Chapter 5

Career Opportunities in Loss Prevention (Loss Prevention is often another name for Security Management)

Goal: To discuss various career opportunities in the field of security/loss prevention.

Objectives:

• Identify some of the factors which are increasing security/loss prevention career opportunities.
• Identify and discuss various career opportunities in these fields.

Lecture:

Career opportunities in Loss Prevention

Factors increasing opportunities

The Security/Loss Prevention occupation: Security Manager, Executive Security, Private Investigation, Consulting, Opportunities in industry, Opportunities in Retail, Opportunities in Health Care, Airport/Airline Security, Hotel Security, Campus Security, Banking Security, Security Services, Locksmithing, Technology Experts, Computer Security.

9-11 has raised the interest in security. Certainly, some job opportunities have come out this tragic event. For example, the Sky Marshal program has been renewed. Screeners have been hired at airports. Each commercial airport now has a federal security director (some of my old Army buddies are in those jobs). Some, not all, companies that were considering staff reductions in security have postponed them. (Don't let this lull you into complacency, though. Cost cutters are always out there looking for ways to reduce costs. Security in most companies is called an "overhead" or "indirect" cost. It is not charged "directly" to a contract or product. Rather, it is spread out over many contracts and adds to cost. Security and other indirect organizations are often first on the chopping block when layoffs happen. ) Time will tell.

Security, at least from my perspective, has opened some real opportunities for women. A good number of the security managers and middle managers I know are women. Some have moved up from security-related clerical jobs (e.g., maintaining logs of classified documents). Others have education or other qualifications that enable them to fill security management positions.

One security-related field that is really growing is computer security. In my opinion, traditional security management professionals have not been very involved in this field. We have left it up to the "techies" in Information Systems. The fact is, I believe, both we and they have roles to play in the arena. If I were starting my career over (in other words, if I were YOU and I were looking into a security career), I would look into learning more about this subject. We'll be talking about very basic computer security near the end of the course.

Major Security and Security Management Fields

• Security Manager (General Security)
• Bodyguard/Executive Security
• Private Investigators
• Consultants:

  a. Hardware (alarms, locks, lights, etc. )
  > b. Training<br> c.General security
  > <p>

• Retail
• Industry (heavy and light)
• Health care
• Airports/Airlines
• Transportation/shipping
• Hotels and Conference Centers
• Educational campuses
• Banking
• Security Services (e.g., Pinkerton, Brinks)
• Locksmiths (this is pretty much a trade that requires an apprenticeship, passing on of "secret" knowledge, tricks of the trade)
• Technology/Computers

Most corporate security managers and directors now earn anywhere from the mid-60's to over 100 thousand dollars. Click here to see a somewhat recent article on salaries in the security field. The numbers are higher now than when the article was written. Another study I have seen points out that, generally, security managers with bachelor's and master's degrees make more money than those who don't.

ASSIGNMENT: Answer question 3 of the Review Questions on page 86 of the textbook. A few paragraphs should do it.