Understanding job postings

Hi, I’m fairly new to DoD work. Some backstory: I had an interim secret clearance for a few months from late 2016 into early 2017, and returned to DoD work in late 2017, but in a non-clearance job, assuming another interim was just around the corner. It wasn’t, and for reasons I still don’t understand. But the full secret process got underway, and is now with the DoD in the review/adjudication stage. Recently, by way of my US Senator’s office, I learned there was information missing in JPAS which put my application on hold, and after bringing this to my employer’s attention, quit several weeks later when they showed no interest in righting the mistake (among 4 or 5 other reasons).

My question is this: when browsing jobs on this site, most seem to list “active secret” or better as a requirement, Should I take this completely literally? If so, then I will apparently need to take my job search elsewhere… Thanks.

Literally. Must be active

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Okay. A followup, then. Say I have an “active secret” clearance and that job ends for some reason. The clearance typically gets deactivated right away, correct? (AFAIK, my interim did.) In a situation like that, would that also make me ineligible for these positions?

A second followup, a little off topic. Some money changes hands when an employer sponsors you for a clearance. Would anybody confirm that the money is paid at the very start of the clearance process? I’m trying to understand how/why my employer botched such a simple item on my application and then seemingly refused to correct it. The only answer that’s occurred to me so far is “they were being cheap”.

Thanks again.

If the job posting states “Active Clearance” it’s not up for negotiation period. If you left the job before the clearance was completed then the processing stops because a clearance is tied to a position.

I was speaking hypothetically. If I actually held a full clearance and the job ended suddenly, and (I assume) the clearance with it, would I then be starting from scratch again? I ask because that suggests you’re screwed if you ever become unemployed.

If your cleared you have a certain amount of time before the clearance expires. 2 years typically.

Thank you. I may have heard that before somewhere but misunderstood that it also applied to interims. Sigh.

To anybody else reading this, I’m curious if you can answer my question about when the money changes hands. Else I’ll wait a couple days and start another thread.

Nobody here said that the two year limit also applied to interims. When you left your last job, the investigation may have been stopped. If that’s the case, you MAY be able to get another employer to pick up the investigation but you may have to start over from scratch. Your interim will NOT carry over to another position.

From what you have written, you have NEVER had a clearance, you only had an interim clearance which allowed you to work while your investigation was completed.

I agree with @EdFarmerIII here… usually, your investigation will continue even when you leave a position unless the process stopped. The process will stop when an employer reported that you are no longer an employee; thus, do not have the need to know. You will need to find out your status which should be in a database (used to be JPAS, but I think it changed to another name now).

As for the money part, it is usually paid upfront (if I am not mistaken). This is one of the reasons why many companies don’t like to lose cleared employees that they initially sponsored. This is also a reason why many companies preferred to hire cleared (active or current) employees so they don’t have to foot the bill and the risk.

Thanks for the replies. Sadly, the investigation may have stopped back in April, due to incompetence by my employer. It was their disinterest in resolving the problem (among several other things) that motivated me to walk.

@AWoodhull: Paying the money up front makes total sense, but If my employer wanted me to stay, they didn’t show it. Sigh.