ClearanceJobs.com was founded on July 7th, 2002, with the site’s first registered candidate signing up July 10th. In this exciting episode of the Security Clearance Careers Podcast you get to meet the family behind the ClearanceJobs family. Founders Evan and Rachel Lesser were both working for in the national security community and experienced firsthand the difficulty in hiring for cleared programs. AOL was king, and there was no cleared online career marketplace.
Today, ClearanceJobs has at 1.4 million registered candidates, almost 75,000 cleared jobs listed, over 2,000 defense contractors and federal agencies using the marketplace, and over 7,600 cleared recruiters perusing candidate profiles and networking with job seekers.
Both Evan and Rachel are still very much a part of the daily operations of the organization and have seen big changes throughout the evolution of ClearanceJobs. Once a transactional website – where candidates would post a resume and recruiters would reach out – ClearanceJobs today is much more of a community. Candidates can connect with recruiters, check out a company’s branded page, peruse their job openings, and see if their culture fits in with what they want for their cleared career. Recruiters can also join groups and promote openings to those candidates who fit a particular niche.
Dial-up internet was the standard in 2002, and creating a website while others were popping up left and right could have been daunting. But a crazy idea born out of necessity following the events of September 11th motivated the Lessers to join the national security cause.
What do Evan and Rachel both think are their biggest accomplishments throughout the years? It is no doubt the team that they have put together at ClearanceJobs. One of the developers they hired in 2004 is still supporting the company to this day, and a sales representative that joined them in 2005 is still a part of the CJ team.
“We both started the company with babies on our laps,” Evan notes. Having a company that was built by their families for families and supporting the industry that protects our nation’s national security is certainly something to celebrate.
Happy 20th Birthday to the ClearanceJobs community!
