Assess Your Skills to Advance Your Career

By the Security Executive Council

When was the last time you sat down to take a good hard look at your own skills and experience as a security leader?

Many of us don't engage in self-assessments until job searches force us to. But assessing your competencies has benefits beyond interview prep. It can help you determine what training and experience you can pursue today that might advance your career and your organizational goals now and down the road.

One challenge with self-assessments is that it's often hard to see gaps in your skill sets because you can't know what you don't know. That's why we've created this worksheet to help guide your process. It lists useful and expected competencies by category of security program, so you can gauge your skill level and experience level and identify potential gaps.

Use the following worksheet as a sample to guide your process. (The full version of this resource includes 13 categories; we've included two here as an example. Not all categories will apply.)

Consider your existing role in your organization and begin with the categories that fit that role. Then think about your security program's roadmap and your company's strategic plan. Into which categories might your expertise need to expand in the future to enable growth in planned directions?

Think about your career. Where would you like to be in five years? Ten? Which categories might benefit your rise to your ideal position or organization?

This worksheet can also be used to assess potential new hires and staff that is new to you when you've transitioned to a new leadership role.

◢	A	B	C
1		Skill Level 1-10 (low to high)	Experience Level 1-10 (low to high)
2	Investigations:
3	Assets
4	Asset Recovery
5	Behavioral Interviewing
6	Benefits Fraud
7	Bomb Threat
8	Civil Asset Recovery
9	Chain of Custody Procedures
10	Computer Crimes
11	Crimes Against Persons
12	Due Diligence (Financial)
13	Embezzlement
14	Employment Background
15	Evidence Collection
16	Financial Crimes
17	Fire / Arson
18	Information Theft
19	Injury / Death Response
20	Inventory Shortages
21	Insurance
22	Legal - sovereign criminal and civil law, rules of evidence, testifying
23	Litigation, Witness Location
24	Mail / Fraud
25	Mergers & Acquisitions; Due Diligence
26	Network and Systems Intrusion
27	Policy/Procedure Violation
28	Property Crimes
29	SEC Regulatory Offenses
30	Social Media
31	Standard Operating Procedure
32	Surveillance Methods
33	Theft and Fraud
34	Undercover/Informants
35	Workers Comp Fraud
36	Workplace Violence
37	Written Statement Analysis
38
39	Physical Security Systems, Methods, & Procedures
40	Alarm Response
41	Access Control
42	All-hazards Risk, Threat & Vulnerability Assessment, Awareness and Situational Reporting
43	Alarms - Door, Critical Process, Duress, Life-Safety, Monitoring
44	Biometrics, Readers, Cards, PINS
45	CCTV and Video Management Systems
46	Central Station Management
47	Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design CPTED
48	Evacuation and Shelter-In-Place
49	Global Security Ops Centers
50	Identity Authentication
51	Lighting
52	Lock & Key Programs
53	Multi-Tenant Security Systems
54	Perimeter Controls Alarms, Barriers, Fences, Gates, Security Patrol, Signage and Surveillance , Turnstiles
55	Protection-In-Depth
56	Security Officer/Systems Utilization
57	Security Standards e.g., NFPA 1600, ANSI and ISO and US Gov equivalents C-FATS, C-TPAT, Etc.
58	System Integration
59	System Design & Specifications
60	Weapons - certifications, training - Use of Force
61	Workplace/Workforce Notification and Alerting
62
63	TOTALS

This exercise can be scored any number of ways. Here are a few options:

Scoring (self assessment)

Skill or experience below 5: Requires work. Concentrate training efforts on these items.
Weight items more heavily that apply directly to your current, prospective, or ideal position
Weight items more heavily that your senior management has deemed important to your organization
Totals or averages per category may be compared to provide generalized training guidance

Scoring (hiring/staff assessment)

Determine required totals or averages per category for potential hires
Determine required ranges of skill and experience for each item
Work with HR to discuss using required ranges to assess interviews, applications and resumes
Ask potential hires and/or staff to complete this exercise as a self assessment and compare to required ranges.
Use staff assessments to guide team training and transitions

The full self assessment is a work in progress that currently includes 13 categories: Investigations; Physical Security; Procedural Controls; Proprietary Information; International Operations; Program Management; Governance and Policy; Business Conduct & Ethics; IT Security; Supply Chain Security; Business Continuity & Crisis Management; HR Security; and U.S. Legal Regulatory Requirements. Which categories would be most helpful in your own career and organization? To talk about the categories not included here, contact us.

Need help finding resources designed to help security leaders address the gaps they find? We can help. Contact us to discuss your needs.

Assess_Your_Skills_to_Advance_Your_Career.pdf

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We know how to fine-tune corporate security because we've led effective and efficient Fortune 500-level security programs. The SEC helps businesses find the best balance of risk mitigation, cost and innovation.

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