College student considering a summer internship with the NSA? Recent grad and feel the Department of Homeland Security calling your name? It’s not just mid-career professionals working in national security – the government needs young people in its workforce, and it’s working to attract Generation Z to government career paths. Most of those will also require a security clearance – and that can create some young and reckless security clearance applicants.
In the latest episode of ClearedCast, we chat with Sean Bigley, security clearance attorney and ClearanceJobs contributor, about unique clearance considerations and insecurities for young people.
- 2:35 – When you’re denied a security clearance as a young person.
- 4:00 – Alcohol issues for clearance applicants.
- 6:30 – Mitigating issues of youthful indiscretion.
- 8:55 – Bitcoin transactions and other emerging clearance issues.
- 9:45 – Mitigating your computer issues and vices.
If you’re a young person, you may just be willing to throw caution to the wind and apply. But a read through of both the full SF-86 and the adjudicative guidelines prior to applying is helpful. You may be able to mitigate potential issues – the steps you take before you apply matter. But if you find yourself on the other end of a security clearance denial, there are options.
“We do get people who are in their late teens and early 20s who are applying for an internship and college and they’re being denied a security clearance over it. It’s the exception, not the norm,” said Bigley.
While young people being denied a clearance and taking the financial steps to fight that denial may be more rare than the mid-career applicant fighting to retain a clearance, the good news is – young people have a strategic advantage when it comes to fighting a clearance denial.
“Many cases with young people are winnable and the reason for that is many of those cases do involve drug use, they do involve youthful indiscretions, and the government does view that in context,” said Bigley.
It’s a topic Bigley has covered in the past – ageism in the security clearance process. The reality is the government does consider age in the clearance process, and whether this is an issue that may be blamed on youthful immaturity or lack of life experience, versus overall bad judgment.
Clearance Issues Hitting Younger Applicants
Not all clearance issues are created equally, and youner applicants are more likely to have specific issues – those around technology,, including cryptocurrencies and dark web transactions, or bad choices in relationships and associates.
“Alcohol, dark web or internet issues, and bad choices in relationships – those are some of the more common threads affecting [younger] security clearance holders,” said Bigley.
Generation Z may be more likely to tap into some of the gray areas in the clearance process – issues that are just now being written into policy, or where security clearance and suitability guidelines may vary between agencies. The good news about a clearance denial in a gray area is there is a decent chance of being able to mitigate the issue. Even issues that are cut and dry – like drug use – can be mitigated if the individuals separate themselves from the behavior as firmly as possible.
“What tends to be the most helpful is demonstrating some sort of a clear break,” said Bigley. If you did drugs in college, for instance, and can show that you’ve left university life – even leaving behind the city where you did drugs or participated in the negative behavior, that can help your case. That can help mitigate drug use that may be fairly recent – having made life changes that show the issue is “firmly in the past,” Bigley notes.
