This is Top Secret!
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You fill out a few forms, acknowledge that you don't belong to any communist parties (ok, I made that one up, I think), supply a few references, and rack your brains getting all the information about where you, your parents, your spouse, and your spouses parents were born and 20 years of where you've all lived.
leckey wrote:
for cheating a little bit on my taxes.
Define "a little bit" ;P Marc
Marc Clifton wrote:
You fill out a few forms, acknowledge that you don't belong to any communist parties (ok, I made that one up, I think), supply a few references, and rack your brains getting all the information about where you, your parents, your spouse, and your spouses parents were born and 20 years of where you've all lived
Actually, all of that is pretty much accurate. About the only part that differs is the length of time...it changes based on the level of clearance.
Scott.
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My consultant that I worked with on another job opportunity mentioned last night a job at an Air Force base. However, it's a 'Top Secret' clearance job. Has anyone gone through this before? What does it entail? I don't want to apply if I'm gonig to get the rack for cheating a little bit on my taxes.
Hey! I finally found a picture of myself!
In the U.S, all of the security clearance is handled by the Defense Investigative Services Agency (DISA) and is paid for by your employer. The level of detail they go into is based on the level of clearance required, but it generally covers the following things: 1. Local background check with the local (city) police department. 2. Local background check with the state police department. 3. Federal background check with the FBI. They will ask you to list your past residences for the last x years, where x is again determined by the level of clearance. Also, they will ask for character references and will interview those people (they may also interview additional people your references mention as well). They are usually looking for things that might indicate an unstable mental character, prediliction towards cheating, gambling, or other illegal or illicit activity, negative credit history (usually has to be fairly bad), and other things like that which would make you a potential target for blackmail or a potential security leak. There will be a lot of paperwork that you will need to read and sign once you've been cleared, but the actual paperwork you fill out to start the process is about 5 pages (if I remember correctly). It does sound a lot scarier than it really is. You might want to clarify what you mean by "cheating a little bit on my taxes" too...that is fairly vague and without any additional detail I don't think anybody could give you an indication one way or the other.
leckey wrote:
I finally found a picture of myself!
Nice picture, by the way. Speaking of which, how are the cats?
Scott.
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My brother does this kind of work in California and he loves it. However, you are monitored 24/7/365. You can't bring any electronic devices into the facility and you can't take anything out. That's about all I know.
S Smerk wrote:
However, you are monitored 24/7/365. You can't bring any electronic devices into the facility and you can't take anything out.
That's generally true, but it does depend on the facility, the type of work, and the level of clearance.
Scott.
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A friend of mine works as an FAA contractor and had to undergo a similar background check. It was not painful, but was in depth.
"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it." - Ellen Goodman
"To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have deference for others governs our manners." - Laurence Sterne
DavidCrow wrote:
A friend of mine works as an FAA contractor and had to undergo a similar background check. It was not painful, but was in depth.
As you said, it's a similar background check. I don't believe FAA checks are handled by DISA since it's not a military agency. No matter what, they are thorough, but not painful.
Scott.
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Like others've said it's a pain to fill out all the paperwork and you have to answer alot of personal questions. That said, as long as your background is clean, and you're honest in answering everything, you shouldn't have any problems getting approved eventually. That said, one thing that noone seems to've mentioned that you might want to consider. After going through all the trouble to get your clearance you could discover that instead of working on Something Really Cool You Can't Talk About, that you're just doing an accessVBA app and only need the clearance to do the deployment on the production system once or twice a year. :doh:
-- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.
dan neely wrote:
That said, one thing that noone seems to've mentioned that you might want to consider. After going through all the trouble to get your clearance you could discover that instead of working on Something Really Cool You Can't Talk About, that you're just doing an accessVBA app and only need the clearance to do the deployment on the production system once or twice a year.
Very good point. The clearance isn't always about what you're working on but it is always about what you might have access to. When I had my clearance it was because the integration lab we used was shared with another project that required clearance...so, because I needed access to the lab I also needed a security clearance.
Scott.
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Gobs and gobs and gobs and gobs of paperwork. You'll need dates of where you've lived, jobs, explanations for any periods of jobless-ness, relatives' vital statistics, references ... The biggest thing is to tell the truth. Bad things, per se, are not grounds for denial - it's hiding them that is an instant no-go. Anything "bad" must be known or else it is grounds for blackmail. Your references will be checked, residency verified, relatives' statuses checked, foreign travel scrutinized. As of a year ago, it was taking 9-12 months for a secret clearance and an additional 6 months for a top-secret. If a clearance is granted, all foreign travel must be approved. Contacts with foreigners must be reported along with any "suspicious" behavior or questions directed at you. You'll sign away the right to talk about what you do in anything but the most general terms (for example, read my profile - that description is all I can say about 10+ years of work.) Cleared work can be a major blast - depending on the job, you may get to do some wild things and take some interesting trips but it comes with a responsibility that I'd never felt before and haven't felt since. Judy
JudyL_FL wrote:
As of a year ago, it was taking 9-12 months for a secret clearance and an additional 6 months for a top-secret.
