I think we all know what security guards do don’t we? We’ve all seen enough of them, after all. I’ve been wondering where the profession would place on our EQSQ personality tests scale though. There’s a great deal of interaction with the public so one would hope for empathic qualites, some female brain influences. However, the entire job is dedicated to the preservation of order, to imposing a system upon a sometimes chaotic world, so presumably the male brain talents are also required? I just don’t know really. Obviously, when it gets to the areas (like at nuclear power plants) where more systemizing is required along with the greater training (and the higher wages) then it shifts more to the male brain end of the spectrum. But the basic job? I’m afraid I really don’t know.

The training is almost always on the job. For those who don’t carry a weapon it will be very brief indeed, actually, that’s one of the attractions of the job, the fact that you can drift in and out of it. There’s also a lot of part-time work available which is another attraction: indeed, I know several people who worked their way through their college degree working security. Armed guards get more training and of course employers love to get people who have had formal weapons training. These sorts of jobs are prized by retired military and police (and many serving police officers are known to work part time to supplement their salary).

But in this training there’s no need for a college degree at all, nor really any formal training program. That makes it easy to get into but it also means that wages are low: around $20,000 a year on average.