Q: Is it acceptable to put your clearance level on street resume, or just “cleared”?
A: It’s perfectly okay to specify that you have a clearance, as well as clearance type. It’s also okay to list polygraph information and dates on your resume, according to intelligence agency resume guidelines, including those provided by the National Security Agency. (The Department of Labor even encourages individuals to list their security clearance on their resume).
While it’s okay to list your clearance on a street resume, be wary of the other details you post. Popular online social networking sites, including LinkedIn, do not vet members, meaning there are a number of ‘fake’ profiles looking to access the personal details of security-cleared professionals. The horror stories continue to trickle in about candidates who were targeted by fake LinkedIn accounts.
So, while it’s normal to specify that you have a clearance, there are some precautions that you can take. For instance, project names and specifics could be classified. Office budgets, locations, and specifics can also require some caution. The most important pieces of information that employers need from your resume is your skills and required clearance level. So, make sure that you can communicate your value to potential employers while also making sure that you are not accidentally sharing sensitive or classified information. When you work in national security, you want to make sure that you are protecting our interests and secrets. As information continues to spill out on line daily, you can inadvertently cross check information with your publicly available resume information.
ClearanceJobs remains the only site dedicated to secure, password protected professional networking for security-cleared professionals.
