Clearance Level Required

selenityhyperion

So I am not quite ready to break into the IT field yet because I need to finish.. well start THEN finish my Software Development degree at WGU. I have been browsing some jobs. Quite a few say that a clearance level is required. How do I go about getting 'clearanced'?

stryder144

Well, to get a clearance you will need to get a job that requires one and that the employer is willing to pay for. Clearances are not cheap, so few companies are willing to invest the money into someone who has never had one before. If you have any financial issues or have been arrested in the past, you might find it difficult to get even a secret clearance.

Ultimately, the easiest way to get a clearance is to join the military.

joelsfood

At least as important is to KEEP a job that requires the level. A clearance is not cheap to obtain, and it also costs the company money to keep it active, so if you get it and then move to a job that doesn't pay to keep it active, you'll lose it (ie, inactive secret clearance). It tends to be cheaper to reclear someone, as the investigation just has to go back to last time you obtained clearance, instead of forever, but still not cheap.

IE, my past job got me a secret, current required DoL. My secret is now inactive (haven't used it for 6+ years), but my DoL clearance is current.

If you don't go the military route, next way, and route I took, was government contractors. For IT, the big players tend to be Raytheon, Lockheed, Boeing and Northrup. General Dynamics and ITT are behind those four, but still employ a lot of cleared IT people. ITT/Exelis is always looking for people on the TACSWACAA contract (Saudia Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, etc), but don't expect to get one of the Dubai/Qatar postings unless you already know someone in the company. The cushy gigs are hard to come by.

Verities

Most companies will pay for the investigation as long as you are eligible for a clearance if you don't already have one when trying to get into the DoD sector.

To be eligible:

1. No felonies
2. If you have debt problems, make sure you have a plan to pay it off and you can show the investigator how you are doing it.
3. Don't have an exorbitant amount of debt (not sure on the number here, I'd imaging around 80k+)
4. No gambling problems

This is based off what I know from having to facilitate clearance packages while being in the military.

MeanDrunkR2D2

To kind of piggy back off of this. I did have about 5 years ago a active secret clearance. Would that make me slightly more attractive to potential employers being that I did have a secret clearance at one time? I assume that it's still not cheap to get, but would it be easier? When I got mine the first time it took nearly 2 months to get a provisional clearance, and then about a month later I was fully cleared. There are alot of clearance jobs here, many requiring top secret. How much of a pain is that in comparison? The interviews I had made me feel like I was being questioned for a murder lol.

Verities

It doesn't really make a difference. One investigation type requires you go back 7 years in your history (people you know, where you worked, where you lived, etc) while the other goes back 5 years. Check out the OPM (everything clearance related goes through them) website for any other questions/information:

Investigations FAQs