Hello i am currently in college trying to get my EE degree and wanting to get into the Defense industry in the future. I have 1.5 years left. The reason im here is in my life i had tried a vape pen that contained marijuana from a friend at least 3 to 5 times in my life between late 2022 to late 2023. I never bought anything and I have no plans on ever touching it again, my guilt is already punishing me enough. I fear these actions are damning and my chances in getting a security clearance in the future if i were to get a job in the Defense industry to be low. Am i overthinking it?
Stop all usage and tell your future employer exactly what you said above. If your grades are decent 3.0 or above the defense contractors and the government will snatch you right up. Hiring seems to be in a frenzy status right now. Your situation is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too common to exclude you.
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Alrigh thank you, i have a clean record on everything else. I care about my future career and i realize my mistake was immature and irresponsible. I feel i may have to report myself to my parents as well just to rid myself of the guilt
Remain vape, edible, smoke free moving forward. Be honest on clearance forms. If at least 12 months pass you likely will be okay. 18 months is better.
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Alright good to hear appreciate the response
In November 2023 OMB approved the new Personnel Vetting Questionnaire (PVQ), which replaces the SF85, SF85P, and SF86. The PVQ has 4 parts, but only Part A has drug questions. Part A has a section (Section 13) just on marijuana, which asks about use during the past 90 days. Other marijuana involvement (trafficking, sales, cultivating, etc.) is now a 5-year question. Section 12 of the PVQ covers drugs other than marijuana. It’ll probably be late summer or fall 2024 before the online version of the PVQ is created and implemented.
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Wow! Maybe finally the fed side catches up to reality with many states lowering standards. I see military recruiting following same cycle: have a very high bar, realize it pressures people to falsify and lie, reasonably create more realistic standard. As recruiting is suffering across the board I’m convinced government cleared position recruiting will also follow suit.
Like most things, there’s a catch in the wording of Section 13. I’m submitting articles to ClearanceJobs later this month about Sections 12 and 13 of the PVQ in which I try to explain how OPM got the wording wrong. It’s difficult to explain all the wording and other problems in less than 1,000 words. If you visit the websites of some IC agencies, you’ll see that some have already changed their automatic suitability disqualification standard for marijuana use from 12 months to 3 months.
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But i thought that had to be approved by Congress
The Executive Branch has authority over all federal personnel security vetting forms. Congress has never had any involvement in the design or approval of security forms used by the Executive Branch. It’s all driven by Presidential Executive Orders, one of which gave the DNI and OPM authority over the forms and investigative and adjudicative standards.
Wow! Sea change. I’m impressed. Trying to hire recent college graduates, turning a blind eye to college life was self deluding behavior. Helps for hiring so called entry level labor the agencies need such as grass cutting, housekeeping and culinary.