In this series, Clearance Jobs will take a look at booming “spy cities” across the country and around the world—cities that have seen massive growth as hubs for intelligence agencies and activities.
So you’re moving to Hanover, Maryland for a job you can’t talk about, but whose company might be doing business with NASA. (Well, three out of the four letters in NASA, anyway.) With a population of 12,780, Hanover is slightly larger than the country of Tuvalu, the Polynesian island paradise whose claim to fame is its Internet top-level-domain, .tv; but smaller than Anguilla, the Caribbean island paradise that you’ll probably want to visit after spending a few months in the National Security Agency grind. (For what it’s worth, Anguilla is no slouch in the TLD department; .ai is one of the only domains on the Internet that allows a trailing period and nothing more; that is to say, david@ai. would be a valid address).
You’re probably wondering what the poets will one day write about the land of Hanover, and of its founding by brave American adventurers. After all, earlier this month, Clearance Jobs readers learned about the pioneer origins of Fort Huachuca, which was built during the Apache Wars because of its idyllic terrain and natural resources ranging from hearty timber and fresh water to endless glitterings of hummingbirds. (Trivia: Flocks of hummingbirds are called “glitterings.”) It was, as its founding officer wrote at the time, “everything that could be desired for a permanent Military Post.”
Poets eager to write the epic of Hanover might want to temper expectations a bit, as the town’s origins are a shade less exciting. Hanover, it seems, was put on the map in 2000 because of the opening of a new shopping mall. A large shopping mall, make no mistake, but it’s hardly the stuff of the Geronimo Campaign. Indeed, when I asked a Maryland friend if she’d ever been to Hanover, her response was, “Apparently I’ve been there without being aware of it.” That’s probably how the intelligence community likes it, and makes you wonder whether Arundel Mills is a 1.3 million square foot misdirection—a kind of limited hangout with a 24-screen cinema and a Banana Republic.
MARYLAND ECONOMY, SALARY AND CRIME
Here’s the good news. If you live in Hanover, you’re probably richer and safer than the average American. First off, there are jobs in Hanover; its unemployment rate is paltry 5.8%. The median household income in Hanover is $91,323, versus $50,935 for the rest of the United States. Likewise crime is lower—way lower, in fact than the state average, with a crime index of 3 (roughly: lots of jaywalking) versus Maryland’s build-a-moat-and-buy-a-rifle score of 7.
If you have kids, there’s a good chance they’ll be going into a public school that’s better than most Maryland children. GreatSchools, a non-profit organization devoted to profiling and rating schools, gives Hanover schools a 7 out of 10 (with 10 being the best). The website for Anne Arundel School Board, which is responsible for Hanover, provides information on everything from school enrollment to lunch menus. Hanover spends more per student than the rest of the country, and has fewer students per teacher.
No two ways about it: If you’re pricing real estate in Hanover, you’re probably a computer genius. You probably have an understanding of “elastic software load balancing solutions for Government and Commercial Cloud environments.” Someone says they want “solution sets to classified cloud services and delivery efforts involving configuration/integration support of HW/SW baselines used in commercial and government data centers,” and you’re like, Psshh, and after I finish that what am I going to do with the rest of my day? They want you to perform “static and dynamic code analysis,” and all you’re wondering is whether or not you should wear a blindfold while doing your job.
Among contractors hiring in Hanover are Red Alpha, a consulting and software engineering firm; Flash Technology Group, which provides information technology services for intelligence agencies and their subsidiaries; Femme Comp, a respected space and terrestrial communications firm, and CSC, which has been providing guidance and information readiness to the intelligence community for over fifty years. And this is to say nothing of the jobs at Fort Meade, which is a ten minute drive away. The point is that Hanover isn’t likely to close shop and turn into a ghost town any time soon. This is a booming spy city that has recently seen 15% population growth.
HOW TO LOSE YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE IN HANOVER
And yet Hanoverites beware! Who among us doesn’t like to while the night away at a blackjack table, doubling down on that face-up ace, laughing at the dealer’s witty repartee, and enjoying an endless flow of complimentary drinks? Until you run out of money because that ace turned up a 2 against the dealer’s 20, and you’re a writer and you’ve got a deadline the next morning, and what time is it—are you kidding me? It’s the next morning already? I’ve got to write a piece about Hanov—
Maybe that’s just me. But the good news for me is that I don’t have to maintain a security clearance. If you’re moving to Hanover, chances are you do. As Clearance Jobs has counseled previously, gambling is risky business when you hold a security clearance. And should you end up in financial distress, the first thing investigators are going to look at is why you’re in financial distress. As you can imagine, too much time at the Maryland Live! Casino in Hanover, with its 4,750 slots and fields of table games, won’t be looked kindly upon by your adjudicator.
Even if Hanover isn’t your speed, you can enjoy the good schools and low crime by and still enjoy the benefits of Baltimore, which is only 10 miles away, or Washington, D.C., which takes about 40 minutes to reach by car. As for me, I’m going to stick around and have dinner at Hanover’s Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament. There are few things in life as satisfying as eating a giant turkey leg in a reproduction castle while knights joust and then wail away on each other with swords and shields.
