So, I can’t be the only one here, but is anyone else just as discouraged as I am with meeting the bulk of the job qualifications except for the clearance? I currently hold a secret clearance and there’s nothing holding me back from obtaining a TS or SCI… however, many companies want recruits to have an active TS or SCI when coming onboard.
Has anyone here still applied for such positions even though they didn’t meet the appropriate clearance level to start? Any thoughts on this?
Thanks!
These decisions are obviously above my pay grade, but in my humble opinion, I think clearances should be more standardized across the board to allow for streamlined reciprocity and clearance transfers. A Secret should be a Secret, regardless of which agency sponsored it. A TS should be a TS, regardless, and so on.
Also, if clearances were standardized like that, maybe it would be possible to have some sort of simplified investigation process to upgrade someone to TS who already has Secret instead of having to do a brand new investigation from scratch.
I think these ideas would save the government time and money and make applicant’s lives a little bit easier while posing very little, if any, additional risk since I imagine that most Secret clearance holders are probably also clearable for TS.
But this is a pipe dream idea from a Joe Schmo who is just a worker bee and not a security professional.
Many, but not all. Accuracy by volume is what worked for me.
Why would a company want to pay and have a potential employee denied a TS when there are many potential candidates out there with an active TS.
Probably more like the concern that it would take many months, quite possibly over a year, for a candidate to be cleared…
By that logic, no contracting company would ever sponsor anyone for a clearance…
Yet somehow, plenty of people get TS/SCI’s through contractors. That must mean that there actually isn’t an abundance of potential candidates with active TS’s…
And that’s why there is such crazy competition for cleared people.
Offhand I would say most people get their first clearance in the military…
The next largest group would be people hired directly by the government…
Then you have the folks who get cleared the first time through industry.
Of course I can’t offer any statistics on that… but while I’m speculating I’ll add that the people in that third group (initial clearance through industry) were mostly new grads with technical degrees who had to wait (not getting paid) for the clearance to complete.
Of course people can get a clearance from a contractor. However, it makes financial sense to look for someone who is currently cleared. It saves time and money.
Many people leave the military with an active TS. There are always people with an active TS looking for a job.
My clearance was obtained through industry as a DoD contractor (I am now a DoD civilian employee). I began working on an interim for a secret. It makes sens that companies will almost always prefer someone with a clearance over someone without. Someone already cleared can begin right away and the hiring company doesn’t need to worry about the new-hire being denied a clearance, etc. However, in my experience, at least in the IT field, there are more positions open requiring clearances than there are people already cleared applying for those positions. If that weren’t true, I think this site would not be as active as it is.