INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Security Officer positions are at a 15% growth rate, which is faster than average. With that said, there are currently 1,067,700 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 155,600 to 1,223,300 in the period of 2020-30.
What’s more, the median annual wage for the Security Officer jobs was $31,080 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $25,400, and the highest 10% more than $62,450.
Our conclusion? The Security Officer job market is wide open for candidates.
Top Security Officer sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
How to write a Security Officer resume experience section
Security Officer Resume’s Job Experience Checklist:
- Use 4-6 bullet points per job title;
- Don’t go further than a decade behind when describing your job history, unless you’re applying for an executive position;
- Combine job responsibilities as well as achievements with numbers in results when you describe your past work;
- Start each sentence with a power verb and avoid overused buzzwords;
- Use either C-A-R or S-T-A-R methodology, when describing your experience.
The work experience samples below come from real Security Officer resumes that got people hired at top companies. You can use them as an inspiration to build your own resume:
- Patrolling, securing and monitoring the premises.
- Ensuring that visitors are checked before and after entry and are appropriately signed in and out.
- Performing regular walk about check outside and inside.
- Liaising with the police and other authorities and doing reports and acting as a witness.
- Staff recruitment, selection and interview processes
- Coordinate induction processes of the new employees
- Manage all employment processes, prepare labor contracts and all the related documentation
- Organization of corporate events, team buildings and other office activities (charity events, arts workshops etc.)
- Preparation of documentation for a new employees - create and update the staff profiles
- Increase employee motivation level and teamwork using different motivation activities
- Initiate randomly and performe security audits of data in different departments of the company
- Provide and conduct of all necessary training related to the processing of personal data
- Security check of the staff before hiring, during the working contract and after leaving the company
- Participate in the regular monthly meetings with colleagues in Germany to exchange experiences, information and reporting
- Currently supervise a staff of 27 Information Technology and Application Development Professionals that specialize in the creation of Mobile Applications to enroll customers into Insurance Solutions that we provide.
- I personally oversee a budget of $800,000 per year for all Information Technology infrastructure. I am also responsible for negotiating contracts with telecom, hardware, software and infrastructure service providers.
- Designed and implemented a two tier data center installation to modernize and secure sensitive data outside of our at-risk facility.
- Serve as Information Security Officer to insure we are compliant with such regulations as HIPAA, PCI Compliance, and Department of Insurance governing bodies in 17 states.
- Accountable for the Universities cyber and information security management systems and capability.
- Accountable for the IT risk management framework and capability.
- Accountable for the IT assurance framework and capability.
- Information governance, risk & compliance leadership of specialised line 2 assurance team.
- University Audit and Risk Committee member representing IT at university risk board.Cyber Emergency Response Team (CERT) leadership accountability managing critical cyber, information and privacy incidents.
- Cyber security industry and research partnership and collaboration innovator with industry partners from ideation to commercialisation.
- Trusted adviser and influencer to the Chancellery and Council.
- Member of the university senior leadership.
- Curriculum input and support for cyber security masters degree.
- Peer and student mentoring in cyber resilience.
- Sessional Lecturer in cyber security assurance and frameworks.
- Development of internal industry based learning (IBL) program in cyber reselience engaging Swinburne students.
- Development of cyber security awareness program leveraging IBL students in animation, film and television and simulation experiments.
- Public representative for cyber including industry presentation, media release and community support activities.
- Team management, motivation and development instilling a professional and accountable culture.
- Accountable for the iGRC capability inline with banking & finance 3 lines of defense regulatory landscape.
- Redevelopment of the region-wide Continuity of Operations framework & capability aligned to ISO22301 and financial services legislative framework.
- Leadership of the regional account CMT and CSIRT strategic response providing critical advisory focussed on strategic outcomes.
- Development of ISMS encompassing NIST Security Layers to ensure security posture and compliance.
- Assurance management ensuring attestation internally, with the client and government regulator.
- Regional cyber security CERT leader including experiences in actual cyber incident management.
- Team development and motivation developing a best in class capability now replicated globally.
- Assist International Security Coordinator for implementation and supervision of the project security.
- Development and implementation and supervision of company security staff.
- Provide training, manage and supervise the company security guards.
- Translate press release and offical document from English to Farsi and Farsi to English
- Designed and configured all internal and external networks and server clusters, evaluated all new technologies, implemented the routing, switching, filtering, and hardening from workstation to production level endpoints.
- Created an holistic approach to unified threat management, with multiple inspection bridges, and constant layer 2, 3 and 7 analytics, to solve the problem of segmenting a multitude of devices, some which need to move between lab and production networks (often with old flawed kernels for QA).
- Successfully trained staff in security policies, thereby reducing the risk of serious incidents. Handled the identification, investigation and containment of numerous breach attempts.
- Managing users access for Infrastructure and Security systems.
- Handling vulnerability management and patch management for all systems.
- Detecting, Investigating, and Handling security incidents.
- Assist in performing the Penetration Testing program for the organization.
- Created and implemented comprehensive Security and Risk Management Program
- Championed medical device product security (contributed to closing $200M+ security-contingent sales in 2 years)
- Managed Security program integration project portfolio throughout CareFusion+BD merger and led combined Security Strategy and Architecture function for both companies.
