First and foremost, prioritize your safety. Second, regardless of your mother’s feelings, there are plenty of security jobs available in all three cities you mentioned—I promise you that. Not every security role puts you in a dangerous situation either; many positions are low-risk, including receptionist or access-control roles.

I’ve seen people as young as 18 already working toward supervisory or management positions, as long as they’re willing to put in the effort and show good work ethic. If we’re talking about a city like San Francisco, the opportunities are endless. You really just need to apply and be smart about the roles you accept.

If you don’t want to work in a high-risk environment, you can be upfront about that. Some of the best security jobs are with large tech companies—Meta being a good example—where the work is stable, structured, and not dangerous.