From Sheepdog to the C-Suite: A Practical Guide for the Transitioning Cop or Vet
By Kevin Rice and Phil Carlson
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From Sheepdog to the C-Suite - Kevin Rice
Copyright 2019
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN 978-1-54397-460-7 (print)
ISBN 978-1-54397-461-4 (eBook)
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
SECTION ONE: Before the Transition
Chapter 1
Transitioning Patriots, You Are Why We Wrote This Book
Chapter 2
The Authors and Their Perspectives
Chapter 3
The List of Non-Negotiables
Chapter 4
Are You Sure You Really Want to Leave the Public Sector?
Chapter 5
Preparing for the Transition While Still in Public Service
SECTION TWO: During the Transition
Chapter 6
The Job Search Process
SECTION THREE: After the Transition
Chapter 7
You’re Hired, Now What?
SECTION FOUR: Survey of the Nation’s Top Security Executives
Chapter 8
The Survey Takers
Chapter 9
The Survey
Chapter 10
The Survey Results
Chapter 11
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
First, I would like to thank you, the reader of this book. You are more than likely a person who has spent time in military service or in law enforcement, and now you are looking for guidance on making a private sector transition. You are what makes America great. You are the sheepdogs that keep the flock safe from threats. You are that line between good and evil. You are the people on the wall that Jack Nicholson spoke about in A Few Good Men. Thank you for your service; I live in freedom and in peace because of what you individually and collectively do. Thank you!
I would like to express my appreciation to my co-author, Phil Carlson. Not only has he been a loyal and trusted friend for the last thirty years, he was the first person to support me when I talked about writing this book. I value his insight and his experience, and I am honored that he was willing to offer his take
on the subject matters in this book.
I want to thank the one hundred or so leaders in the security world who allowed me to seek out their responses to the survey that is used in the book. Although they did not all respond to the survey, I value their professional and personal friendships nonetheless. To those who did respond with truly unique and valuable advice, my appreciation can’t be easily conveyed.
So, thank you to Elton Owens, John Kirkwood, Bill Chamberlain, Greg Leimone, Will Hobbs, Steven Oda, Steve Hooper, Jimmy Murray, Steve Scarince, Hugh Goulding, Perry Bankhead, Wayne Peterson, Kent Chrisman, John Wintrow, Levi Gundert, Lonnie Falgout, David Thomas, David Allison, Jeff Frost, Robert McDonald, and Billy Joe Powers. You are tops in your fields, and your input on the survey was instrumental in completing this book.
I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge the mentorship and guidance of Jana Monroe and Sol Benudiz. They showed me how to make a successful transition by setting the highest example. They moved from highly successful careers in law enforcement to be some of the most trusted security leaders in the private sector. Thank you for being the North Star for the rest of us.
To my Mom and Dad, I love you and miss you. Thank you for being such loving parents and such positive role models.
To my brother Nick, everything I did, you did before me and to a greater extent. Thank you for leading the way and showing me how to do it.
Most importantly, I want to publicly acknowledge and deeply thank my wife, Cynthia. In 1994, I married above myself and since that time, she has supported me in all of my plans and crazy ideas. She endured every job transfer and new living arrangement without complaint, always creating a home for us and blooming wherever she was planted. Anything I achieved in my personal or professional life has been due to having her presence beside me. Thank you, Sweet-Pea, I owe you more than you will ever know.
Phil’s Take
I am deeply humbled that my best friend of over three decades would ask me to contribute to his work. When I think of terms like integrity, work ethic, honesty, sincerity, straightforwardness, consistency, and humbleness, I think of Kevin Rice. Even though I believe my friend waited until the time he knew I had the absolute most on my plate that I could possibly handle, then asked me to co-author this book with him, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I know his intentions have always been and will continue to be completely honorable, and I am proud and honored to contribute to this work.
I too would like to thank you, the reader of this book, because if you are reading it, you most likely have dedicated your life’s work to protecting this great country of ours, whether abroad on some foreign soil, or right here in our nation’s cities, towns, counties, and states. You are what separates us from freedom and total anarchy. Both my wife Paula and I served in law enforcement for over three decades each, and now we are retired from working the streets. However, each time we see an officer on patrol, on a traffic stop, or walking a beat, we silently offer up a prayer of protection. We do the same each time we see a member of our military. You are the reason we sleep in peace at night in our homes, and the reason we travel freely around our city and our nation. The color of the uniform doesn’t matter, the agency doesn’t matter, the branch of the military doesn’t matter. You are all selfless by choosing to do what you do, and for that we thank you and honor you. We truly believe these are the most honorable professions.
As Kevin acknowledged his lovely wife Cynthia, a best friend to Paula and I for decades, I too would like to acknowledge my amazing and beautiful wife of thirty-three years, Paula. In May 1986, she did the craziest thing any woman could do and agreed to marry me. Over the years, she has been my best friend and confidant; she has supported me at every turn in my career, even when some of those decisions made life much more difficult for her; and she has put her family first in everything she does. On top of that, as I previously mentioned, she served our nation in the law enforcement profession for over thirty years. Paula started out as a 911 dispatcher, arguably one of the most stressful and thankless jobs in our profession, and she worked her way up to public service officer, and then was one of a handful of recruits from her class to graduate the rigorous Florida Highway Patrol Academy to become a Florida state trooper. Following that career, she was recruited to become an instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia, where she made a difference in countless lives of recruits and trainees. Now retired from law enforcement, she is the president and owner of a successful cruise and travel agency, and she continues to support me and assist me with executive protection details when I need someone I can truly count on to get it right. She does all this while still putting up with me and my nonsense, and for that I am eternally grateful. Now and forever, Paula.
