DIA Hiring Pool

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

I know folks are more focused on security matters here, but in lieu of federal soup going away, I think this is a good place to ask questions.

I’ve been posting here for a couple of months now, I made it over the clearance process for DIA. But now I’m in the pool and everyone here has told me how bad it is.

I’m wondering what best practices are for waiting. I very much dislike my current job and have been anxious to leave it for awhile now. I have heard that even after receiving an FJO, you have to wait several months if you are unlucky for the touchstone program because of a lack of availability.

How long should I realistically wait for the agency? Are there more bullets than cleared candidates? Can I cross my clearance to another TLA? I know I can go contractor but I’d rather not do that.

2

I used to hang out in federal soup forums and yes, I recall a few people getting contractor jobs using their DIA investigation (they used to enter that into JPAS/DISS so it was easy for contractors to see) while waiting for that FJO, but I don’t think another IC agency will just pick up your DIA adjudication. Maybe it will go quickly if they can reuse parts of the investigation but you’ll still need to go through the application/referral/interview/waiting/waiting/waiting process to get to the other agency’s version of the hiring pool (not sure they all do that, though).

Best practices? Get another job, try not to drive yourself nuts waiting.

1 Like