Thoughts On Executive Protection Resumes

Rug airs out in the morning sun.

I see a lot of resumes from guys and gals that are trying to enter the executive protection filed. I try to comment on every one that I receive, hopefully giving some decent advice along the way, as many people did for me when I started out.

Last night I responded to one particular resume, and thought that many of the comments were germane to about 95% of the resumes I see. Here is a sanitized version of what I wrote.

• First and foremost, you have no protection experience that I can see at first glance. You need to attend civilian course, of which there are many, and I can guide you in the right direction if you need help.
  

• Your specific military experience counts for naught, unless it's directly related to executive protection. I would remove all of that. I know that hurts, but it's the truth. I see a lot of resumes where guys and gals basically regurgitate their 201 file. That's great if this were a promotion board, but it's not. People that hire protectors are looking for very specific skills and backgrounds. Don't waste time writing/reading about your score on the Bradley Gunnery tables. It's not relevant, but worse yet, it tells me that there's nothing else relevant. Stay with things that are EP-specific or germane.

• If you're interested in corporate security, join ASIS, and work toward your CPP. There is an EP element in the CPP exam, and all of the corporate types recognize and understand ASIS and CPP.

• Get your EMT-B. Civilians don't know, nor care about Combat Lifesaver. EMT-B will garner more attention, and then work towards your Paramedic. There are a lot of clients that require advanced medical training in their protectors due to underlying health issues. You're much more likely to use a defibrillator than a Glock.
  

• Remember your writing to a civilian audience, get rid of as much military speak/jargon as you can.
  

• You mentioned in three different places that you had a Secret clearance. Unless you're on a very specific government contract, civilians don't care. You're a protector, being trustworthy goes almost without saying.

• Decide what kind of protection you want to do, in other words, which end of the risk/threat continuum. You can do the high-risk PSD work in Iraq or elsewhere, you can do the corporate security detail (Home Depot, Coke, Delta, etc), you can specialize in entertainers, media personalities, etc... You can't do it all so you're going to have to specialize. Again, there are noteworthy schools and course for each of those.

• Do you speak any languages? Learn some as a hobby. Again, if you're after the high-risk stuff learn Arabic or Farsi. Corporate; Japanese, German, Russian, Spanish, etc... You don't have to be a 3/3 in the language, but know enough so that you can ask for simple things and understand responses. You should know how to say "please, thank you, where, when, who, how, I'm sorry, excuse me, yes, no" in about 6 different languages. It's not as hard as you might think.

• You're retiring out of the military, have the ACAP program send you to an executive protection course or EMT-B.