Will my training in Georgia transfer to any other state?

I know for a fact that the unarmed security guard training in the State of Georgia is nationally recognized throughout the United States.

The problem is individual states differ on security license requirements even as an unarmed security guard. Don't even get me started on the nightmare of transferring your armed security guard license between differing states.

Here's what you need to do, because this is what I have done in the past so I know this works:

1. Check with the particular state you are moving too, to make sure.
   • Most of the time, the answer is "no" and you will have to take the training course for the new state. However, whilst that will suck -- another license, another exam, another set of government hoops to jump through, more fees to go on a training course you already took in Georgia -- you will have a huge head start on those people who are taking the training course for the first time.
2. Look for work before you move.
   • Seriously, this is the #1 thing you can do for yourself. Moving to a job is a lot better than moving from a job. You'd be surprised how many people will give you a job based on the fact that you are already employed in Georgia and passed the already high bar of training requirements.
3. Approach it like an opportunity
   • You've already done it once, now you get to fix all those mistakes you did the first time around. How many times do you get a second-chance in life?

I've lived in five different states in my working life, and in all of them I have worked as a security guard, both armed and unarmed. By the time you have to sit down and do another training course for the fourth time, whatever topics they cover, it's a breeze. Different courses, different curriculum.

But there's a central core they all teach - observation, incident reporting, laws of arrest, maybe some First Aid.

Firearms licensing and training at the range, even in a new state, is just another routine day now.

So don't worry!

Don't think of having to do the licensing all over again as a hurdle. You need to think of it as an opportunity to resit a test or take a training course where you have most of the answer key given to you ahead of time.

Second time around you'll do better than all your peers who are sitting it for their first time.