• BACKGROUND: Broadly, a verifiable military, law enforcement, or intelligence background and no criminal records are essential requirements. If you lie about it, your employer will eventually find out and you might find yourself blacklisted. It is better to be honest and let your career grow organically. Ideally, you used to work or were partly trained, or collaborated with one of the forces listed on our PUBLIC FORCES page.

• SECURITY CLEARANCE: A good security clearance is highly desirable and a requirement by many reputable firms. In simple terms, your rank is commensurable to the security clearance you attained while on state service and this is an informal way to verify who you are and what precisely are you qualified to do (or not). Otherwise, a prospective employer needs a very good reason to justify spending money your security clearance prior to hiring you. In addition, some governmental agencies stipulate the need for contractor personnel to possess certain level of clearance and/or to be nationals of particular countries (e.g. a defense contractor might hire only nationals from a NATO country or any other relevant REGIONAL ORGANIZATION).

• NATIONALITY: In addition to security clearance, do discuss with your potential employer nationality / passport / visa issues, as they might play a role in the selection of the particular tasks you are hired to provide and/or the locations where you can be deployed. For example, if you are not an American citizen, you might not be able to perform certain homeland security functions; but, while working for the same company, you could finish supporting the U.S. forces as a contractor in Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa, or elsewhere. Our ADVERSE PRIVATE FORCES pages offer you a brief overview of trouble-spots around the world where many leading armies and contractor partners are currently deployed.

• AFFILIATIONS: Membership or accreditation from a well-established professional security association, such as those listed in the SECURITY INDUSTRY pages, is desirable. For instance, some job opportunities might be widely circulated within the membership of a particular association but not anywhere else. Moreover, some professional associations provide legal, employment, and insurance advice for free or at preferential rates to their membership, can facilitate the verification of your security clearance records, offer you training on the PSC Series of ANSI Standards, etc.

• EQUIPMENT: Make sure that your potential employer is able to equip you adequately. The agreed military gear and security equipment should be readily available shortly before or immediately upon deployment. We suggest that you do an inventory of the equipment provided and ask your supervisor/line manager/supervisor to endorse it. You do not want to be responsible for equipment that was never provided, lost, or worse, finishing in the wrong hands and you blamed for it. Also remember that most security contractors buy additional gear (such as high-quality footwear and eye-wear, protective vests, and GPS gadgets) at their own expense. We have a 'sample' list of supplier at our GI GEAR page.

• WELFARE: Make sure that your potential employer is able to offer you a decent medical cover. Amongst other things, you should be given clear advice, preferably in writing, about how, when, and where you can have access to medical assistance. A good plan would ideally also cover mental health issues during and immediately after you complete your contracted assignment. Why? Because stress breakdowns can be expensive and leave you unable to work for some time. Many contractors get additional insurance in addition to the basic policy commonly offered by your employer --We have an INSURANCE page and we expect that in the future it will contain more and better alternatives.

• THE CONTRACT: DO REQUEST A CONTRACT AND READ IT BEFORE DEPLOYMENT. A good contract should cover all the issues discussed on this page such as insurance, medical cover, and the security equipment provided, as well as traveling costs, termination clauses, notice period, etc. Remember that contracts are not written in stone and things can be changed or amended if necessary. The years of the Wild Geese are long over. Please remember that private military or private security jobs are now mainstream (have a quick look at the vast array of services on open offer by PMCs / PSCs). So please do not believe stories that a contract will be somehow provided only after you are airlifted to an unknown location in the middle of nowhere!

• SKILLS: To increase your employment potential, we encourage you to browse the corporate profiles we offer of PMCs and PSCs in order to match the skills you possess with the particular services firms currently offer. We are expanding our listings and now we cover, for example, UXO DISPOSAL, K-9 SUPPORT, MARITIME SECURITY; perhaps your expertise is in any of these areas.

• ONLINE COMMUNITIES: If you have not done it already, you might also benefit from joining one of the on-line communities we list in the FORUMS page in order to get some feedback from fellow private security and private military personnel. We should also mention Facebook groups are fast overtaking the membership of many well-established on-line communities. We have a PrivateMilitaryorg@Facebook page, though we have not created any group linked to it as yet.

• LOVED ONES: Last but not least, instruct your loved ones what to do in case the worse happens. We are not a spoil sport, but some people contact us from time to time because their loved ones never instructed them what to do in case of serious injury or death.

*** If we were of any help, please tell your employer that you saw about the job or learned about your prospective employer in PrivateMilitary.org. We are a not-for-profit enterprise and rely on feedback and word of mouth to maintain our top position on the Internet, so every little bit helps. Stay safe! ***