Career Escape
Moving from firefighter to security guard, by the occupational data
Both occupations are described by the same O*NET 30.3 rating system, which makes them directly comparable: the same requirements, rated for each. What follows is that comparison for firefighters and Security Guards, not an opinion about whether the move is a good idea.
Can a firefighter become a security guard?
The overlap here is narrower than the two job titles suggest: 54% of what O*NET 30.3 rates as important to either occupation is important to both. The requirements that carry across include Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or Equipment, Monitoring and Controlling Resources, Telecommunications. It sits at Job Zone 2 against Job Zone 3 for firefighters, meaning shorter typical entry requirements. That is a statement about entry requirements only, not about pay or standing. BLS lists high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry education here, against postsecondary nondegree award for firefighters. What would be new concentrates in knowledge: Therapy and Counseling, Administrative, Computers and Electronics. BLS puts the 2025 national median wage for security guards at $38,020 against $59,280 for firefighters, a difference of 36% downward at the occupational level rather than for any individual move. BLS projects employment in the destination occupation to grow 0.9% between 2025 and 2035, with about 156,000 openings a year on average. O*NET describes the destination as follows: Guard, patrol, or monitor premises to prevent theft, violence, or infractions of rules. This compares two occupations, not two people, and says nothing about whether any individual would be hired.
- Weighted overlap
- 54% of the requirements important to either occupation are important to both, with 2 of those shared requirements classed as distinctive rather than near-universal.
- Preparation level
- O*NET Job Zone 2, against Job Zone 3 for firefighters. Typically less than your field requires.
- Typical entry education (BLS)
- High school diploma or equivalent, against Postsecondary nondegree award for firefighters.
- Prior experience typically expected
- None, plus short-term on-the-job training as the typical on-the-job training category.
- Where the overlap is strongest
- Knowledge, with 2 distinctive requirements important to both. Requirements that carry over include Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or Equipment, Monitoring and Controlling Resources, Telecommunications.
- Independent corroboration
- O*NET separately lists this occupation as directly related to 1 of the occupations in this source set, which is a signal independent of the overlap measure.
Source and method
O*NET 30.3 Database, with BLS Employment Projections Table 5.4. Verified 2026-09-02. Importance ratings, Job Zones and occupational titles are read from O*NET. Typical entry education, prior experience and on-the-job training are read from BLS. The weighted overlap percentage, the distinctive-requirement counts, and the shared and new requirement lists are computed by RoleSprint from those inputs using the method published at /career-change/methodology.
Career transition data
Firefighter to Security Guards
- Work activities overlapderived
- 70%
- Knowledge overlapderived
- 47%
- Transferable skills overlapderived
- 18%
- Essential skills overlapderived
- 60%
- Job Zone
- 3 to 2
- Median annual wage, 2025
- $59,280 to $38,020
- Wage differencederived
- −$21,260 (−36%)
- Projected employment change, 2025–35
- +0.9%
- Annual openings, 2025–35 average
- 156,000
- Typical entry education
- High school diploma or equivalent
Largest transferable capability: Public Safety and Security
Largest new demand: Computers and Electronics
Source. Job Zone and requirement ratings: O*NET 30.3. Wage, employment projections, openings and entry education: BLS Employment Projections Table 1.2, projections 2025–35, wage year 2025. RoleSprint-derived. Overlap percentages and the wage difference are calculated by RoleSprint from those published values. Limitation. These are national occupational statistics for two occupations. The wage figure is not a salary you would be offered, employment growth is not job security, and overlap is not a likelihood of being hired. Fields BLS does not publish for an occupation are omitted rather than estimated.
What carries over
Requirements O*NET rates as important for both firefighters and security guards, by domain. Most distinctive first, so the top of each list is the part that is actually worth putting on a resume.
Work activities
33 of 38 work activities important to either occupation are important to both.
- Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or Equipment4.5 for firefighters, 3.9 here
- Monitoring and Controlling Resources3.1 for firefighters, 3.0 here
- Assisting and Caring for Others4.5 for firefighters, 4.2 here
- Performing for or Working Directly with the Public4.2 for firefighters, 4.4 here
- Guiding, Directing, and Motivating Subordinates3.3 for firefighters, 3.8 here
Knowledge
9 of 17 knowledge areas important to either occupation are important to both.
- Telecommunications3.6 for firefighters, 3.8 here
- Medicine and Dentistry3.6 for firefighters, 3.0 here
- Law and Government3.4 for firefighters, 3.5 here
- Public Safety and Security4.5 for firefighters, 4.7 here
- Psychology3.2 for firefighters, 3.1 here
Transferable skills
3 of 9 transferable skills important to either occupation are important to both.
- Social Perceptiveness3.4 for firefighters, 3.0 here
- Coordination3.6 for firefighters, 3.1 here
- Judgment and Decision Making3.6 for firefighters, 3.0 here
Essential skills
5 of 6 essential skills important to either occupation are important to both.
- Reading Comprehension3.1 for firefighters, 3.0 here
- Monitoring3.5 for firefighters, 3.4 here
- Speaking3.5 for firefighters, 3.3 here
- Critical Thinking3.9 for firefighters, 3.1 here
- Active Listening3.5 for firefighters, 3.8 here
Numbers are O*NET Importance, on a 1 to 5 scale. A requirement counts as important at 3.0 and above, which is the threshold the whole comparison uses.
What would be new
Requirements important for security guards and not important for firefighters. This is the part you would have to be able to evidence, and it is usually the real obstacle rather than the job title.
Work activities
2 work activities rated important here and not for firefighters.
- Staffing Organizational Units3.8 here, 2.8 for firefighters
- Performing Administrative Activities3.4 here, 2.8 for firefighters
Knowledge
3 knowledge areas rated important here and not for firefighters.
- Therapy and Counseling3.1 here, 2.7 for firefighters
- Administrative3.7 here, 2.8 for firefighters
- Computers and Electronics4.1 here, 2.9 for firefighters
Practical caveats for this move
Specific to this pair, and worth reading before treating any of the above as a plan.
- Security Guards sits a Job Zone below firefighters. Shorter entry requirements are not the same as an easier hire: employers filling a lower Job Zone role sometimes screen out candidates whose background sits above it.
- BLS records no prior experience in a related occupation as typical for this role, which makes the requirement lists above the more useful guide to what a posting will ask for.
- O*NET independently lists this as a related occupation, so two separate parts of the dataset agree that the work is adjacent.
- None of this accounts for licensing, geography, pay, hiring volume, or whether you would want the work. Occupational data describes the job. It does not describe the market for it, and it does not describe you.
How this move compares with the alternatives
This page is one move. The Opportunity Atlas puts every destination mapped from firefighters side by side on skills overlap, day-to-day work, wage, projected growth, openings and the size of the training step.
It does not rank them, because the dimensions genuinely disagree: measured across every transition published here, how much your skills carry over and how much your knowledge carries over are close to unrelated. You choose which one matters and it orders by that.
Compare the alternatives in the Opportunity AtlasThe destination occupation, as O*NET describes it
Guard, patrol, or monitor premises to prevent theft, violence, or infractions of rules. May operate x-ray and metal detector equipment.
O*NET-SOC 33-9032.00. Full title: Security Guards. Where this page uses the shorter phrase “security guard”, that is a common name for readability, not a separate occupational classification.
This page includes information from the O*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. RoleSprint has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. Analysis generated 2026-09-02 from the O*NET 30.3 Database. Entry education, work experience, and on-the-job training are reproduced from BLS Employment Projections Table 5.4, Education and training assignments by detailed occupation, 2024, published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
What to do next
Occupational data compares two jobs. It cannot tell you whether one specific employer would consider you, and this is the point where most people stop reading data and start applying blind.