SECTION ONE:
Before the Transition
1
Transitioning Patriots,
You Are Why We Wrote This Book
This book is written for the men and women in law enforcement and the military who see for themselves a future in the corporate security world but not as an entry-level security officer. The book is written for those who, because of the knowledge and backgrounds they obtained in government service, see themselves running integral parts of a corporation’s security apparatus.
Currently in the United States, there are 18,000 law enforcement agencies, including state, federal, county, and municipal employers. Current estimates state that there are over 120,000 federal agents and approximately 1 million state and local police officers in the United States. On the military side, the United States employs 1.3 million active duty soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines, as well as approximately 850,000 reservists. It is estimated that approximately 250,000 military vets transition out of the military every year in the United States.
Many of these cops and warriors have been trained in subject matters that provided them the experience and leadership skills to oversee the security concerns of a major corporation. But how does your average police officer, detective, special agent or army officer make the transition from the public sector to the highest echelons of the corporate security culture? The answer to that question hopefully lies in the following pages.
But let’s be honest, not every law enforcement officer or service person is an excellent candidate for the private sector security world. There are certain skills that are directly translatable from the public sector to the private sector, but in the business world there is often a lack of appreciation for the skills that are not taught in college or in an MBA program.
This book is written by two men who were able to successfully make that transition. The authors learned much as they prepared for their move from the public service sector to the private sector. Mistakes were made along the way, and the hope is that with this book, future patriots will not have to repeat those same miscues.
As you will see, the book is written to guide the transitioning cop or military veteran with advice and hints about the process before the job search, during the job search, and after they have been hired.
Because the book is written for both those in law enforcement and in the military that seek to move to the private sector, we will hereafter refer to the subjects of the book as patriots.
It will make this book easier to write and easier to read if we don’t have to keep referring to law enforcement or the military. In short, it doesn’t matter if the reader of this book is a captain in the Air Force, a special agent with the FBI, or a detective with a medium-sized police department. You are all patriots, and you will be treated as such. You have paid dues, you have selflessly strived to make this nation and its people safer, and now you want to bring your skill sets and your experience to a different employer. You are patriots in every sense of the word. So, it doesn’t matter to the authors whether you are in the criminal justice field or whether you wear the uniform of our nation’s military, you are the best our nation has to offer, you are patriots, so that is what we will call you.
As a patriot, you have seen and experienced much; you are shrewd and have undergone rigorous training. You have spent your professional life providing secure environments, conducting investigations, and maintaining confidences. You are exactly the kind of person that corporations need, and this book aims to help you navigate the path to a highly successful career in the business world.
So, why did we decide to write this book? We actually got the idea when we attended a meeting of our local American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS) chapter. We will discuss more about ASIS and the other organizations you should belong to in a later chapter. But as we sat in that local chapter meeting, our host asked all of the attendees to introduce themselves, their current roles, and their backgrounds. Your authors listened to the local members and almost to a person, every security director or manager came from a background in law enforcement or the military. As we listened to each person’s biography, we wondered how each of these individuals had managed to make the leap from being a public servant to getting paid by a private institution. We also wondered if their trials and tribulations were the same as those experienced by us.
At the same time, we knew that somewhere out there were hundreds, no thousands, of patriots also looking to make the same transition. It is for those thousands of prospective candidates out there that we wrote this book. We hope that you find many of our suggestions useful and that we provide you some nuggets of gold that you can mine. We also know that our audience, cops and military veterans, are a tough crowd. You can smell BS from a mile away, so our goal when we wrote this book was to be honest and straightforward with our readers. We will not sugarcoat anything, and we will not attempt to deceive you. Sometimes we will be blunt, and sometimes we will be politically incorrect, but that is because we want to be transparent.
Phil’s Take
I would estimate that at least once a month, I receive an inquiry, either in person or through email or LinkedIn, from current or retired patriots, or friends who have family members who are patriots, asking basically this: How do I get a job doing what you’re doing?
And the inclination seems to be that it’s an easy and glorious gig. Don’t get me wrong, I am blessed beyond belief to hold the position I do, but as Kevin will allude to later, it’s not all a bed of roses. That being said, there is no question that the interest in making the leap is there. If I receive all these inquiries, I’m pretty confident all our colleagues in this profession get them as well. The questions I get asked are so challenging to answer in a phone call or email. There is a huge picture to see, and it simply can’t be condensed into a quick conversation or a few paragraphs. So, we hope to provide you with that big-picture view. There are so many variables to consider and prepare for. Our goal is to bring it all into much clearer focus for you.
What makes this book unique is the fact that not only will the reader get the experience and advice from two seasoned experts, but from dozens of this country’s leading security directors. We believe that the insight received from our survey toward the end of this book will provide the reader with an insider’s view of what security directors around the world are thinking.
2
The Authors and Their Perspectives
So, we told you a little about the book, and we told you why we wrote it and what we hope to accomplish (to get you a job as a senior leader in a corporate security setting, without repeating our mistakes). But why should you listen to us?
We will spend the next few pages outlining the backgrounds of your authors. We do this not for self-aggrandizement, not to stroke our egos, but for one simple reason. We want to hopefully convince you that we are subject matter experts when it comes to moving from public sector jobs to private sector positions.
We ask you to indulge us as we speak about our backgrounds. But as we write about our pedigrees and our experience, also understand that we know for a fact that each of our targeted readers (read, patriots) have expertise and backgrounds that are as impressive if not more impressive than our own backgrounds. The only difference is, we have already walked down the path of leaving government service, and you are either contemplating that move or currently undergoing that move.
When we set out to write this book, our goal was to make it stand out in the marketplace. We believed that we had insights and vantage points that only we could provide, but we also knew that we did not have all of the answers. Your authors are fortunate; we have dozens of friends and colleagues in the highest positions in the corporate security field, and in addition to our advice and offerings, we have asked our colleagues to also offer