Public safety
What does a Security Officer do?
Turning up when something has gone wrong, and taking charge of it.
What the day is like
- Right or wrong, to a standard.
- Answerable for your own work.
The facts
- Pay
- $38,050 a year, median
- Security Guards and Gambling Surveillance Officers, May 2025
- Usually needs
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Weeks to months. Most people can start from where they are.
- Jobs
- +1% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks steady
What is good about it
- You can be earning at it within months rather than after years of training.
- You answer for your own work rather than for other people, which suits more people than admit it.
What people find hard about it
- Long uneventful hours
- Night shifts
- Confrontation without backup
Easy to enter and easy to stay stuck in; licences and specialisms are the way up.
Will machines take this job?
Hard for machines to take over. Reporting and monitoring are exposed; the part where a person takes responsibility in the moment is not.
How to find out whether it suits you
Do a night shift alongside a guard and see how boredom and risk sit together.
Would this actually suit you?
CareerDNA works that out from what you choose rather than from what you say about yourself: two minutes of choosing between real jobs, a few puzzles, and some questions about what you are like. It is free, it saves as you go, and it will tell you plainly where the answer is thin.