I’m sure this has been asked but I can’t find anything more current. I have held a TS/SCI, NSA poly, and worked in two SAPs. It has been several years since I last worked in a classified environment. I mainly worked in SIGINT, but also held a GS-13 civilian position in Infosec.
I am considering a move back into a classified job, but every job I am skill qualified for and interested in has a hard requirement that candidates must have an active TS/SCI. Some of the jobs have been open for a year or more, like some overseas positions.
My questions are, does it matter if I had lucrative clearances and program accesses in the past? Am I wasting my time applying for jobs that state active clearance is a must? What is the best path for people like me who have held a clearance, want to get back in and have no criminal history or negative marks since they were last active?
I second this. They are desperate for cleared workers. They can’t get them so they will take the next best thing, current (within 24 months) but inactive clearance.
Third it. Apply anyway, it cannot hurt you and only costs your time. Point out that you previously held XYZ on the application. Like Naughty mentioned, in the time it takes an employer to FIND an active cleared, skilled person, they could have sponsored a strong candidate to be cleared.
The ironic part, and a bit comical, is I can’t even register with Clearancejobs.com because I don’t have an active clearance or held one in the past two years, and it gives the threat of felony for initially being dishonest about having one. Any recommendations on other sites to use for finding classified jobs, besides LinkedIn?