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It’s a easy yet hard decision

Over the last year I have recieved countless resumes and bios from specialists over the world asking to be added to the BPI provider list.  Over the last month I have lost count of how many men and women that have sent me resumes as well.  Literally, I spend Friday mornings evaluating all resumes that I have received and putting them in their appropriate files. I separate resumes like this:

  • Trained
  • Unknown Training
  • NO Training

Trained files – are those specialists that have attended a vetted course that I am comfortable with and known to disperse students with the basic understanding of executive protection.  This list of schools is based off a personal measure that I formulated over the years and based on working with and around these specialists.  I realize that in the end it is the individual that I have evaluated.

Unknown Training – This file is dedicated to those unknown schools that are listed on many of these resumes that I have not heard of.  There are many so called training schools out here that are basically a group or persons that are literally teaching people with no set curriculum nor any lesson plan that even resembles what an EP school should put out.  There was in fact one school in northern VA that had a licensed training academy that was recognized by DCJS.  They actually were using the old Vance Executive Protection manuals to teach the course.  None of the instructors had ever graduated from the VEP course yet they had somehow got their hands on the VEP bible and taught from it.  How do I know you ask?  Because in their zeal to steal, they were too lazy to at least retype the book and still had the Vance template and logo on the manuals as well as the student handouts.

No training – self explanantory.

When I receive resumes from unknown training prospects I vigorously research the training school and see what their sites claim they teach.  It is not a fail safe process but I follow it up with a conversation with the prospect.  During the conversation I ask them about their work history, and get an idea of their experience in the craft.  I recently spoke to a specialist Chad Duke and was extremely amazed at his humility in further education as well as how his view (however short in the industry) mirrored mine on just about every aspect.  Since that original conversation Mr. Duke has planned to attend an upcoming course at The MTMS course to further his education in the craft.  We also spoke on protective driving courses, when I told him that we were still looking for a track on the east coast to re-launch our protective driving course, but in lieu of that I made recommendations to 3 other schools.

I don’t take it lightly when I make a recommendation to someone and in doing so I fully understand that I am passing someone on to what could be construed as the “Competition”.  In the end it’s not about us but about US.  I have established relationships with other school owners via social networking and in doing so I have been invited to attend.  This will give me a greater understanding what is being taught out there as well as a vetting process from my own perspective.  In the end it will help them as well as the students that they put through in order to get work in this highly populated industry.

So now you know where you resumes/bios go when I get them and you can almost guess where yours is.  Get your training and then train some more.

3 comments

  1. Kai Joy

    I have never confirmed that we are on your provider list. I would hope that we are a resource tto BPI in the Chicago area!

    1. Eric Konohia

      Yes you are. However I don’t have your company snap shot on file

      1. Kai Joy

        I will get updated info out to you!

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