Security Officer Cover Letter

Security officers must be excellent leaders with proven surveillance and decision-making abilities. When you apply to a security officer job, you need a strong cover letter that proves you have such qualifications.

Check out these three tips for writing a security officer cover letter that maximizes your chances of landing employment:

1. Emphasize your relevant skills

Before considering how to write a cover letter, study the job description and determine which of your skills best match the requirements. These abilities are the qualifications to promote in your cover letter. If you don’t include relevant skills, applicant tracking system (ATS) software may delete your application before a hiring manager can even view it.

Therefore, your cover letter must explain why you can manage a team of security guards, develop best practices for safety and security in a physical space, and clearly communicate with managers.

Common hard skills and soft skills needed for a security officer position include the following:

• Investigating skills
• Report writing
• Interpersonal skills
• Technical competence (operating surveillance equipment)
• Training skills
• Risk assessment
• Decision making
• Communication skills
• Observation skills
• Emotional control
• Physical fitness
• Firearm certification
• Microsoft Office

If you’re unsure which qualifications to highlight, you can use your investigative skills and research the company. Finding out more about the company gives you a better understanding of what the hiring manager needs to see on your cover letter.

2. Provide examples of your achievements (with hard numbers)

Once you’ve described your skillset, support it with data. For example, if a safety measure you implemented reduced accidents or a technology upgrade you oversaw saved your company money, use hard numbers to prove what you achieved.

The best way to highlight numbers in a proper cover letter format is with a bulleted list. Placing your data in an offset list increases the possibility that they’ll catch the hiring manager’s attention.

Here’s an example, pulled from the above security officer cover letter sample:

• I reduced safety incidents by 50% during my time at Silicon Valley Bank via instituting changes to the company’s security processes and introducing new technology
• In 1 year as a Security Officer for Sharp Solutions Inc., I cut security breaches by 45%

3. Craft a strong closing

You’ve emphasized your relevant skills and demonstrated your value, so make sure you think about how to end a cover letter strong. Here are the main items to include in your security job cover letter’s closing paragraph:

• Summarize your qualifications in a sentence or two
• Reiterate your interest in the security officer position
• Prompt the hiring manager to contact you for an interview
• Include your phone number and email address so the hiring manager doesn’t have to search for them
• Use “Sincerely” when you sign your cover letter