HOW WEIRD CERTS MAKE YOUR RESUME STAND OUT

WHY ARE CERTIFICATIONS AND TAKING COURSES SO IMPORTANT FOR PRIVATE SECURITY CONTRACTORS?

SAME BUT DIFFERENT

These days every security contractor's resume has some military training (if you are a veteran), armed security or DOD/DOE/HSI security training, maybe a driving class or CDL, CPR/First Aid, and so on.

These are the baseline things you must have just to apply in most cases, so that takes your resume to zero.

One of the best things I stumbled upon over my three decades in the private security contractor industry is if you have classes and certifications that seem weird on a security contractor’s resume. It can catch the HR Recruiter’s attention for a second.

And that second may be all your resume needs to get you hired, in some cases even if other candidates have more or better experience.

HOW HR CHOOSES RESUMES

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR RESUME AFTER YOU SUBMIT IT:

First, a robot reads your resume

ROBOT HR:

An HR program will scan it for the keywords for that position
If you meet the minimum qualifications or exceed them
Your resume gets sent to human eyes

HUMAN HR:

The human HR recruiter will not read it thoroughly
They will quickly scan it because they have another hundred resumes to get through

If your resume makes it that far every resume essentially looks the same to them. So unless you’ve got something interesting that catches their attention you could easily be overlooked.

In most cases HR has been told to “just fill the open slots", so they have no reason to do a good job.

IF YOU HAVE A WEIRD CERT:

The HR Recruiter stops and thinks “huh, that’s weird”
They look over your whole resume paying a little more attention
They already stopped and read it so why not…
Your resume moves on to the next phase of the hiring process

NEXT PHASE:

Your resume is sent to the person in charge of hiring for that specific position

They double-check the first person did their job (E.g. everyone has the minimum)

They do that by scanning the resumes

IF YOU HAVE A WEIRD CERT:

The person in charge of hiring sees your resume
Goes “Huh, that’s weird”
They already stopped and read it so why not…
Your resume goes to the interview stack
Now you have a chance of getting hired

Just by having some weird certs you just increased your chances of getting the job x10

Not only did it get you to the second pair of eyeballs, but those are the eyeballs that decide who gets hired in the end.

And now he knows who you are.

YOUR WEIRD CERT GETS YOU AN INTERVIEW:

Before they call you they will do a quick scan of who they are talking to on the next Zoom
They see your name
Instead of saying to themself, “OK, next smuck”
They will instead say, “Oh, that’s the guy with that weird cert.”
Now the ball is in your court, but hey! You made it to the court!

Considering half of all the other resumes that made it to the HR Recruiters desk were eliminated for one reason or another. That puts you in the top 50% of having a chance of getting on your first overseas security contractor job.

WEARD CERTS ARE NOT JUST FOR ENTRY-LEVEL SECURITY CONTRACTS

If you are now applying for some of the higher-speed contracts this is where the competition gets heated. Having anything that gives you the tiniest edge can make all the difference between another Force Protection contract or getting on a Six-Figure PSD Security Contract.

Having weird certs on your resume will serve you throughout your career, from getting on your first contract to your tenth contract. This is an investment into your security contractor career.

WEARD CERTS DEFINED

Weard Certs is a catch-all term I use for any class, certificate, license, or certification that is not normally on a security contractor’s resume. But it still must be somewhat parallel to the skills or environment of a security contractor’s job.

Weard Certs can also mean volunteer work, a hobby you have, or even travel. More or less anything that will get someone in HR to give your resume just one more glance.

THE FIRST TIME A WEIRD CERT GOT ME HIRED FOR A SECURITY JOB

I found this out by happenstance way back in the day when I was first starting in the industry stateside. I submitted my resume for a position that I knew I didn’t have enough experience for, but I figured, 'Why not?

Shockingly, I got an interview.

Before being interviewed, I found myself sitting in a waiting room (yes, I am that old) next to former Navy SEALs, SWAT cops, Marines, guys with 25 years in the EP industry, and several local cops who were going to take a month’s vacation just to work a piece of this gig because it paid so well.

All I could think was, “Someone must have made a mistake and accidentally put my resume in the interview stack,” but I figured at least it would be good practice for interviewing.

The first thing the guy asked me was, 'Why do you have a certificate in avian pet care?'

Considering this was a way-out-of-left-field question, I had to take a second to think and compose myself. I thought he was going to yell at his secretary, 'Why is this guy interviewing? He’s only been on two other details!' or at least ask a question related to my security experience.

HOW I GOT MY FIRST WEIRD CERT

I told him during my junior year in high school, I had to earn some extra credit to graduate (I did not like high school), and I had a cool school counselor who cut a deal for me. If I got a certain amount of volunteer hours in to make up for missed classes before the end of the semester, I could graduate.

Since I like dogs, I volunteered at a local shelter, and on my first day of volunteering, they just happened to have a guy there teaching a 4-hour avian pet care class, so I sat in and got the certificate of attendance.

I never wound up working with any birds my whole time volunteering because they had a policy that minors couldn’t care for birds for whatever reason.

SECRET BIRD SERVICE

He told me the client insisted we have someone on the security team who had experience with birds because he was traveling with his falcon (you can probably guess where this client was from). He wanted someone to guard it at the hotel during the day while he was having meetings.

Then for the other half of the interview, he berated me for having the gall to apply for a gig, I quote, “would not be qualified for even 10 years from now.”

**I was Paid 1000 bucks a week to do this.** Source: Open AI. Created by Dutch Park.

I was hired on the spot.
I then became a bodyguard for a falcon in the bathroom of a hotel room.
I was paid $1,000 a week on my 3rd EP gig ever (in the '90s).
I blew every penny of it playing poker in Atlantic City a week after the gig ended.

THAT IS HOW WEIRD CERTS CAN SOMETIMES TRUMP EXPERIENCE

Despite my lack of experience, to my shock, I was put on another gig two months later. They even flew me out. This was the first time in my life I had flown on an airplane as an adult. When I checked in at operations, I saw it was the same detail leader as the bird gig.

After I filled out some paperwork, he must have noticed I looked a little confused. He looked at me and said, “Better the devil I know. No drinking or women in your room. Go find your team lead. Get out.”

MORE WORK FOLLOWED BECAUSE OF THAT ONE DUMB CERT

I continued to get 2–3 crazy paying security gigs a year for the next decade with them until I was only taking overseas gigs because of all the contacts I made working with them.

MY FIRST OVERSEAS SECURITY CONTRACTOR JOB

By the time I applied to my first overseas security contractor job, I had a bunch of weird certs on my resume. During the phone interview, I swear one of the first things he asked was, "Why do you have a certificate in avian pet care?

I almost fell off my seat.

Turns out, he just liked birds.

Two days later, I got an email telling me to pack my bags because I was headed to the Middle East!

WEARD CERTS SERIES

In this series of articles, I will be going over every cert I have in my notes, along with exactly where you can get one yourself with as minimal time and money commitment as possible. So you can start adding them to your resume and get that extra advantage into the interview pool.

Check out all of our WEIRD CERTS Articles.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments below, we check every day.

Good Luck!

WEIRD CERTS: HOW TO GET YOUR SECURITY CONTRACTOR RESUME TO STAND OUT!