The Cleared Recruiting Chronicles is a weekly segment that deep dives into cleared recruiting and HR issues specific to the national security industry. Different from any other talent acquisition field, cleared recruiting has its own specific challenges.

1. Key Industry Pain Points for Recruiters So Far This Year

Not surprisingly, the most popular ‘Cleared Recruiting Chronicle’ article focused on pain points that recruiters were experiencing this year.

  1. Government work not offering telework opportunities for cleared programs: This makes staffing a challenge as cleared candidates are enticed by commercial remote jobs and high salaries.
  2. Contracting in general: The lowest bid usually wins proposals and therefor, salaries are usually lower than what cleared candidates want.
  3. Security clearance processing times: even though times have been going down, some recruiters and candidates are experiencing delays specific to their background. It gets frustrating both as a staffer and as security clearance applicant.
  4. Recruiting technology: Even though there is an abundance of tools to make a recruiter’s job easier, sometimes it’s difficult to get buy in from leadership to invest in this tech, especially if you are supporting a smaller business with lower cash flow.

Read the full article here.

2. Intelligence Analysis Interview Questions to Ask Your TS/SCI Candidates

Our second most popular article from this segment highlighted a list of boilerplate questions to ask candidates who were applying for intelligence analyst positions at the TS / SCI security clearance level.

Whether you are seeking OSINT, SIGINT, GEOINT, or HUMINT candidates, recruiters should have knowledge of the tools, processes, and methodologies for analyst role, and that understanding should be reflected in your interview questions.

Questions like “What is your preferred intelligence discipline, and why?” along with these questions are a good starting off point in developing your interview process:

  1. How would you describe your intelligence analysis work style?
  2. While perusing your different online media, do you have language translation capabilities or experience?
  3. What are the various intelligence tools you are familiar with?
  4. What intelligence collection tools are you comfortable working in?
  5. Do you have access or experience in classified networks or strictly open-sources?
  6. What intelligence databases do you have knowledge of / are comfortable working in?
  7. Have you previously deployed? Are you open to deploying on a rotational basis?
  8. What areas of responsibility (AOR) do you have knowledge of?
  9. Do you have experience in writing intelligence assessments and briefing senior level leadership? Do you enjoy writing assessments or hate it?
  10. What are you hoping to do after working as an analyst?
  11. Do you have an active security clearance?

3. Candidate Ghosting

Ghosting is an issue on both recruiters and candidates, and after hearing so many horror stories around the topic, why are we still experiencing it? Whether it’d be lack of communication, time in between correspondence, frustration about negative interview experiences, or just diminishing interest on the candidate’s part, there are ways to lower your chances that a candidate will ghost you.

Learn about all those recruiting hacks here.

 

THE CLEARED RECRUITING CHRONICLES: YOUR WEEKLY DoD RECRUITING TIPS TO OUT COMPETE THE NEXT NATIONAL SECURITY STAFFER.

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Katie Helbling is a marketing fanatic that enjoys anything digital, communications, promotions & events. She has 10+ years in the DoD supporting multiple contractors with recruitment strategy, staffing augmentation, marketing, & communications. Favorite type of beer: IPA. Fave hike: the Grouse Grind, Vancouver, BC. Fave social platform: ClearanceJobs! 🇺🇸