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I have seen at least five people on here who are or have been security officers. To me I find that very interesting. Security is actually how I got involved in EMS.
It all started when I was going to college. My original major was Law Enforcement. While attending, one of my profs. started talking to me about security and loss prevention which just happened to be another major at the college (Security Management). So then I started double majoring. On summer break I moved from Indiana to Florida for two months. When I went back to Indiana I was offered a security position at the new Toyota plant which was still under construction. Over the next six months our security department started becoming more involved with industrial fire protection and EMS. We all were sent away to First Responder School. After MFR school I was working 40+ hours a week and double majoring. It was testing my limits. I was so wore out at the end of the day. My chief came to me and said that if I dropped out of school they would give me more money and more job specific training. Being the dumb arse that I was I said yes and was soon making some very good cash. But it all came crashing down on me one day and I was fired.
Bristol-Myers Squibb heard about me being "available" and offered me a job with their security department. They needed someone with a medical background. On my 51st day of employment they bumped me up to Field Training Officer to teach all of their security staff First Aid and CPR. Then I began teaching them all about fire protection. About 8 months later Toyota got word about what I was doing and started rethinking their decision of letting me go. They soon came to me and made an offer which I accepted.
A year and a half later I decided that I was tired of the snow and ice and wanted to live among the palm trees and beaches and moved to Florida. No regrets except there is no major industry down here (where I live at least). So I started working for ADT as an Emergency Dispatch Operator. I did that for two years at which point ADT decided to downsize and laid 392 of us off the day before Thanksgiving.
:angry:
So that's when I started working security for the private retirement community, a brand new 96 acre community. It was an awesome place to work but the department never really got off the ground and seeing no improvements in the near future I started seeking a new place of employment.
It was at that point that I gave up working security. There is just no large, high quality departments down here. I'm used to the big names (Toyota, Bristol-Myers, ADT). I really enjoyed the fire protection and EMS side of security and can't say that if a big named company were to approach me again I wouldn't give it a second thought. I really enjoy the job (for the most part) but the (security) industry as a whole really sucks. Telling people you work security always gets a bad reaction. They don't know what security is all about. They think of the old fat guy sitting behind a desk. And I also have to say "Shame, shame" to all the companies that still hire people like that. There is so much going on in the world today that they can't hire people like that. They have to hire people who want to do the job and be professional while doing it. (I'm stopping now cause I stand on a soap box for an hour and tell you what is wrong with the industry and how it should be changed, but this is the wrong forum for that.)
So I'll ask, who else here has worked security? Did EMS and Fire Protection play a role in your duties? (Did you like how I tied EMS into this Matt? ) Your thoughts?
Chimp
It all started when I was going to college. My original major was Law Enforcement. While attending, one of my profs. started talking to me about security and loss prevention which just happened to be another major at the college (Security Management). So then I started double majoring. On summer break I moved from Indiana to Florida for two months. When I went back to Indiana I was offered a security position at the new Toyota plant which was still under construction. Over the next six months our security department started becoming more involved with industrial fire protection and EMS. We all were sent away to First Responder School. After MFR school I was working 40+ hours a week and double majoring. It was testing my limits. I was so wore out at the end of the day. My chief came to me and said that if I dropped out of school they would give me more money and more job specific training. Being the dumb arse that I was I said yes and was soon making some very good cash. But it all came crashing down on me one day and I was fired.
Bristol-Myers Squibb heard about me being "available" and offered me a job with their security department. They needed someone with a medical background. On my 51st day of employment they bumped me up to Field Training Officer to teach all of their security staff First Aid and CPR. Then I began teaching them all about fire protection. About 8 months later Toyota got word about what I was doing and started rethinking their decision of letting me go. They soon came to me and made an offer which I accepted.
A year and a half later I decided that I was tired of the snow and ice and wanted to live among the palm trees and beaches and moved to Florida. No regrets except there is no major industry down here (where I live at least). So I started working for ADT as an Emergency Dispatch Operator. I did that for two years at which point ADT decided to downsize and laid 392 of us off the day before Thanksgiving.
:angry:
So that's when I started working security for the private retirement community, a brand new 96 acre community. It was an awesome place to work but the department never really got off the ground and seeing no improvements in the near future I started seeking a new place of employment.
It was at that point that I gave up working security. There is just no large, high quality departments down here. I'm used to the big names (Toyota, Bristol-Myers, ADT). I really enjoyed the fire protection and EMS side of security and can't say that if a big named company were to approach me again I wouldn't give it a second thought. I really enjoy the job (for the most part) but the (security) industry as a whole really sucks. Telling people you work security always gets a bad reaction. They don't know what security is all about. They think of the old fat guy sitting behind a desk. And I also have to say "Shame, shame" to all the companies that still hire people like that. There is so much going on in the world today that they can't hire people like that. They have to hire people who want to do the job and be professional while doing it. (I'm stopping now cause I stand on a soap box for an hour and tell you what is wrong with the industry and how it should be changed, but this is the wrong forum for that.)
So I'll ask, who else here has worked security? Did EMS and Fire Protection play a role in your duties? (Did you like how I tied EMS into this Matt?
) Your thoughts?Chimp
* My criminal justice teacher is an awesome guy and has worked so much security I think I've lost count. He started working Loss Prevention when he was 16, was a bodyguard, police officer, corrections officer, bounty hunter, and security guard, and hes only 33. His stories have definately perked my interest just because of the experiance you can get from that and for future jobs it can be helpful. I guess if you think about it in some ways having a security background can be very benifical to working in EMS. Those crisis situations with a combative patient, a situation where everyone is a bit frantic and bystandards are getting antsy, someone *patient or bystandard* comes after you or your partner. I just personally see it as something that is parallel to the EMS career, and I was intruiged to see everyones past security stories. 
