Security officer
Guarding sites, retail, events and premises. A licensed job, which means the badge comes before the work.
Also called: Door supervisor, guard, CCTV operator
What it pays
£23,000 to £30,000 a year, £11.44 to £14 an hour. Door supervision and specialist sites pay more.
The hours
12 hour shifts, days and nights, four on four off is common.
How you get in
- SIA licence, which you must hold before you work
- A short course, then the licence application and fee
- Right to work and a clean enough record for SIA criteria
The tickets and qualifications employers ask for
SIA Door Supervisor or Security Guarding licence CCTV (public space surveillance) licence First aid
What you should not be paying for
You usually pay for the course and the licence yourself, a few hundred pounds in total. Some employers reimburse it after a period: ask first, and never pay an agency a fee to be found work, which is unlawful.
What people like about it
- Steady demand and predictable shifts
- The licence is portable between employers
- Quiet sites suit study or a second interest
What is genuinely hard
- Nights, and long periods of nothing happening
- Confrontation on retail and door work
- The licence must be kept current at your own cost
Where it leads
- Supervisor or control room
- CCTV specialist
- Close protection with further licensing
- Security management
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