SIA exam

[watervole]

 Sat my exam today for an SIA licence.  (Security Industry Authority).  I'm confident that I'll pass it.  (finished the exam in a third of the time allocated, and that was after double checking all my answers)

Not a career I'd ever have envisioned for myself a year ago, but it does fit nicely with some of my skill set.  Most of the people sitting the exam (and who have been doing the four day course with me) are after work as door supervisors at night clubs.  I'm looking for event stewarding and shop security work.   While I will qualify for night club work, I think I'll leave that to the young men (though they do need women for any work that involves searching people).

I believe I have a reasonably good chance of getting work - I've done a small amount of stewarding work for a local company, but much of the stuff they do requires people with an SIA licence.  They said there was plenty of work if I got the licence, so I hope they were correct.

I'm not after full time work.  I've a lot of experience with events of various kinds, and that's where I'm in my comfort zone.  I relate well to people, and half the job is about people skills.  I'm used to dealing with tricky customer situations.

I fell into this almost by accident.  I simply looked at all the jobs available in a five mile radius, and event stewarding was the first one that came up where I thought 'piece of cake' and applied for it.  I enjoyed the events I've done so far, so decided to risk the cost of paying for the course and the licence.

I'll let you know how it works out.

Comments

[paranoidangel]

Good luck! I hope it all works out.

[ranunculus]

Sounds like you are a good match for this.

[kerravonsen]

Unexpected, but it makes sense, with all your con and festival experience.

[lonemagpie.livejournal.com]

I'd be a liar if I said you weren't just about the last person I'd imagine going into being a bouncer...

[rockwell-666.livejournal.com]

Hey, you know some of those Charity Shop customers can be a bit rough sometime... ;-)

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Sounds good - best of good wishes for the exam results!

[decemberleaf.livejournal.com]

"[E]vent stewarding was the first one that came up where I thought 'piece of cake' and applied for it. I enjoyed the events I've done so far, so decided to risk the cost of paying for the course and the licence." This makes so much sense!

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Sorry for being late but I wish you good luck!!!!
*HUGS*

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I think I'll leave the bouncing to the youngsters. .. See what comes up by way of event work. Fingers crossed.

[sugoll.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting. I hope it works out for you.

[jimtrash.livejournal.com]

Good luck.

I've just done the SIA for CCTV operator.
A very odd course. Seemed to be mostly concerned with remembering key words for stuff and 3 letter acronyms.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'm guessing that's mostly for quick communication over the radio so you can report description of person/item without the general public knowing what's going on?

We didn't get much of that stuff, though the Appendix did include things like IC3 = Afro Caribbean.

What was the course like? I considered that one, but I get neck trouble if I look at a screen for too long.

[jimtrash.livejournal.com]

We learned all the phonetic alphabet so that if someone asked us to to something we we didn't want to do we could tell them Foxtrot Alpha.
We learned all those IC designations although I was reminded just how unreconstructed the security industry is when our instructor did a 'Goodness Gracious Me' imitation to demonstrate IC4.
The course was easy - I'm confident that I will have passed (will hear results tomorrow) but didn't like all the sexist and racist attitudes that seem to be taken as par.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I already knew the phonetic alphabet.

The doorman course was very emphatic about avoiding prejudice of any kind. (and discussing potential cases where you might have to keep out someone from a minority for safety reasons and determining that their safety overrode their right not to be discriminated against.) eg. a wheel chair user in an upstairs venue with no lift (fire safety) or black people entering a pub with a load of drunk National Front members inside. (the assumption in the latter case was that the police should already have been called and you would tell the black people that they would be very welcome in the venue as soon as the yobs had been evicted)