Hi,
I applied to a position with nsa two months ago and little over a month ago I received an update saying that my application is in review. Since then I’ve not received any update. I saw the same position reopened just recently. Does that mean anything regarding my application? Should I email NSA for updates?
Thanks
The best info is what’s found on your portal account. This is an agonizingly slow process. I’ve found contacting their “help desk” only provides parroted info from the portal.
Keep in mind there are most likely multiple positions similar in nature which spurs additional job opening advertisements.
If you choose to contact the “help desk” do so infrequently and with the understanding that those folks probably don’t know much more than you do.
Try your best not to worry about it. Maybe take up a new hobby to keep your mind off of your job application 
It’s a very slow process. The folks on the help desk line are usually nice but you won’t get any useful information from them. It’s likely that NSA is hiring multiple positions for the job you applied to. This year they’re hiring something like 3,000 people, I think. WildnCrazy is right about everything they said.
Thanks, it’s a language position to be precise. I won’t contact them at this point. I wish there’s better communication from NSA during the job application process to keep candidates updated
Thanks, I’m trying not to think about it but I’m in the actual process for job and career searching and realized that I wanted to pursue a career in the intelligence community. I wished I started thinking about this in depth earlier so I maybe I could apply before I graduated. Since Covid, a lot of things have been complicated and I was just not really thinking about it until I graduated. I know it’s not too late but damn if I knew it’s gonna take this long…
There are other language positions that may not even require clearance. Also, have you applied for the CIA and FBI? Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket…
CIA doesn’t even let you formally apply anymore, you can only submit an interest with some of your infos and hope that someone invite you to apply. That said, I have considered the CIA. I might look into FBI but I do prefer NSA and CIA since they seem to be more foreign focused and not so much of a law enforcement agency.
FBI Counter Intelligence may be of interest to you. Out of the three agencies, the NSA is probably the fastest when it comes to hiring though.
It’s kinda hollow advice to tell somebody to not think about it. I’m in the same position as you. I applied as I was finishing grad school, 11 months later got my CJO, submitted my forms, now nothing for 24 months. Obviously you’ll need to find work in the meantime so let this be an opportunity to improve your language skills and gain relevant job experience so you can enter NSA at a higher GS level. This doesn’t have to be a setback.
Well. I applied for a NSA position January ’23 and did not hear back about the position until late May ‘23. It was an invite to a HireVue interview and then after that nothing. I got a COJ in July.
The NSA announced a massive hiring increase for 2023 and 2024, and so they are currently working on filling literally thousands of positions. The NSA is also one of the most competitive three letter agencies, so they often take a long time reviewing applicants. Two months is nothing to them and they have multiple openings for the same positions going at the same time.
There is no point trying to reach out to someone, either they won’t respond or they won’t know any more than you. You just have to wait and see.
Hi,
I’m under a similar situation as Phoenix. Looking at my candidate portal, my application has been sitting on “In Review” for quite sometime now (months) and no communication from anyone.
I’m just curious in case they are no longer considering you for that particular position, if they change your status in the portal or send you a courtesy email stating that you are no longer being consider for the job opening. Or they just leave you siting in limbo.
Any feedback will be much appreciated. Thank you!
For a while I thought they just wouldn’t tell you, but then I got a notification on the portal a couple days ago that I was rejected for one of the jobs I applied for. So I guess they do send rejections sometimes! This actually made me feel more optimistic, since I had kind of written off all the other jobs since there hadn’t been any updates in the portal for weeks. But now at least I haven’t been rejected from those yet!
Thank you for the feedback @magnolia2224! That’s good to know. Well, I guess I’ll keep my hopes.
Should i be worried. My application still remains on applied and its being 3 months since i applied.
No, the NSA is notoriously slow in the application process.
Like everything in the clearance realm, it could be fast, but most usually it’s slow. Also depends on the position I’d imagine and if they’re really looking to fill them.
It took about a week between applying and getting an interview for me, with about 2 months after to get a CJO and start the clearance process.