Maybe someone smarter than ME can explain the chicken-egg thing I see going on.

I'm scoping out some new jobs and all of the requirements insist that you MUST hold 'x' level of security clearance (whether that be secret or top secret).

Alright, doesn't seem to be an issue. Than I go to the government's website and it says basically (unless I'm misreading it) that an individual can't submit the form, it has to come from the government agency requesting it.

So how can I apply for jobs that require this clearance if I can't attempt to get this clearance until after they hire me? :confused:

Kristina

In many cases, that is done deliberately to narrow the pool of applicants.

In other cases, the clearance can be arranged after the offer of employment. I would write (email if they offer) to the places you're interested in for clarification.

It is virtually unheard of (though not completely unknown) for private individuals to get clearance status without first being employed in some position that requires it.

It's not really a way to lower the candidate pool, at least most likely not in most cases. My first real fulltime job was for a defense contractor. I was hired under the condition I would agree to go through the clearance process once on board (which usually takes 4-6 months). Until I had that clearance, I could not work on any part of the projects that were classified. The contracts explicitly laid out what information was and was not available to non-classified employees (we were allowed to see "non-public" information that went beyond what's shared with the general public but not to the same level as the employees with clearances).

The process for getting a clearance is long and it's expensive. If the company has work that needs to be done in three months that requires someone with a clearance, there simply isn't enough time to get someone cleared. Even if there is enough time, if someone with a clearance, or an easily reactivatable former clearance applies it's easier and cheaper to hire them.

It doesn't hurt to see if they need someone with a clearance now or if they are willing to sponsor you and wait through the process.

Janice

Quote:quasar said:
The process for getting a clearance is long and it's expensive. If the company has work that needs to be done in three months that requires someone with a clearance, there simply isn't enough time to get someone cleared.

I don't mean to bicker over semantics, but this statement of yours does equal narrowing the pool of applicants, as I said. It narrows it to people who could do the job in the time required.

When I applied for jobs with various agencies, including the CIA, I was specifically told that requiring clearances already was used as a weed-out when they expect an onslaught of applicants. When the jobs required were so specialised they didn't think they'd have many applicants, they could leave that requirement off.

Similarly, departments at various universities stick 'Masters degree required' to narrow the pool of applicants, even when they have desk jobs that could be done by people who don't need Masters (or in many cases, even Bachelors) degrees. At Indiana University, I was once asked by the head of a department to apply for a job. I hadn't completed my Masters degree at that time. I tried to apply through personnel, and they wouldn't take my application because the application prerequisites showed 'Masters degree required'. I asked my friend why he put that -- his response was (and this is a quote), 'Well, we had to put something.' The personnel office had no way of knowing that a Masters degree wasn't really required in that department. They just went by what they were given on the forms.

In the end, the department sent down a revised set of requirements. I still decided not to apply.

I'd say apply for anything you can, and see what happens.

Go ahead and apply for any job you are interested in. If they want you, the hiring agency will arrange the appropriate paperwork. In some cases, they can interview you and run a short background check (via computer) then issue you an interim clearance while the long paperwork is being completed.

The longer paperwork would usually only be required for Top Secret and Special Access clearances. The time required to get a Secret clearance is actually quite short. It is mostly computerized. As long as your fingerprints don't turn up anything ... interesting!

Ada

Quote:Originally posted by kurt_messick
I don't mean to bicker over semantics, but this statement of yours does equal narrowing the pool of applicants, as I said. It narrows it to people who could do the job in the time required.

Perhaps that's the case for people actually working for the government when the government has the choice on deciding for a specific job, I don't know. Although I applied for a summer job with the CIA when I was in grad school (ack, what a horribly long detailed application they want), I never actually worked directly for the government, only for contractors. In these cases, the government sets the scope for the contract and determines what information does and does not need to be seen only by people with clearances. The folks doing the actual hiring must abide by these requirements and set forth employees appropriately.

Janice

The CIA application is about 10 millions pages long, isn't it?

I'd love to recount all the wonderful < tongue-in-cheek > experiences I had in my various trips to DC and environs relating to the application process (including all the lie detector tests you can eat!) but I'm not supposed to. So, mum's the word.

It apparently costs several thousand dollars to clear a person to the higher levels of clearance. A very trustworthy source tells me that some of these companies who are asking for folks with clearances are trying to recruit from government agencies which have already cleared the personnel. Some of those agencies are currently trying to downsize. Also, some folks who are eligible to leave the military may already have the desired security clearance. It saves the company lots of money and time if they can simply transfer the clearance with the employee.

Your tax dollars at work!