Are there any companies that are particularly good or bad?
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I work for a small one, so I don't know which national one to recommend. I know with some of the larger ones, the benefits are ok, but there's advantages for working for a smaller company. I do the hiring here, and it's next to impossible to find someone with a clean driving record and no criminal record. You'd be surprised at how many applications I get from people that can't drive! It's called an armored [i]car[/i] company for a reason. With a small company, you might be able to negotiate a higher hourly rate if you have both a clean driving and criminal record. If you're not overweight, don't have facial hair, don't smoke, and don't have long hair, you'd be a very desirable new hire. I'm still looking for one of those.
The job probably won't be as interesting as you think. When most people think of armored cars, they think of carrying millions of dollars. In real life, my company is a glorified courier service. Carrying heavy bags of change to an arcade, paperwork between banks (thankfully we don't do cash between banks), or a boxes of jewelry between a chain of stores isn't that interesting. Also, change is heavy. Did I mention bags full of change weigh a lot?
Only 1 in 4 "Armored" cars actually have ballistic protection.
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Ours don't. Of course even we call a beat-up Cavalier stationwagon an armored car by convention. If there's trouble, I guess we're supposed outrun it. That might work if the criminals are on foot.
Isn't the pay really dismal, too? Like generally under $10 an hour?
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$10? I wish we made $10. I know of one national company that pays less than we do. I don't see how the guys with a car, a mortgage, and kids put food on the table.
When quoted an hourly rate, make sure you ask what you're expected to pay out of pocket. We pay all uniform (including cleaning) and equipment costs. I know with some other companies, you can end-up spending several hundred dollars out of pocket before the first paycheck.
Any criminal w/ intent can pop in; get the job; and the rest is easy.
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Or worse, you get a lot of LEO's that were fired for breaking the law. Instead of some two-bit criminal, you get a trained, arrogant bully that misses his badge. Most of my coworkers have records. It is actually hard to find people that will work for this price that don't. If I didn't get to play on the Internet for hours and read (I'm here because we have to have someone in the office to answer the phone when we have a crew out), I know I wouldn't be here.
Finally, you might want to ask this question at [url]assaultweb.net[/url]. I've seen employees from several national armored car services post there.z