Q&A: Recruiting in a Highly Competitive Job Market

An increasing number of security professionals in the public sector are entering the private security marketplace. With experience in the military, law enforcement, and public service, this influx of new practitioners has created an increasingly competitive marketplace for job seekers.

Melissa Mack, CPP, is a managing director for Pinkerton with more than 20 years of experience in asset protection and education on safety, security, and risk. She was one of several career coaches at GSX 2025’s Career HQ in New Orleans, Louisiana. Between coaching sessions, she spoke with Security Management about what employers are looking for in new hires and how they’re retaining talent in a competitive job market.

The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Security Management (SM). You have a lot of familiarity with people who are transitioning from the public sector into private. Until this year, the U.S. federal government was largely considered a stable employer, but now that’s shifted. Do you think we’re going to see more people from the public sector applying for job openings in the private sector?

Melissa Mack, CPP. We’ve already seen with I kind of call a floodgate over the last couple years. In the 1980s, 1990s, the administration’s efforts were the war on drugs and war on crime. You saw U.S. federal law enforcement balloon in terms of employees, more than ever seen before. Fast-forward to 2025, those folks that came in then have spent 30 to 35 years in federal law enforcement, so there’s a natural attrition with retirements… You’re seeing a lot of Secret Service and FBI retire. You’ve kind of already seen that just from that natural progression, and now you throw on top of it what’s happening with this administration now.

We have also seen a mass exodus out of local and state law enforcement—a lot of that was driven around municipalities; their funding and resources are strained. You see pensions being at risk. And then you have George Floyd in 2020 and the whole “Defund Police” (movement). The climate in the country around supporting law enforcement is weaker than it’s ever been before as far as support. So, you’ve seen a lot of local and state law enforcement officers choose to leave that profession as well. They’re not retiring out. They’re putting in seven, eight, 10, 15 years, and they’re like, “I’ve had enough.” We’ve seen that group come into the security industry.

SM. How does that mass flood of applicants affect the job search process?

Mack. That mass kind of flood into the industry, obviously what that does is create a very tight job market. It’s super competitive. The number of applications that are submitted are way more than we’ve ever seen before.

So, now more than ever, you’ve got to identify what your differentiators are—what’s your value. When a company is hiring for positions, you may have five candidates that all equally can do the job—their experience is similar. At that point, you start looking for disqualifiers. That could be that these four applicants have a certification and this one doesn’t, so let me exclude that one. You’ve got to find ways to narrow that list down.

For people that are coming into the industry or young professionals that are looking to get promoted, you’ve got to have a dynamic, professional brand. It can’t be one-dimensional because the only way one-dimensional works for you in this industry is if you know somebody.

SM. Do you think it’s even more important to have those differentiators because we can expect a greater influx of people in the corporate security job market?

Mack. Probably so, because you also have companies across the world in the current economic environment that are issuing layoffs. And then you have the military, so you’ve got that constant feed of folks into the industry.

At least for security-specific companies, there seems to always be a high turnover for patrolling officers or just private officers in some capacity. That’s why retention is huge—you can get them in the door, but how do you attract people and how do you retain them and make them feel valued? Whether that’s through pay increases, job growth, career advancement opportunities, professional development, investing in them—it’s that retention piece that’s critical because once you get good people, you want to keep them.

SM. How do you see employers balancing that need to retain talent with profit margins?

Mack. What kind of happened through the COVID-19 pandemic was the security position really was crucial. They essentially served as first responders, too, in a way, like making sure people had masks on. Their roles kind of shifted, but it did elevate the profession of a security officer, becoming a critical resource that organizations needed.

And we did see an increase industry-wide and with the average wage rate. With uniformed guards, whether armed or unarmed, the specialized, former law enforcement, or former military are the ones that get hired for executive protection or workplace violence concerns, and their wage rate has significantly increased because the demand has increased. You’re seeing the pay elevated, but the company has to pass that cost on to the customer. Margins are shrinking on the service provider side, but it’s a give and take, and it ebbs and flows with the economy in the state of security.

SM. When it comes to attracting people to fill roles, whether its patrolling or working in a GSOC, how are security companies addressing this issue overall?

Mack. You know, you still have generalist roles and then you have roles that are specific, so the industry still needs both. I think right now, because it’s so competitive, there’s no shortage of applications anywhere. If you’re recruiting for a position, you want to make sure that you’re on all the platforms and you’re casting a wide net to get applications in.

I also think a lot of the colleges and universities now have programs that are security management degrees. When I came in 25 years ago, the only degree that you could get was criminal justice. There were no security studies or anything related to corporate security. So, you have a lot of those degree programs now that are preparing people for this industry. There’s no shortage of talent out there. It’s just a matter of when you get really good people, you’ve got to retain them.

Sara Mosqueda is associate editor for Security Management. Connect with her on LinkedIn or send her an email at [email protected].