- Responsible for information security and risk management governance of ITEC (transversal business IT) and GTS (core IT) with focus on technical risk analysis, application security and vendor information security assessments.
- Performed IT security project, architecture, application and/or risk assessments on 80+ business projects totaling over $40M across investment banking, global financing and global markets LOBs.
- Led application security, penetration testing and third-party source code reviews as well as vendor security assessments in Americas region.
- Defined and established the cyber vision, strategy and policies to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the Firm's healthcare assets were adequately protected
- Led the implementation of the Firm's first certifiable Information Security Management System (ISMS) and helped multiple practices obtain an ISO 27001 and HITRUST certification within the first 9 months of joining the Firm
- Provided regular executive-level updates and promoted a cyber aware culture by providing KPIs against budgeted and planned initiatives
- Collaborated with legal to ensure consultants remained in compliance with contractual commitments, and CSEs understood their roles in protecting the Firm's intellectual property while traveling offshore or to high risk countries
PRO TIP
Make sure to relate your experience to your job description, but never lie. That’s not tolerated and will show up in the face-to-face interview later on.
Action Verbs for your Security Officer Resume
Recommended reads:
Security Officer Resume Skills’ Tips & Tricks to Impress Recruiters
Resume Skills Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Skills for your Security Officer resume
- ITiL ISO 90001 ISO 27001/2
- ISO/IEC 27001
- SOC
- PCI
- GLB/SOX
- GAAP/IFRS
- FISMA/FEDRAMP
- VMware
- Active listening
- Conflict resolution
- Empathy
- Compassion
- Adaptability
- Nonverbal communication
- Critical thinking and observation
- Building trust
PRO TIP
Add a Talent Section to your resume, where you can pick your top 3 soft skills and describe how you used them to complete a project or balance departmental communication.
Recommended reads:
Security Officer Resume Header: Tips, Red Flags, and Best Practices
CHECKLIST For Your Security Officer Resume Header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
- Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
- Email address
- Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
- first.last@gmail.com
- last.first@gmail.com
- firstlast@gmail.com
- f.last@gmail.com
- first.l@gmail.com
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Include a link to your portfolio in your Security Officer resume header. Most companies will require that you include one in your resume, and even if they don’t, it’s an excellent opportunity to directly show them your proudest projects.
Security Officer Resume Summary Best Practices
Checklist: What to include in your Security Officer resume summary:
- Years of experience;
- Highlight top 3 skills and proficiencies;
- One big professional accomplishment you’re most proud of, that you can tie with the aforementioned skills;
- Use short, direct sentences - but no more than three - to keep the HRs interested.
Resume Summary Formula:
PRO TIP
Highlight specific past projects that you’re most proud of in your summary. It sets an excellent tone for the rest of your resume. You can talk about all of your former jobs in your work experience section later on.
Recommended reads:
Listing Your Education, Certifications and Courses
Resume Education Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Certifications for your Security Officer resume
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
There are dozens of certifications that you can claim as a Security Officer. But, some are more effective than others. That’s why you mustn’t include every certificate other applicants might have. Try instead to earn and list a few of the difficult ones.
Security Officer Resume: Additional Writing & Formatting Tips
There are three basic resume formats you can choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional resume format;
- Hybrid (or Combination) resume format;
The most optimal format for your particular case will depend on your years of experience, as well as whether you’re switching industries or not.
Reverse chronological resumes are best suited for experienced individuals who are sticking to their industry. The experience section takes a central place, and its bullets contain your responsibilities and achievements, coupled with numbers and results.
Functional resumes are used by less experienced jobseekers or career changers. Note that it’s not a format that recruiters prefer, as most are used to the classic chronological alignment. Instead of a list of job titles, functional resumes focus on your skills, and through what experiences you gained them.
Hybrid resumes are great for both experienced and entry-level candidates, as well as career changers. They combine the best of both worlds - most often in a double column format, where one side of the content is focused on your experience, whereas the other - on your skills, strengths, and proudest moments.
Security Officer Resume Summary best practices
Here are more resume tips regarding your layout and style:
- Clear and legible 12p resume font size;
- Use 10’’ resume margins - that’s default for a great resume design;
- Use a one-page template resume length if you’ve got less than 10 years of experience; otherwise, opt for a two-page resume;
- Save your resume as PDF before sending it to the recruiter.
To take it a step further, check out how your resume can stand out without leaning too much on the creative side.
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
If you feel that you don’t have high chances in a particular company, due to lack of relevant experience, then you can still consider using a creative layout. That might help you get noticed and invited for an interview, as most of the other applicants will have boring resume designs.
Other sections to include in your resume
Depending on the type of company (corporation or start-up; innovative or traditional), job seniority level and your location, you may want to include more sections to your Security Officer resume:
Security Officer Resume: How to Make Yours More Creative & Stand Out
When you send your resume to a potential employer, chances are it's the fiftieth one they've seen that day. That's why you need to make your Security Officer resume stand out for the right reasons. That means showing your personality, not just your professional experience. Employers are far more likely to remember a candidate who seems like a genuine person and not a robot. Do this by including your passions (which is also a great place to demonstrate skills on a resume), share your favorite books, or even what your usual day looks like.
What Makes a Great Security Officer Resume: Key Takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
- List soft skills backed by examples;
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
