So you can bulls-eye womp-rats with your T-16 back home, and you’ve mastered your wookiee call. You’ve studied up on the best way to filet a taun-taun and use it as a sleeping bag. You want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like your father. Each of those skills is useful at ClearanceJobs, except the last one. (After all, hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a blaster at your side.) You’ve been living the Star Wars life since the seventies, so maybe it’s time to get a Star Wars job. Here are six Star Wars heroes and the cleared jobs they can help you find.
HAN SOLO
Before Han Solo became a smuggler, he served in the Imperial Navy as a pilot. He’s certainly proof that former members of the military never stray far from the service; he became a hero of the Rebel Alliance after running defense for Luke Skywalker during his successful run in the Death Star trench, and was later (somehow) field promoted to general. (Star Wars is nothing if not generous with its promotion system. Lando Calrissian also managed to score a star on his collar. One wonders how the career officers like Wedge Antilles feel about this.)
The military is a great pathway to scoring a security clearance, and if you have experience in special forces, have we got jobs for you. While Han Solo was given the job of leading a guerrilla force to destroy the second Death Star’s shield generator, jobs available here on Earth include working for Northrop Grumman as a SOF trainer, and working for such companies as ManTech in the security sector overseas.
R2-D2
The pluckiest droid in the galaxy is best known for enlisting old Ben Kenobi to aid Princess Leia in her most desperate hour, and for smuggling the Death Star plans to (the remains of) Alderaan, and then to Yavin IV. But like all astromech droids, his first and best job is that of a mechanic. He fixed Queen Amidala’s shuttle during her escape from Naboo, and repaired starfighters for two generations of Skywalkers.
Mechanics with a clearance are a valuable commodity for the intelligence community, State Department, and DOD. In the private sector, Northrop Grumman needs mechanics to lead aircraft maintenance in Afghanistan, and Bowhead/UIC needs them to keep vehicles running for nuclear weapons security. The career doesn’t promise that you’ll find a lifelong pal like C3PO, but there will probably be a few Jar Jar’s around to keep you company.
C-3PO
This isn’t the forum for debating why a young Anakin Skywalker would build a protocol droid for his mother, who was a slave. Why a domestic servant would need a robot skilled in six million forms of communication is unclear. She probably would have preferred some sort of high-powered Roomba. On the other hand, if you need to speak to vile gangsters like Jabba the Hutt, or talk Ewoks out of eating your friends, C-3PO is your droid.
Security clearances and language skills are like peanut butter and jelly, or, for that matter, C-3PO and R2-D2. If you hold at least a Secret clearance and speak something other than English, you can almost write your own check in the nation’s security apparatus. WorldWide Language Resources, for one, is hiring linguists fluent in the tongues of every hotspot in the world. There are more opportunities than the obvious, though. Northrop Grumman wants a website designer who can read Spanish, and Experis needs legal translators for everything from Yiddish to Tagalog.
PRINCESS LEIA
As a member of the Imperial Senate, Princess Leia worked in some capacity as a diplomat. (Don’t look too closely at the job titles in the Star Wars universe, as General Calrissian would tell you.) And while we never saw her on any actual mercy missions, we do know that she was one hell of a spy. Smuggling the Death Star plans across the galaxy is an espionage achievement akin to the Soviets stealing the atomic bomb or Alan Turing breaking the Enigma code.
The galactic intersection of diplomat and spy is a fair representation of life here on Earth, as well. Our foreign service officers at U.S. embassies abroad do a remarkable job at the hard work of international diplomacy, but they are also great at relaying information to our intelligence officers stationed at embassies around the world. If you have a clearance, the State Department and intelligence community are looking hard for you. What I’m trying to say is: Help us, Clearance Holder, you’re our only hope.
LANDO CALRISSIAN
If you think too hard about the promotion system in the Rebel Alliance, you’re likely to suffer an aneurysm, or at least a pretty messy nosebleed. Lando Calrissian was promoted to general because (apparently) nobody would lead the attack on the second Death Star, which would probably be news to Admiral Ackbar, who led the attack on the second Death Star. It might also surprise Wedge Antilles, who spent his life in service of the Rebel Alliance, and who, unlike Lando, was also part of the attack on the first Death Star at the Battle of Yavin.
So the promotion system is broken, but as we all know, Lando’s not a system; he’s a man. And when he wasn’t living a charmed military “career,” he was actually doing impressive work running a tibanna gas mine at Cloud City. This is a perfect analog to the kind of work being done by U.S. companies abroad. The Earthly resource is oil, of course, but the military experience is relevant. An experienced NCO or officer who served in the war has likely led large teams, and has seen firsthand how complex foreign relationships should be handled. Would-be employees of the energy sector abroad can even learn from Lando, who had a deal with Lord Vader—a deal whose terms were later changed (and pray Lord Vader doesn’t change it further). Be flexible, and if someone asks for volunteers to lead an assault on a fully armed and operational battle station, raise your hand. The retirement pay will be great.
ADMIRAL ACKBAR
You don’t want this job—it’s a trap!
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Clearance Jobs can show you the jobs, and can give you solid pointers on how to build a resume and write a cover letter. We can help you transition from one career to another, and how to prepare for a job interview. But once you get that call from an employer, you go into the interview alone. What will you find there? As Yoda might say: Only what you take with you.