That seems to be pretty standard. When I got my clearance, over 10 years ago, it was about that same length of time. They did grant me a "provisional clearance" after a few months when the preliminary checks came back ok, but I doubt they do that anymore.
JudyL_FL wrote:
The biggest thing is to tell the truth. Bad things, per se, are not grounds for denial - it's hiding them that is an instant no-go. Anything "bad" must be known or else it is grounds for blackmail.
Yes, anything that could be used as blackmail material they want to know about and anything that might indicate you would be a security "risk".
Scott.
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JudyL_FL wrote:
As of a year ago, it was taking 9-12 months for a secret clearance and an additional 6 months for a top-secret.
That seems to be pretty standard. When I got my clearance, over 10 years ago, it was about that same length of time. They did grant me a "provisional clearance" after a few months when the preliminary checks came back ok, but I doubt they do that anymore.
JudyL_FL wrote:
The biggest thing is to tell the truth. Bad things, per se, are not grounds for denial - it's hiding them that is an instant no-go. Anything "bad" must be known or else it is grounds for blackmail.
Yes, anything that could be used as blackmail material they want to know about and anything that might indicate you would be a security "risk".
Scott.
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Scott Dorman wrote:
That seems to be pretty standard. When I got my clearance, over 10 years ago, it was about that same length of time. They did grant me a "provisional clearance" after a few months when the preliminary checks came back ok, but I doubt they do that anymore.
As of IIRC this spring they were.
-- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.
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S Smerk wrote:
However, you are monitored 24/7/365. You can't bring any electronic devices into the facility and you can't take anything out.
That's generally true, but it does depend on the facility, the type of work, and the level of clearance.
Scott.
—In just two days, tomorrow will be yesterday. [Forum Guidelines] [Articles] [Blog]
I guess so, my bro tells me that he works at a very top secret location and that he works on weapons based creation/testing. Obviously, he can't tell me much...I don't think I would want to know anyways.
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Scott Dorman wrote:
That seems to be pretty standard. When I got my clearance, over 10 years ago, it was about that same length of time. They did grant me a "provisional clearance" after a few months when the preliminary checks came back ok, but I doubt they do that anymore.
As of IIRC this spring they were.
-- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.
dan neely wrote:
As of IIRC this spring they were.
I'm not sure if I should be surprised by this or not. :) My doubt came from the "trend" of declining civil freedoms and the increased civilian security measures (like the passport requirements). I wasn't sure if they would still be issuing provisional clearances.
Scott.
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I guess so, my bro tells me that he works at a very top secret location and that he works on weapons based creation/testing. Obviously, he can't tell me much...I don't think I would want to know anyways.
S Smerk wrote:
I don't think I would want to know anyways
Probably not...some things are better left unknown. :)
Scott.
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dan neely wrote:
As of IIRC this spring they were.
I'm not sure if I should be surprised by this or not. :) My doubt came from the "trend" of declining civil freedoms and the increased civilian security measures (like the passport requirements). I wasn't sure if they would still be issuing provisional clearances.
Scott.
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I don't think they have all that much choice in the matter, finding a year or two of make work for every new employee while waiting for their full clearance to come in would be prohibitive. DHS has made the situation worse by greatly increasing the number of people needing cleared.
-- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.
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I don't think they have all that much choice in the matter, finding a year or two of make work for every new employee while waiting for their full clearance to come in would be prohibitive. DHS has made the situation worse by greatly increasing the number of people needing cleared.
-- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.
dan neely wrote:
I don't think they have all that much choice in the matter, finding a year or two of make work for every new employee while waiting for their full clearance to come in would be prohibitive
Good point.
dan neely wrote:
DHS has made the situation worse by greatly increasing the number of people needing cleared.
I'm sure they caused a huge backlog initially. It sounds like things are back to the "normal" timeframe now at least.
Scott.
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dan neely wrote:
I don't think they have all that much choice in the matter, finding a year or two of make work for every new employee while waiting for their full clearance to come in would be prohibitive
Good point.
dan neely wrote:
DHS has made the situation worse by greatly increasing the number of people needing cleared.
I'm sure they caused a huge backlog initially. It sounds like things are back to the "normal" timeframe now at least.
Scott.
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