Taking a summer job while clearance is happening

Can a college student who accepted an offer from a DoD contractor that then kick started a job contingent TS/SCI clearance process take a summer job (at our local wine shoppe) while his “investigation” is still underway? His SF 86 has already been submitted. Final edits the very nice HR folks gave him after submitting in April were made and submitted last Monday. The summer job wouldn’t start for another week or two so it’s not included in the SF 86 job history (he didn’t know about it until this week). Back while he was filling out the SF 86, the major defense contractor’s HR people asked him to put their company name and accepted position as his “current employment”, or most recent employment. I hate for him to upset the apple cart by getting a summer job that’s really not in the field he’s interested in and frankly not going to pay him that much. Btw he is not graduated yet. He graduates in December 2023. We hope that he will get a ruling on his security clearance either before or around graduation time. Should he take this summer job or just enjoy his summer with other projects, and let the security clearance process play itself out without going back in to add what is essentially kind of a silly summer job? if he does do the summer job as my husband wants him to do, will that delay the security clearance in general? Will the whole process have to start over because he added a job to his SF86? I figured the whole point of them telling him to put their company name and his accepted position as his most recent job entry #1 was for a reason. And that adding a silly job at a wine shop would muck that up. What do you guys think? (Addendum 1; It’s an amazing wine retailer. Addendum 2: he doesn’t drink).

Accepting a new job will not slow down or affect his investigation in any way. Listing that he works for a company he does not yet work for will. I know it’s not his fault, but we have repeatedly asked these contractors to stop doing this and they don’t listen. I don’t get it.

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I was told to put the company as my employer too, back in 2016. I was told I needed to list them or else they wouldn’t be able to sponsor my clearance investigation… It didn’t prevent me from getting cleared.

It doesn’t prevent you from getting cleared, but it definitely causes issues and delays. We waste time pulling personnel records that don’t exist yet. Cases gets assigned to investigators located near the company in DC and then have to be reassigned to a new investigator once we waste time confirming that the subject still lives in Nebraska.

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That makes sense. In my case, it was local to me anyway.

So should he take the summer job? I’m thinking yes from your reply. Wine shop wants him to start Weds and give them a yes or no asap before that. The DoD contractor has not gotten back to him yet but he knows his HR contact there doesn’t work Fridays and he thinks he should hear back from her on Monday. Is he good to say yes for summer job in your book? He will of course wait to hear from HR person vis email. But it doesn’t sound like accepting summer job will hurt him re: sec clear.

Zero issues with accepting a new job as long as it’s legal.

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He sent an email to his hiring HR contact yesterday Friday asking if it’s okay to take the summer. He hopefully hears back on Monday. Will there be any other step(s)? Does he have to add the summer job to his SF 86?

Not if it was already submitted. Any changes or updates are done when he has his subject interview.

Hi! I’m Katie, the Content Marketing Manager at ClearanceJobs.com. Could you send me a note at katie.keller@clearancejobs.com? I have a few questions about your college student’s experience throughout the clearance process!

Just emailed you. Feel free to mail back. Best.

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Same here. When I was interviewed (late January) I just told the investigator that I was still employed with my non-defense contractor employer and that I had been told I had the list the employer for the cleared job as current employer, and couldn’t list concurrent employment with multiple employers. Secret clearance came through in March.

Still waiting for an SAP clearance.