Security Officer Resume: Templates and Guide

Most places, governmental and private parties alike, will need a team of people to protect their assets from a variety of threats and hazards.

Security officers are often employed to enforce preventative measures and act as a deterrence to illegal, dangerous, and inappropriate actions that may be done by an outside party.

As someone aspiring to land a security officer job, your security guard resume, whether it is an unarmed security guard resume or an armed security guard resume, will need to be well-constructed (structure and content-wise) to ensure that your resume will shine bright amongst the others.

Some candidates may focus too much on the physical aspects of being a security officer and might end up crafting their law enforcement resume in this direction, neglecting other aspects that can be as important for a good security officer resume. To avoid making this mistake, you should:

As a security guard, there is no doubt you would want to apply to prestigious organizations. Unfortunately, organizations will most likely employ the help of an ATS (applicant tracking software) to scan and rank the security officer resumes they receive.

This can dramatically reduce the amount of law enforcement resumes that the recruiting managers have to screen. To ensure that you bypass this filter, your security guard resume format has to be ATS-friendly.

The Internet can be a good starting point when crafting your security officer resume. There are plenty of security guard resume templates and security guard resume examples that can serve as a reference when making your own. However, do keep in mind that these references may not be error-free and you will need to use your judgment to pick out the best parts of these online resumes to incorporate into your own.

As previously mentioned, adopting keywords from the job ads can help increase your resume’s chances of being filtered in by an ATS. As each job ad may contain different keywords, you will want to tailor your security guard resume to contain the keywords specific to the job ad.

Doing so also allows you to tailor your security officer resume skills section to only contain ones that are relevant to the job itself. Remember, recruiters may have to go through hundreds of resumes, so they can only spend so long screening yours!

Quantifying results in a resume is not limited to jobs that deal a lot with numbers. You should quantify results on your security guard resume to show the impact of your contribution and achievements in your previous job position or any other relevant activities.

Numbers in your resume are also more convincing and help make your previous work look more apparent compared to words.

Certifications may not be the first thing that you may think of when making your law enforcement resume. As a security guard, your job deals a lot with ensuring people’s safety.

Certifications such as CPR certifications, first aid certifications, or firearm certifications can help recruiters see your skills and how qualified you are as a candidate.

Recruiters might want to know where you’re headed career-wise; this is where a security officer resume objective serves its purpose.

Though not always necessary, a good security officer resume objective can help push your chances to secure an interview with the prospective employer.

Your security officer resume objective should be concise and should showcase applicable achievements or qualifications.

Finally, for  maximum visibility, ensure that you place it on top of your security guard resume.

Ideally, your resume should be within 1-2 pages long. However, for a busy recruiter, this might still be a tad bit too long. To help them ease their burdens, you can include a security officer resume summary in your resume.

As its name suggests, your security officer resume summary is a paragraph in your resume consisting of 1-2 sentences.

A professional security officer resume summary should outline and describe who you are, your relevant background, qualifications, and experiences. 

No matter how experienced you are, or if you’re submitting an entry-level security guard resume, your skills section is one of the sections that recruiters will pay close attention to when screening your resume.

There are 4 common ways that you can structure your skills:

• Simple bullet list
  Pros: easy to craft, recruiters can see the desired skills quickly
  Cons: because of its simplicity, you can’t include more details of your skills

• Expanded bullet list
  Pros: also has a simple format, with the bonus of being able to explain how you’ve applied your skills
  Cons: as it is lengthier than the simple bullet list, you can only show a limited number of skills

• Integrating skills with work experience
  Pros: combining your work experience section with your skills section complements and enhances your overall qualifications
  Cons: only suitable for security officer resumes with previous work experiences

• Categorized skills section
  Pros: helps you organize your skills into specific categories; great for your security officer resume skills section as your job requires you to possess a broad skill set
  Cons: not suitable for an entry-level security guard resume with no experience

Unfortunately, there is no superior skills format, as the suitability will differ greatly based on one’s experiences, skills, and background. Ultimately, only you can decide for yourself on the best format to use.

No matter which format you choose to implement into your resume, you should keep the section short, relevant to the job ad, and include both hard and soft skills.

There are 3 resume formats that you can use for your entry-level security guard resume: chronological, functional, and hybrid/combination.

However, depending on your background, skills, and experience, your resume might be better suited for some formats compared to others.

As with other sections in your resume, you should carefully evaluate the job context as well as your background before sticking to a format.

If you’re worried about the lack of experience in your security officer resume, you shouldn’t be!

You can make up for it by redirecting the recruiter’s focus to your security officer resume objective and conveying your passion and enthusiasm.

Although most security jobs won’t require you to hold a formal degree, if you wish to advance further as an armed security guard or a military security officer, intensive training would be required.

Thus, you should still highlight your education in your law enforcement resume. Your education level can help convince a recruiter regarding your overall qualifications and credibility for the job.

If you have a blog or personal website that can backup your qualifications as a security officer (e.g., a personal blog detailing your experience of your firearms training), you can include it in your resume as a testament to your skills and abilities.

As old-fashioned you might think a cover letter may be, it will be best to include a security officer cover letter with your application.

It allows recruiters to get to know who you are and gives a chance for you to further emphasize your skills, relevant experiences or projects, and your passion for the job.

By leaving a good first impression on recruiters through your well-crafted cover letter, your chances of standing out from other applicants can increase dramatically.