Any UK security/DS here?
Very sorry for the essay but would love some input 🙏
I find myself in a difficult position career wise. Well paid job earning well above average for my industry (my workplace has unique concerns let's say that they have historically made up for in salaries). We are going through a restructure currently and while I am not being made redundant, my role is changing and I am expecting a fairly steep salary cut. The salary will be competitive within industry norms, so that in itself isn't the biggest issue, I knew the gravy train would eventually come to an end. The bigger issue is that my new role does not utilise my skills at all, a monkey could do it, and morale is generally in the toilet. And I'm generally just totally burned out and have no real desire to keep going in this industry, it's dying, lots of jobs lost to AI and automation, constantly shrinking budgets and downsizing etc. Every similar job posting I've found just doesn't appeal to me at all. And it is my opinion that in a year or so the company will move to a smaller premises, automate even more aggressively, etc, and eventually I'll be out of a job.
That said, I've only known this industry and have no other experience or qualifications. Security is something I genuinely think I'd quite like doing (some jobs more than others, I'm not thrilled about the prospect of working pub and club doors, but events, corporate etc would suit me), but generally meeting and helping people, being security conscious and looking for what's out of the norm, crowd control, control room ops, getting first aid trained (I'd love to do FREC 3, probably start with FAW), outdoors in all weathers etc all appeals to me. I'm not a fighter haha, but I can hold my own, would have anyone's back if needed, and I'm very good at just talking to people. Problem is it seems like kind of a dead end job/industry with pitiful pay 😅 I don't need to make crazy money, but cost of living is insane and I live around London (I saw a posting for MI5 security officers that pays great, but right now I live too far away for the early shifts sadly)
Can security actually be viable career with progression? I think I could make good supervisor/management material but do these roles just go to ex-forces/police? Will I just be stuck working the doors forever? (at best maybe a corporate concierge or control room type of role full time?). Honest thoughts? Is this something someone with the right attitude and motivation can succeed in or is it a stop gap?