RE: So many jobs want CURRENT security clearances

["Donald H. White" <whitedh -at- comcast -dot- net>]

"Yes, yes, I know. So what? Jobs are now being offered to a special class of
people and no one can enter that class without first getting a job that
requires the thing that makes the class special. Nothing I can do can allow
me to enter that special class of people. No skills are involved. That is
precisely what makes it UNFAIR."

A special class of people? I don't know about that...I held a TS/SCI
clearance throughout my Navy career. When I got out in 1987, I found
employment that employed my clearance. There was a small lag time involved
where the company and the government agency had my clearance reinstated (it
had been recently renewed before my EAOS). I used that clearance with three
companies until I tired of running after the fewer and fewer jobs that
required it.

In the D.C. area, it has been common for years to advertise jobs only for
those who hold clearances. It has also been common to let people go when
their clearances expire rather than fund the reinvestigation that must take
place every five years.

Today, in this post-9/11 era where Homeland Security (sic) and the DoD and
others have so much going and they (and their contractors) need additional
workers, the adverts are out there for people who have clearances. If they
get them, the new employees can be put (almost) immediately to the task that
generated the personnel requirement.

I don't see anything different in this from companies that advertise for
very specifically qualified technical writers, such as those whose knowledge
of Unix or Oracle is so intimate as to guarantee them higher paying
employment as tech gurus rather than as editors and writers.

Don White
804.795.2914
whitedh -at- comcast -dot- net