Being a bodyguard is a career decision that isn’t easy to make. Most of us see a bodyguard and what they do on TV, and in a movie and we all believe that being one is tough, demanding and very dangerous. This is partially true and today we will discuss a bit about this and tell you some ins and outs of this career option.
Being a bodyguard instantly insinuates someone with a huge body constitution and huge muscles standing behind someone with a grim face. Again, this is partially true meaning you do need to have some form of constitution and muscle mass, but this has become more of a thinking man’s game where you need to be ready and one step in front of your opponent, more than you need to beat them in a physical showdown.
You need to be able to maintain your cool and calm in all sorts of situations, think on your feet and adapt to change that is constantly happening is something that not everyone is capable of. Bodyguard is something you need to choose to be and you shouldn’t do it just because of the money, which is also good by the way. A good executive protection agent’s salary range is somewhere between $100,000 to $200,000 easily.
A bodyguard can be anyone that is of 18 years of age and above and when you become a certified bodyguard and when you find yourself a good company you will be hired by celebrities, entertainers, corporate executives of all types and much, and much more.
The primary goal in this line of work is to keep your client safe, but there is so much more than that. Today even this line of work escalated and got advanced. Now you are less about brute force and firm and scary looks and more about tactics, planning and outmanoeuvring and outsmarting your opponents, all while keeping your client perfectly safe.
Most companies that do this type of job like the people coming from a military background because they are getting men and women that are fit and prepared for duty. They know the basics of handling a client, escorting, handling and taking care of themselves in a tough situation, handling a gun or a vehicle and much more. With a military background, they can raise the level of their professionalism and protection, but it is not necessary to be ex-military.
As we mentioned if you are 18 or older you can enlist in any of these companies that do this line of work and go through their training that consists of technical parts like classroom study and tests, real-life scenarios and practical exercises that will include real role play and scenarios that are made to draw everything from you and see how you behave in these types of situations.
One thing that is encouraging and good for all of us thinking we would like to be in this world is that, although there is a requirement for you to be physically fit for the job, not all of us have to be 260 pounds or 6-foot-4. If you take a closer look at any of the presidential or any other celebrity bodyguards that are around them on certain occasions you will very rarely see someone that fits that description. Those are mostly average men and women, trained to perfection to respond, anticipate, adapt and save lives.
If you are thinking about these career options for your future then you need to expect a classroom and a lot of it during your education, evaluation and preparation for the job. You will learn the fundamentals of the job here and you will be thought which actions you need to take and when. You will need to learn the movements and the positions within a team that are crucial for the client to be and remain safe while under your protection. There are different types of formations that you need to learn, memorize and know when to apply successfully to protect your client.
You need to know what type of info can go toward your client and when, you have to learn to be seamless even if and when you mess up and you need to learn not to communicate with the client. You have to be like a fly on the wall, there but not visible or in the eyes of everyone, including your client.
After the classroom and the “boring” part of the entire training and preparation, depending on the company you choose, you will also have some drills like departures, strong-side drops and pickups, because this is something that will happen the most. The most crucial part of protection is when your client is exiting the venue and entering the vehicle or vice-versa when they are exiting the vehicle and entering the venue. This is the most vulnerable spot and place in the entire protection chain. You need to know your place, procedure and placement. You will learn when to wait closely when to position to conceal when to lead and pretty much flow with your client.
You will also learn to scout the areas or venues your client will visit. A day or two up front, scout everything, mainly look for points of interest that may be exposing you or that may be exposing your weak spots. You will look for points of exit, the fastest routes in and out and so much more. You will learn to talk to people working in those venues and you will learn to find out all the secrets about it and always know about the venue more than your client that is going there. This is why we mentioned that this is now more of a thinking man’s game instead of a brute force and muscles-only job.
The last thing you need to know when being a bodyguard is in question is that you will be tested at the end as a final way of a company seeing if you and what you learned over their courses. Can you be the one that adapts, and thinks on their feet, if you can be the one that will react first, protect the best and move with the flow of the situation? The last thing you need to pass is the real-life scenarios that the company along with their instructors sets up to see how you handle yourself in all kinds of situations.
The things they prepared you for will be crystal clear and you will see that anything you plan will not go the way you do, or rather rarely go according to plan, which is why you learn to have contingency always ready, to adapt to situations and change and adapt ever next course of action.
Although being a bodyguard seems and feels exciting, it may be somewhat of an inaccurate depiction for most of you. When you realize it there is a lot of standing in the hallways, a lot of staring down people and a lot of scanning the area, boredom here can be your biggest and worst enemy in 90% of cases. It is hard sometimes to stay vigilant for those 5 to 10% of situations in which you need to react in a blink of a second.
This is one of the jobs where you always have to bring, you’re game and be on top of it. One single mistake can be the end of you or your client, so you always have to be on your toes and you have to be ready for anything. You will deal with high clientele who will expect the best and want the best in the business.
This is not something you can do just because and this is something you need to be prepared for both physically and emotionally. You need to commit fully to this job and it will treat you good. If you are caught snoozing here, for a split second, something bad will happen and you may lose more than just a job. This is why these lines of work are for special sort of people that have their instincts weird a bit differently and thiols are why military and law enforcement background individuals fit nicely here.
Don’t be discouraged thinking you as well can’t do this, you can. Everything can be learned and everything can be achieved if you want it enough. One interesting thing we learned along the way, is that although military and law enforcement is always the best candidates for these jobs, they often have to be “reprogrammed”.
Their mindset is to rush to the sound of danger and attack, while in the bodyguard line of work you need to think about your client and get them as fast and as far away from the danger as possible. So, you see even they have some learning to do and some adapting. This just shows that all of us are possible candidates for the bodyguard job, as long as we are 18 and older, as long as we are physically fit and ready, and as long as we can be quick, think quick, adapt to situations and learn how to protect others and not put ourselves and our health in the first plan.
