I was a federal contractor for an agency and the agency sub-contract with the Social security administration. They did a suitability investigation that took 6 months. The investigation only went back to the past 5 years. What is a suitability clearance? Is there another name for it?
Go here for the answer: https://www.clearancejobsblog.com/dod-suitability-and-fitness-guide-a-good-resource-for-public-trust-and-other-positions/
Thank you Marko. Just want to make a note of what I understand for future readers - suitability is not secret clearance and suitability determination is only a public trust clearance. Please kindly correct me if I am wrong.
Suitability applies to federal employees and the same standards apply to contractors but it is called fitness, They are not clearances.
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Your statement indicates you likely filled out the SF85 - Questionnaire for Non-Sensitive Positions. This indicates no clearance or public trust. Essentially, this investigation is the US government’s glorified records check.
Some positions don’t even require this and rely on the information provided on the OF-306 to do the records check.
Is there a label or title for “glorified records check”? Or is it a type of “suitability”? Secret clearance asks for 10 years along with other “checks”. I am just trying to understand my “suitability”, or “fitness” as Marko has indicated, which is the term they used. thanks
really? i’ve never heard of that and thought sf85 was required in all cases. do you know what types of positions don’t ask for an sf85?
I can’t think of any specific examples but I think if the USAJobs announcement lists “None” under security clearance then there is no investigation of any kind required.
This is probably a fairly small percentage of all the jobs out there. But note that even for non-cleared jobs in the contractor world, many companies do a very simple check before bringing a person on board.
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