Hello all,
I’ve posted on here a few times about my journey with DIA. Well I got the clearance. Was placed in the hiring pool, received a bid, lost it, and was told that my preferred location (JBAB) has little to no billets and that most people in the hiring pool want to go there.
I’m kind of at a crossroads where I don’t really know how to increase the likelihood of getting out of the hiring pool. It seems more inflexible than the security clearance process.
I know that contractor’s can pick-up DIA clearances. But my question is where should I even go? I always dreamed of being a federal employee and I never wanted to be a contractor. But at this rate, I don’t see DIA working out unless I get lucky and I’d rather not plan around luck.
Any advice is sorely appreciated. For context, I am in the Analysis Career Field hiring pool and am interesting analysis work.
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I am in the same situation as you are. The only difference is that I am still waiting for a final adjudication. I have been waiting for at least 3 months going into 4 months now.
I have been having the same issues with DIA that you have been having. They give me little to no information about when my case will be adjudicated. The only thing I do know is that my case is in adjudication. At this point, I have been exploring contractor positions just to keep my clearence active.
I would recommend finding a contractor job that would give you job experience. I have also explored a few contractor jobs that seem to be on the analysis side.
Thanks for this response. Trust me, the hiring pool is worse than the adjudication stage - if you aren’t lucky.
My struggle right now is that I got my clearance through DIA. But all of the contractor jobs I’m looking at kind of assume that you worked the same or a similar job in the government/military. So I wonder what training would even be like as a contractor.
I was warned by many people not to go DIA, and I ignored all of them. Now I realize they were right. It’s a dysfunctional process.
I am former employee with that agency. My first time in the employment process went very smooth. I got a conditional offer in the fall of 2019. My security and psych interview were also in the fall of 2019. I was cleared 2 weeks after my polygraph and received my start date early 2020 before the COVID lockdowns. After COVID, it seems DIA just has no idea what it is doing and their whole hiring process is designed for inefficiency.
It may be in your interest to explore other contractor jobs at other agencies as well. NRO has alot of openings for contracting jobs, but they are in Chantilly. They hire at all levels and they do not assume that all of the applicants have military/government experience, so you may have an easier time there.
As I understand it (I could be wrong), fed agencies use a point system that heavily favors: veterans, the disabled, the disadvantaged who are already receiving some sort of federal support, and current federal employees looking for transfers. Odds are, if you don’t fall into one of those categories and the job isn’t , you ain’t getting those jobs.
You would probably have to look for a job that no one wants, or no one knows how to do.
Does this mean you were removed from the hiring pool?
This is quite a change from a few years ago when “analysis” candidates were given job offers not long after they cleared while candidates in other career fields languished.
Somebody else asked about training for contractors; typically there is very little. I’m sure there are some exceptions but for the most part contractors are not eligible to participate in the formal training programs offered by the government.
It is also dependent on your career field. Some are oversaturated, especially in the NCR while others have more opportunity.
To be clear, I’m still in the hiring pool. But I received a bid from an office. Weeks rolled around and eventually I learned I wasn’t the first choice and the first choice accepted so I lost the bid.
I just don’t trust the hiring pool process at all. Analysis is the biggest career field and I am still waiting for my job? What?
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OK so you’re still in the game.
Don’t completely reject the idea of going somewhere else. You can probably move to DC later if you want to… who knows they might force you to at some point 
I wish I could be in this situation, but I just moved to DC area about 2 years or so ago. Went through hell to do it and I can’t really afford to live back where I came from. The cost of living exploded in the intervening years 
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Usually, not sure if this is still the case anymore , your clearance is not active until you start work at the agency if you never had one before. If that is the case, a contractor will not be able to take it over. I had a polygraph that wasn’t activated because i didn’t work at a specific agency. DIA screwed me over when i went into this field. They said i didnt have a final clearance when i left to be a contractor. I did and it was absolute because i had to changed badges from interim to final. These agencies screw ppl. Just an FYI.
So the situation could be worse than it seems? Oh brother. Underlying all of this is my desire to leave my current dead end job. I feel very silly trying to understand what my options are.
That is correct but if an employer sees the investigation in DISS that means the individual has eligibility to get cleared. May not work for all contractor opportunities but some will be able to go this route