Having an active security clearance in the job search obviously gives you a leg up on the competition when you want to work for a federal agency or defense contractor. However, what if you’re fresh out of college or you weren’t able to get your clearance to transfer from the military to the civilian world? How do you land a job without a current clearance? To be clear, if you do not have a security clearance, you cannot obtain one on your own. It must be sponsored by a government agency or a company with a government contract requiring access to classified information. If you don’t have a clearance (but you want a cleared job), sometimes you just have to change your job search approach.
Some Companies Will Wait for the Right Candidate
Sometimes, you can find a company that has the project timeline that supports their willingness to sponsor your clearance process. When you’re applying for a federal government job, the background investigation process will start after you have accepted a tentative job offer. The job offer will be conditional on whether or not you can obtain the required clearance. This process costs the sponsoring agency a monetary investment, but more importantly, it costs time.
Even though disgruntled candidates complain that private contractors are not willing to sponsor them through the background investigation process, some employers willing to sponsor clearances are out there. You just need to get creative in how you approach your job search. A good strategy is to target your job search by using queries like ‘willing to sponsor’ or including the ‘interim’ term to help you narrow down companies that are willing to invest the time in order you to get cleared. Pay attention to project timelines to see if the organization has the wiggle room to wait for your interim clearance. However, you may need to adjust your job description in order to find billable work on an unclassified project.
Start at the Bottom of the Clearance Levels
Another strategy is to take a look at the different levels of clearances and start at the lowest on the totem pole – the tier that takes the least time investment. This could get you working on the billet sooner, ultimately helping the contractor to fulfill the customer mission requirements. Some companies seek candidates who are willing and able to obtain a Public Trust clearance, which can take just a few weeks to obtain. The agency may do a quick interim screening to get you onboard initially, but understand that the adjudicative criteria is the same as a Secret or Top Secret clearance. Significant financial or criminal issues in your past may stop a public trust position from being your quick entry to the cleared world.
After you obtain employment in a public trust position, you can apply for a Secret level opening within your company. This route lets you keep working at the sponsoring company while you go through a Secret or Top Secret level background investigation. In any case, be sure to understand the 13 adjudicative guidelines and the whole person concept so you don’t run into any obstacles.
Networking is Your SuperPower
Whether you have a security clearance or not, candidates should not underestimate the value of networking and taking a unique approach in navigating the recruitment landscape. For other hacks & tricks,drop a comment or reach out to the team at ClearanceJobs.
