interests as your own.
You also need to be sensitive to local customs and culture. Contrary to the Hollywood image of “mercenaries who swagger through countries blowing up villages”, your ability to do your job, providing proper security to your clients and assignments, means knowing the people in the area well enough to be able to tell when they're being coerced into doing things they don't want to do. Understand that, like soldiers deployed overseas, you are a diplomat for Western culture, in both its high points (generosity, providing a better life to local residents) and its low points (the ignorance of local customs, mostly).
If you choose to get into an armed security consulting position without prior military experience, there are special schools you can go to; they aren't as well regarded as a stint in the military, but may still be considered. These schools do not come cheap — they're effectively survival courses with firearms training worked in; many will run in the realm of $20,000 or more to complete. However, if you're eager to live a life of adventure while making a six-figure salary, they may be the way in.
