I am a college student about to graduate with a job offer lined up in the civilian sector that requires a security clearance. I applied for a previous job that in the process gave me a secret clearance and in pure recklessness put no under drug use for the SF-86 application. for the most part I’m a pretty clean and straight forward person with no real drug use and don’t drink alcohol either except for smoking pot once at a party in college before my security clearance, and have not smoked and barely drank since. I feel extremely guilty for lying and I was thinking if I come clean before my first renewal about my one time use I could possibly mitigate the lie. What can I do?
A lot will depend on which agency/employer you are trying to get a clearance through. Humility, remorse and honest efforts not to repeat your actions can go a long way with every organization. Some clearance granting organizations just have a more “zero defect” mentality than others and can afford to only accept unicorns and reject imperfect horses such as yourself.
