The Vancouver Sun published an article about how the security industry, and in particular the security guard industry, can be a great stepping stone into a career in law enforcement. It also mentioned how the security industry also offers a lot of opportunity for semi-retired people to work and keep busy.
The article featured two of our team members, Mike Karpinski (pictured) and Chuck Beaver… Mike is using Provident as a stepping stone towards a career with the Vancouver Police while Chuck has already had a full career as a Food Broker and we are very fortunate to be able to take advantage of his experience as one of our Team Leaders managing a client’s facility in Richmond.
Click here to read the full article which has already been reprinted in many newspapers throughout Canada including the Edmonton Journal and the St. John’s Telegram.
I believe that working as a security guard can be either one of the very best, or very worst, jobs out there… it all depends on what you are looking for.
One of the best things about working as a security guard is that it offers a unique opportunity to be entrusted with a significant amount of responsibility. All of our security guards are licensed and bonded, but more importantly, they are responsible for much more than someone working a ‘typical’ customer service job. Assuming that you are looking for a strong reference to prove to a future employer that you can be trusted, and have held a position with a lot of responsibility (and been successful at it), working as a security guard can be a fantastic experience. I would argue that there are very, very few other jobs for young people that offer a similar opportunity.
Unfortunately, many people come into the security guard industry looking for an easy job where they can just sit (or worse, sleep) and get paid to be lazy.
At Provident, we are much more concerned about finding the right ‘fit’ than just filling a position. As a result, we end up turning down a lot of business opportunities, especially on the guard side of things. For example, while we provide alarm system installation and monitoring as well as CCTV monitoring for several Vancouver nightclubs, we do not provide bouncers.
We do, however, provide security guard services for clients such as the
Kerrisdale Business Association, Four Seasons Hotel, Fairmont
Waterfront and the Heffel Gallery to name just a few. Our mobile team provides service for more than 6,000 Vancouver homes and businesses providing patrol and guaranteed five minute response services. We also have a security team who provide 24/7 security at several private residences in Vancouver and West Vancouver…. we are definitely not your average security company, and we definitely are not looking for average people.
Our team members are amongst the best paid in the industry and we have been recognized as being one of the 25 Best Places to Work in B.C.
The tight labour market has only increased the need for us to be very careful about what business we can take on and what type of people we will offer positions to… we provide security for a niche market that expects to receive a very high level of service. We really cannot afford to hire anyone who doesn’t fit our culture or meet our client’s expectations. That is part of the reason we have posted our core values on our website… it helps make it really clear what we are looking for and whether or not someone will be successful here.
Are you, or someone you know, a possible match with us?
If so, please check out our brand new career portal on our website… we’ve posted a few of our current openings, but there are still a lot that will be added over the next few days.
The best way to figure out if Provident could be a good fit is to hear from some of our current, and former, team members. Click here to watch ten video testimonials from Provident employees on our website. We’ve also posted them on YouTube… click below to watch interviews with Chuck Beaver as well as one of our more famous former employees, Angus Reid, who is now employed by the B.C. Lions as their starting Centre.
If you are interested in hearing about what it’s like to work on our mobile team, here is Greg Elsie:
Sales? Here is Rebecca Bligh… who has been with Provident since 1998 and has worked in almost every department within the company.
Jane Robert’s title is ‘Employee Experience’, which sums up her role very well… Jane looks after all of our recruiting and hiring, and is the first person most people speak with when coming on board with us.
Ryder Lefurgy looks after our Guard team and has been with us since 2001… Ryder has moved up the ranks from getting hired as a member of our Mobile team to becoming responsible for overseeing our entire guard team.
Of course, Provident Security is a lot more than just security… Ryan Sutton is a great example of that. Ryan is our Lead Developer and is responsible for managing the evolution of both our client and employee web portals as well as working with our IT team to keep our networks and industry leading technical infrastructure up and running 24/7. You’ll have to go to our website to watch his testimonial though.