Security clearance and job

pizzaguy123

A couple of years ago I was in the Air Force and had an unrelated job with a TS clearance. Immediately after getting out I went to college but I had a hard time adjusting to civilian life and ended up not finishing the semester. I failed/ dropped out. It’s been three years since and now have sec+ and net+.  I’m planning on getting my ccna soon. My security clearance is now expired but I’m wondering how difficult it would to get a help desk or noc or network job with a contractor company like Raytheon, Leidos, Mantech, General Dynamics. Would failing out of one semester of college hinder me from getting a security clearance. Thanks 

AverageJoe

Failing out of school should not prevent you from getting a clearance as long as there's no reason to question your honesty and trustworthiness. 

pizzaguy123

Thank you, sounds like as long as I’m honest about it and tell them how I got past that part of my life I should be good to go. 

JDMurray

Security clearance investigations look mostly at your legal and financial history and will consider academic expulsion for ethical or legal reasons. If flunking out of college is a secret that you want kept hidden, the threat to reveal it could be used to blackmail you into performing compromising activities against your employer. Your clearance investigator may have questions for you about this possible situation.

yoba222

I'm under the impression that large debt is way bigger of a red flag than grades at college. I'd go for it.

SoCalGuy858

When it comes to schools within a security clearance investigation, they’re more concerned about honesty surrounding what education you claimed on your SF-85/86, as well as any adverse information known about you, rather than your actual grades, which is typically verified by HR (if required).  Did you actually attend the schools you say you did during the times you claimed?  Did you live at the residences claimed when you attended these educational institutions?  Those kinds of questions.

The background investigations for Confidential and Secret clearances typically obtain this information solely via paperwork sent to the educational institutions claimed on your forms using an OPM INV Form 43.  For Top Secret (with or without SCI), I believe this also includes in-person subject interviews with educational-related references.