Security Guard Interview Questions and Answers for UAE Jobs
A security guard interview in the UAE turns on four things: your SIRA card, your visa, whether you will hold the roster, and how you answer the what would you do questions. The scenario questions carry the most weight, because the supervisor is working out whether you follow procedure or improvise.
Improvising is what loses the job. Every scenario answer below runs in the same order: raise the alarm or call control, keep people back, act only within your authority, and write it in the log.
The builder underneath writes your twelve answers around your own licence, site and shifts. Print them, read them aloud, and take one page into the room.
Build your security guard answers
Fill this in once. The twelve answers below are then written around your licence, your shifts and your experience, and you can reshuffle the wording on any of them.
It does not have to be a security job. Anything where you followed a rule, kept a record, or calmed someone down.
Pick your experience and add one thing you handled well.
Nothing you type is sent anywhere. It stays in this browser tab and goes when you close it.
What the interview is really testing
Four things, in this order.
- Can you stand the post legally. The SIRA card, or how quickly you can hold one.
- Can you be rostered. Nights, twelve hour shifts, weekends, and whether your answer will still be true in month two.
- Do you follow procedure. The scenario questions exist to catch guards who would open the bag, chase the thief, or fight the fire.
- Can you be understood. On the radio, by a visitor who is upset, and in a written log that somebody else reads later.
Notice what is missing from that list. Nobody is asking you to be brave.
The SIRA card question, answered properly
In Dubai the private security licence is issued through the Security Industry Regulatory Agency, and the application is made by the licensed security company, not by you as an individual. Your residency has to sit with the company you work for.
That is why the question comes early. It is not curiosity about your training, it is the supervisor working out how many weeks before you can stand a post.
SIRA also issues a temporary permit for people still in training. It runs for 90 days, it cannot be renewed, and it is issued once. If you are in training, say so plainly and say where you are in the course. Candidates who pretend to hold a card they do not hold get found out at the paperwork stage, and that is a worse failure than never applying.
How to report an incident in English
Use the same order every time and you never have to think about it: what happened, where, when, who was involved, what you did.
Said out loud it sounds like this. A delivery van entered gate two at eleven forty. The driver had no gate pass.
I stopped the van, called control, and the supervisor came. The van left at eleven fifty five. Nothing complicated, nothing missing.
The same order works in the logbook, and it works when a manager asks you three days later what happened. It is easy to lose marks here, not because your English is weak but because you told it backwards.
Emergency numbers, if the scenario needs them: 999 for police, 998 for ambulance, and 997 for Civil Defence, which is the one you want for fire.
Radio English, the phrases that cover a shift
Radio English is small. Learn these and you sound trained rather than nervous.
- Say again, please. The correct phrase when you did not catch something. Not "what" and not "repeat".
- Copy. I heard you and I understood.
- Standing by. I am waiting for your instruction.
- Control, this is gate two. Who you are calling, then who you are. In that order.
- Be advised, ... Use it before something the other person needs to act on.
- Nothing to report. The most common sentence of your shift, and worth saying clearly.
Practise them at normal speed. A phrase you have only read goes missing the moment a supervisor is listening.
What to take with you
Take the documents, not copies of the documents.
- Your SIRA card if you hold one, and your Emirates ID.
- Your passport and visa page, or the cancellation paper if your visa is cancelled.
- Any training certificates, including first aid and fire safety.
- Your last employer’s reference or experience letter if you have one.
- A pen. Guards get asked to fill something in more often than you would expect.
Practise the answers out loud
Reading these is not the same as saying them to somebody who can hear the hesitation. The scenario answers in particular need to come out in order, without stopping to think.
WizMantra runs interview preparation classes one to one and online, across the UAE. A demo class costs AED 30, includes a level check, and you spend it answering these questions to a teacher who stops you where a supervisor would.
Questions
Security guard interviews in the UAE, answered
What candidates ask us before a security interview in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Sharjah.
1What questions are asked in a security guard interview?
Your introduction, why you want security work, your SIRA card and visa, your shift availability, your English, and four or five scenario questions. The scenarios carry the most weight: fire, a visitor refusing ID, a colleague stealing, an angry member of the public, and an unattended bag.
2Do I need a SIRA card before I apply?
No. In Dubai the licensed security company applies for the card, and your residency sits with that company. SIRA also issues a trainee permit that runs 90 days, cannot be renewed and is issued once. Say plainly where you stand rather than claiming a card you do not hold.
3What do I say if I have no security experience?
Say it directly, then give one example of following a rule or calming somebody down in any job. Experience is not the thing that fails candidates here. Improvising is, so answer every scenario question by the book and let the procedure do the talking.
4How should I answer the unattended bag question?
Do not touch it and do not move it. Keep people away, call control on the radio, give the exact location and a description, then follow the instruction you are given. Opening the bag or carrying it to lost property is the answer that ends the interview.
5How good does my English need to be?
Good enough to be understood on the radio, by an upset visitor, and in a written log. Perfect grammar is not the test. Short sentences, clear numbers and asking somebody to say it again are worth more than fluency you cannot hold under pressure.
6Will they ask about night shifts?
Yes, and the roster is usually the supervisor’s biggest problem. Answer honestly. Saying yes to every shift and then asking to change it in week one damages you more than saying now that you would prefer days. A guard who turns up beats one who agreed to everything.
Next: build the rest of your answers with the UAE interview answer builder, or read how a Dubai interview runs from the first call to the offer.
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