There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an operational security specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $18.31 an hour? That's $38,088 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 40,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many operational security specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed good judgment, patience and observation skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an operational security specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 23.7% of operational security specialists included physical security, while 10.8% of resumes included customer service, and 4.8% of resumes included clearance. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the operational security specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most operational security specialists actually find jobs in the finance and technology industries.
If you're interested in becoming an operational security specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 42.0% of operational security specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 12.6% of operational security specialists have master's degrees. Even though most operational security specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an operational security specialist. When we researched the most common majors for an operational security specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on operational security specialist resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an operational security specialist. In fact, many operational security specialist jobs require experience in a role such as security officer. Meanwhile, many operational security specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as customer service representative or team leader.
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In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of team leader you might progress to a role such as supervisor eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title account manager.
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The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 23.7% of operational security specialists listed physical security on their resume, but soft skills such as good judgment and patience are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an operational security specialist. The best states for people in this position are New York, North Dakota, Massachusetts, and Washington. Operational security specialists make the most in New York with an average salary of $52,709. Whereas in North Dakota and Massachusetts, they would average $50,976 and $46,478, respectively. While operational security specialists would only make an average of $45,743 in Washington, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Massachusetts
$46,478
Avg. Salary
2. Nebraska
$44,465
Avg. Salary
3. District of Columbia
$46,541
Avg. Salary