Bouncer license

jimhaumman · 23 Jul 2012 at 04:38

Hi.
I'm thinking about doing bouncer license,how much it cost these days?
What requirements do i need to meet?How you can get on averange an hour in West Wales?How can I get work?Insurance cost?
thanks for advise

should write security guard

Van Hellseek · 23 Jul 2012 at 04:42

Something tells me you'd be perfect for the job.

Mucky_Pup · 23 Jul 2012 at 08:02

jimhaumman said:
What requirements do i need to meet?

Bald? Portly? Inferiority complex? Short fuse?

tom_e · 23 Jul 2012 at 08:50

SIA Licence will get you further, don't go around calling everyone bouncers it's not the most liked of words amongst most of us.
The badge is £220 the training course is on average £150-200, you need to do the course before you can apply for your badge.
You get work by getting hold of local security companies, you can always pop up to local pubs and things early in the night and ask the guys who they work for, don't do this after a few beers or you're just another drunk who likes to tell us he's going for his badge.
Insurance should be dealt with by the company you work for and average wage is anything from £8ph to £12ph depending where you work, who you work for and if you're any good.
Almost all companies will employ you on a self employed basis so you'll need to sort your own tax etc.
Don't get into it just because you think it'll make you look big, hard and irresistible to women and always back your guys up, you can pull them up later if you don't agree with how they've dealt with something.
Most importantly, use your mouth first and second and until there is no other option than to get hands on. Which to be honest is not needed anywhere near as much as people seem to think, especially the new guys who can end up thinking they're 10 men until they get their rears handed to them and are never to be seen again.
Oh and don't forget your sense of humour!

atpbx · 23 Jul 2012 at 09:34

tom_e said:
Don't get into it just because you think it'll make you look big, hard and irresistible to women and always back your guys up, you can pull them up later if you don't agree with how they've dealt with something.
orget your sense of humour!

So even if your mate is being a complete dick about something and has gone completely over top in how he is dealing with something, back his call anyway, dish out the un warrented treatment then tell him he was out of order once you've dealt with the victim of your mates poor judgement?

That sounds fair.

By the way, I've never had any problems with bouncers on a night out so my response isnt prompted by past experience.

tom_e · 23 Jul 2012 at 09:39

atpbx said:
So even if your mate is being a complete dick about something and has gone completely over top in how he is dealing with something, back his call anyway, dish out the un warrented treatment then tell him he was out of order once you've dealt with the victim of your mates poor judgement?

That sounds fair.

No, as an example something I had the other day was a guy I was working with ended up getting a bit heated with a guy who needed to leave I could see the red mist descending because the guy was being a prat so I switched in told my guy to leave it and ejected the guy no dramas I then pulled him up and told him there was absolutely no need to start escalating it to that level when talking and some gentle guidance got the guy to leave.
I backed my colleague up without dishing out an unwarranted kicking.

Energizer Bunny · 23 Jul 2012 at 09:43

tom_e said:
SIA Licence will get you further, don't go around calling everyone bouncers it's not the most liked of words amongst most of us.
The badge is £220 the training course is on average £150-200, you need to do the course before you can apply for your badge.
You get work by getting hold of local security companies, you can always pop up to local pubs and things early in the night and ask the guys who they work for, don't do this after a few beers or you're just another drunk who likes to tell us he's going for his badge.
Insurance should be dealt with by the company you work for and average wage is anything from £8ph to £12ph depending where you work, who you work for and if you're any good.
Almost all companies will employ you on a self employed basis so you'll need to sort your own tax etc.
Don't get into it just because you think it'll make you look big, hard and irresistible to women and always back your guys up, you can pull them up later if you don't agree with how they've dealt with something.
Most importantly, use your mouth first and second and until there is no other option than to get hands on. Which to be honest is not needed anywhere near as much as people seem to think, especially the new guys who can end up thinking they're 10 men until they get their rears handed to them and are never to be seen again.
Oh and don't forget your sense of humour!

An interesting post. It's very easy to label bouncers as a bunch of thugs with hair trigger tempers but I imagine the truth in most cases is closer to what you describe.

tom_e · 23 Jul 2012 at 09:51

Energizer Bunny said:
An interesting post. It's very easy to label bouncers as a bunch of thugs with hair trigger tempers but I imagine the truth in most cases is closer to what you describe.

It very much is. Most of us are well educated generally nice people or at least the guys employed within my company are.
We've got a few teachers who work for us, there's a fair few of us with degrees and good full time jobs.
We do it because you can have a good crack with both the guys you work with and the customers most of the time and it's a nice extra wage.
Not because we feel the need to beat and berate everybody who walks through the door.
Which is probably why we are asked back by the same organisers time and time again to staff their events and venues, of course there are times where it all goes to pot and you have to stop being nice but I've been doing this for five years and I can count those times on one hand.

IRLeetly · 23 Jul 2012 at 10:09

Do you own a bomber jacket?

atpbx · 23 Jul 2012 at 10:10

tom_e said:
No, as an example something I had the other day was a guy I was working with ended up getting a bit heated with a guy who needed to leave I could see the red mist descending because the guy was being a prat so I switched in told my guy to leave it and ejected the guy no dramas I then pulled him up and told him there was absolutely no need to start escalating it to that level when talking and some gentle guidance got the guy to leave.
I backed my colleague up without dishing out an unwarranted kicking.

No offence, thats not backing your mate up, thats showing him his judgement is wrong and he lacks the skills to deal with the situation.

Which is a good thing.

