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brc64 posted:So is this how civilians with no clearance get clearance? I've seen a lot of pretty nice looking jobs in the past that I've had to pass up because they were government work and required a certain clearance level. A couple years ago I lost my job in Credit Union software. I was looking all over the place for a new gig, and I found a company hiring ~10 software developers and systems administrators to work at Hill Air Force Base here in Utah as contractors. The job required "Ability to obtain top secret clearance" since it was in one of the DISA's datacenter buildings and the entire building requires that sort of clearance (on top of being on a highly secured AFB). When I got into the interviews, I actually asked them outright, "what kind of a disadvantage am I facing against these other guys? It sounds like they all currently work on base and currently have a clearance." It was a "hiring fair" at a hotel because this company did not actually have a branch in Utah, so the competition was in the lobby. The other applicants were quite surprised that anybody even responds to the token newspaper ad-they pretty much thought the job was going to be given to whomever ditched the other contracting firm working on another project in the same building at Hill AFB, and they were all out on lunch from Hill AFB. The interviewer told me that he was genuinely interested in finding very good contracting employees and that would be more important than whether I had a clearance currently. He also told me that it was only a cost of around $3000 to get me a clearance, and they were hiring for a pretty senior position which made that minor. This particular interviewer was also an retired air force major who told me that they wouldn't be discriminating against me for my hair cut these days either as long as I could do the job. I had a serious financial systems background, and it ended up that behind all that federal contracting secrecy and work "on base" and security clearances, they wanted work done on the next generation of IRS eFile forms for business and international business taxes (I only found this out when they offered me the job). I also wonder if I got a job offer because I have a decent security background, probably better than the other applicants. Probably didn't hurt that I could bullshit with the interviewers about 30year old mainframe technologies used exclusively in the financial industry either (Interviewers like to talk about what they have seen and where they have been sometimes, and this particular interviewer was an old guy executive like that, he had 20yrs on the air force major). I accepted the job offer and they told me to show up in two weeks. Then my wife and I drove to mexico and sat on the beach for a week. When I got back I had a bunch of voicemails with somebody trying to get ahold of me and start processing my clearance stuff, then finally a voicemail saying they moved on to another candidate. At the time, it was kinda devastating and it sucked that I didn't get the clearance, it probably does open job opportunities. I honestly think the company liked me but they probably found somebody that would be cheaper to hire given a solid week to think about it--I got tons of job offers but very few companies were willing to pay what I required. It ended up being an okay thing, I found a job at a much more stable corporation with the same pay and 40mins closer to my house within 2 months. And sometimes I get to work with world class military surveillance technology at my new job, probably more exciting than the IRS gig I had lined up. adept fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Mar 6, 2009 |
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Mar 6, 2009 01:34
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 09:51 |
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