| Chances are that you've been seeing more and more about the demand for IT security. Clearly, it's a growing field - one attracting a lot of attention when it comes to training and certification. But right now, there's IT security and then there's IT security.
IT Security as with a national security clearance. Over the last few months, I've gotten a steady stream of emails from readers who are eager to get one. One of the few bright spots in our tight IT market is the number of advertised jobs asking for security clearances in addition to the normal range of technical skills. Chalk it up to defense contracting as a growth area in the economy. Another need is for large corporations to do disaster planning, which can require clearance to view sensitive governmental information.
So … if you weren't interested before, maybe now you are.
Well, sorry to tempt you unfairly, but there's no good news. If you don't have a security clearance already, it's not likely you'll be able to get one unless you presently have a job that requires it.
Security Clearance Catch-22
That's right. According to the Defense Security Service (DSS), a division of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), it can only accept investigative requests from military or civilian organizations under DoD or from contractor facilities that are cleared under the defense portion of the National Industrial Security Program (NISP.)
DSS conducts Personnel Security Investigations (PSI) on:
- DoD military or civilian personnel who require a security clearance to access classified or sensitive information.
- Employees of facilities in private industry that are cleared under the DoD portion of the National Industrial Security Program (NISP).
See? You've got to be an employee already, with a need to access classified/sensitive information. There's no provision for a prospective employee. But, you say, what keeps an employer from hiring me and then going after a clearance for me?
Time.
It takes anywhere from 9 months to 2 years to complete the PSI and security clearance process these days. And if the company has a need for an employee, they need that person to be ready to work now - not 2 years from now. It is, unfortunately, a Catch-22 situation.
What's a Personnel Security Investigation (PSI)?
According to DSS, a PSI is an inquiry into an individual's loyalty, character, trustworthiness and reliability to ensure that he or she is eligible to access classified information or for an appointment to a sensitive position or position of trust. The PSI generally includes the following inquiries:
- National Agency Check (NAC)-A search of investigative files and other records held by federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
- Local Agency Check (LAC)-A review of appropriate criminal history records held by local law enforcement agencies, such as police departments or sheriffs, with jurisdiction over the areas where the candidate has lived, gone to school, and/or worked.
- Financial checks.
- Field interviews of references including coworkers, employers, personal friends, educators, neighbors, and other appropriate individuals.
- Checks of records held by employers, courts, and rental offices.
- Personal interview with the candidate conducted by a DSS investigator.
This process is exhaustive, as you might imagine and is increasingly detailed, depending upon which level of security clearance you're seeking.
Types of Security Clearances
Security clearances are granted by level, in line with permission to access increasingly sensitive information. The lowest level security clearance is "confidential", which is generally the entry-level clearance granted. From there, clearances move up to "secret", "top secret" and "top secret with sensitive compartmented information." This last level is a special access clearance granted by a government agency such as the NSA or CIA and requires additional investigation, often including polygraph examinations.
There's also a category called Top Secret/Special Intelligence that comes on top of the Top Secret/SCI level. I don't know much about it, but I'm pretty sure that this is the one where the guy says, "I can tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." If this falls in the range of your career goals, I'd say you were wasting your time reading this IT advice column.
Add Security to Your Career Plan
Just because you can't initiate a security clearance on your own, you don't have to give up on getting one. There are a couple of ways you can get there, but it will take time and patience. Or it will take a very large commitment on your part. Here's how:
Get a job, any job, with a classified government contractor. There are a large number of companies - both well- and little-known - which hold classified contracts through the DoD or U.S. Department of State. These companies have facility security clearances because they have access to classified information or provide personnel with security clearances to perform on contracts. Not every employee of these companies necessarily will hold a clearance, but once you get a job with one of them, the possibility exists for you to move in that direction.
Large, well-known defense contractors, like Northrop Grumman, CSC or Lockheed Martin to name a few, have hundreds of ongoing projects and lots of prospective projects as well. Get yourself hired in any capacity with a company like this and work with HR to develop a career path that will get you into a job that requires a security clearance.
Once you establish yourself as a valued employee, there's generally a better chance for you to seek the upward mobility you want - like a position requiring a clearance. Just be sure that you prove yourself to be reliable and trustworthy. And that there's nothing lurking in your past to prevent receiving that clearance.
The second way to get to a security clearance is more direct … and more extreme, in terms of its impact on your life. You can join the military. That's right. When you decide to serve your country, you are investigated for a "secret" level of security clearance.
Pete, a network engineer who formerly served in the National Guard, told me that he'd found this to be a tremendous boost to his career. He explained that he held his security clearance for the entire time of his military service and then it stayed valid for two years afterward. Pete explained that he'd joined the National Guard for the purpose of getting financial support for a college education in IT (it saved him $16K), but it also turned out to be a terrific way of making networking contacts.
Both of these methods require a pretty big commitment on your part. They're not something to enter into lightly. But if you are determined, either could pay off for you.
More
I got a question from Mike R., a reader who wanted to know if he could get a security clearance if he is a green card holder (resident alien.) According to my research, it appears that you must be a citizen to be eligible to apply for a security clearance. So it will be a matter of time- both to become naturalized and to access a job opportunity with the need for a clearance. I hope you're a patient guy, Mike.
We all need to be patient. It doesn't look like the labor market is going to loosen up any time soon. I've already lost the bet I had that said it would get better by the end of the 3rd quarter of this year. Keep your fingers crossed for Q1 '03. This is a good time to make an investment in your career by investigating new technologies and getting some new skills. Or coming up with some new ways to leverage the skills you already have.
Next month, I'll add a new topic for this column - an in-depth interview with an IT pro. We'll cover what he/she does, what it took to get there, what he/she thinks is coming and what advice would be useful for readers considering careers in their area of expertise. In October, a talk with Rob Hall, Macromedia Flash guru and author.
Enjoy this article? Read more of JobCircle.com's Career Coach articles.
Jamie Fabian spent more than 15 years as a human resources executive before changing careers to become a senior project manager for a growing IT consulting company. Now in management consulting for a large Pharma company, Jamie would like to be seen as a hybrid of Tom Peters, Tom Jackson, and Tom Wolfe, but spends too much time working, driving carpool and watching mindless TV to write more than this column. You can contact Jamie with questions and comments at jamie@jobcircle.com.
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