Maccapacca · 23 Jul 2012 at 10:16

A mate owns a security company, I don't think he'd hire anyone looking for 'bouncer' jobs as the Facebook quote below

xxxx Security are now recruiting for 2 new venue's in xxxxx, all applicants must take security seriously, have a presence and at least 2 years experience.. for those of you who like the idea of standing round talking xxxxxxx and womanising whilst working for us needn't apply.. smoking whilst on duty is the behaviour of a xxxxxxxxx and theredore your better off working the door of Tesco's, cheers

tom_e · 23 Jul 2012 at 10:24

atpbx said:
No offence, thats not backing your mate up, thats showing him his judgement is wrong and he lacks the skills to deal with the situation.

Which is a good thing.

To be honest I probably didn't word it quite right in my original post; but at the end of the day my colleague didn't lose face, we still appeared as a team and it all ended nicely.
I was talking to my boss the other day and he was telling me about some guy who came in for an interview. The first question he always asks is why do you want to work in security.
This guys answer was a shining example of what most people think of security personnel.
"Well it's easy innit, I'm big and strong and I reckon I could have most people in a fight"
My boss laughed at him and told him to get the **** out of the office and stop wasting his time.

oulton · 23 Jul 2012 at 10:28

OP should probably be quite picky about the company/venue you want to work for as although lots of bouncers are sound there are still some real dicks out there who do the job because they want to beat people up.

estebanrey · 23 Jul 2012 at 10:48

Being a world Kick Boxing champion helps. Look at what happens when this loud mouth realises who he is trying to mess with (but also look how well he handles it despite having some horrible abuse thrown at him, his comebacks are genius though and show you can beat a drunk with words without having to resort to your fists)

edit: video has swears, search Youtube for "Bouncer (kickbox world champion) vs loudmouth"

Cuchulain · 23 Jul 2012 at 10:52

estebanrey said:
Being a world Kick Boxing champion helps. Look at what happens when this loud mouth realises who he is trying to mess with (but also look how well he handles it despite having some horrible abuse thrown at him, his comebacks are genius though and show you can beat a drunk with words without having to resort to your fists)

I'd get rid of that video sharpish.

estebanrey · 23 Jul 2012 at 10:53

Cuchulain said:
I'd get rid of that video sharpish.

Oh yeah forgot, edited. Thanks for heads up.

jimhaumman · 23 Jul 2012 at 20:20

tom_e said:
It very much is. Most of us are well educated generally nice people or at least the guys employed within my company are.
We've got a few teachers who work for us, there's a fair few of us with degrees and good full time jobs.
We do it because you can have a good crack with both the guys you work with and the customers most of the time and it's a nice extra wage.
Not because we feel the need to beat and berate everybody who walks through the door.
Which is probably why we are asked back by the same organisers time and time again to staff their events and venues, of course there are times where it all goes to pot and you have to stop being nice but I've been doing this for five years and I can count those times on one hand.

i think i'll fit perfectly into your company.

jimhaumman · 23 Jul 2012 at 22:17

tom_e said:
SIA Licence will get you further, don't go around calling everyone bouncers it's not the most liked of words amongst most of us.
The badge is £220 the training course is on average £150-200, you need to do the course before you can apply for your badge.
You get work by getting hold of local security companies, you can always pop up to local pubs and things early in the night and ask the guys who they work for, don't do this after a few beers or you're just another drunk who likes to tell us he's going for his badge.
Insurance should be dealt with by the company you work for and average wage is anything from £8ph to £12ph depending where you work, who you work for and if you're any good.
Almost all companies will employ you on a self employed basis so you'll need to sort your own tax etc.
Don't get into it just because you think it'll make you look big, hard and irresistible to women and always back your guys up, you can pull them up later if you don't agree with how they've dealt with something.
Most importantly, use your mouth first and second and until there is no other option than to get hands on. Which to be honest is not needed anywhere near as much as people seem to think, especially the new guys who can end up thinking they're 10 men until they get their rears handed to them and are never to be seen again.
Oh and don't forget your sense of humour!

thanks for that.really good informations.
I'm not big,I'm 13 stones,used to do boxing and ju-jitsu,now and then.
I don't want to do it to impress ladies,I'm happily married with the baby on the way.I'm just not happy with money and job I'm doing at the moment(night porter).I've been looking for different job,but not much is going in this small town in western Wales.Mate did the security guard licences,which is 5 feet 9inch tall,12 stones.Has not much clue in martial arts or self-defence,and he is still getting jobs.So I think I could give it a go.Money are much better what I'm getting now,still could do part time in a hotel during a week,and work weekends as SG.

tom_e · 24 Jul 2012 at 09:12

jimhaumman said:
thanks for that.really good informations.
I'm not big,I'm 13 stones,used to do boxing and ju-jitsu,now and then.
I don't want to do it to impress ladies,I'm happily married with the baby on the way.I'm just not happy with money and job I'm doing at the moment(night porter).I've been looking for different job,but not much is going in this small town in western Wales.Mate did the security guard licences,which is 5 feet 9inch tall,12 stones.Has not much clue in martial arts or self-defence,and he is still getting jobs.So I think I could give it a go.Money are much better what I'm getting now,still could do part time in a hotel during a week,and work weekends as SG.

You need to decide if you want to do static guarding work which is what I'd call a security guard, they're the people you see doing retail security or building site security etc or if you want to go into door supervision which allows you to do all the static guard work as well as work on licensed premises such as the pubs and clubs.
The courses and the badges are different for both but both around the same prices.
Unfortunately it doesn't matter to a lot of companies how good you are it's all about how little they can pay you so they can undercut the competition and get the contract as long as there's a body in a high vis to cover their insurance they're happy.
Also size isn't always a big factor it's more about how you come across, I'm only 5'6ish.

Bouncer license

Tea Drinker