Most commonly, those problems manifest in the form of personality conflicts with colleagues, demanding supervisors, or an occasional failure to meet employer expectations (like showing up late to work).

Over the years, the government has made efforts to educate security clearance holders that common mental health conditions – i.e. depression and/or anxiety – do not generally disqualify individuals from obtaining a security clearance.

Check your email at work every now and again? Take a personal call when you need to? Or are you running your own side business with the company phone? Aye, there’s the rub.

For clearance holders, having unexplained wealth is a security concern. If you’ve recently come into a tidy sum through inheritance, casino winnings, or even the lottery, here’s how to protect your clearance and your cash.

Significant other? Cohabitant? Buddy? Strictly professional? These situations can get complicated, so perhaps the best way of assessing any living situation is to approach it with this question in mind: What is the government’s motivation for inquiring?

The lesson here for applicants attempting to obtain an interim security clearance is simply this: don’t underestimate the value of the comments sections on the SF-86 form as a place to mitigate potential concerns.

As it turns out, being sloppy isn’t just an annoying quirk – it can cost you your cleared career.

Security clearance holders are required to immediately self-report an arrest or criminal charges. In many cases, self-reporting can head off clearance revocation at the pass – but not always.

Serving as a government contractor can sometimes be stressful. To relieve that stress, some turn to massage, and that is where things get, well…touchy.

Las Vegas has earned its reputation as a carefree ‘playground’ for those wishing to let loose. But its implied anarchy is overblown – and security clearance holders can forget about partaking in it anyway.