Re: So many jobs want CURRENT security clearances

["Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- editors-writers -dot- info>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew Plato" <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: August 13, 2003 02:56 PM
Subject: Re: So many jobs want CURRENT security clearances


>
>
> "Bonnie Granat" wrote...
>
> > It is unfair to expect people to have what they cannot get on their own.
If
> > jobs are being advertised on the Internet, that tells me that the "normal*
> > ways that companies have of filling these jobs is not getting results and
> that
> > the companies are resorting to using the "outside." If they are going
outside
> > the normal word-of-mouth, referral type scenario, they should open the
jobs
> to
> > the general public and not a special class of people.
>
> Bonnie, I explained one method you could use to obtain clearance (get a job
at
> a place that does gov work and work your way up into a position that
requires
> security clearance).
>
> So there are ways that you can obtain security clearance.

I am not interested in getting a security clearance for its own sake. I am
primarily interested in being employed.


>
> > In "normal" times, the person gets the job and then gets the clearance. It
is
> > unfair because it offers jobs to a special class of people and no one can
> > enter that class by his or her own abilities.
>
> "Normal times?"  What are those?  Pre-9/11, post 8/45, pre-columbian, AD,
BC,
> Thursday in Rome? When is normal? (And what time is love?)

Non-recession times is what I'm referring to.

>
> As many people have pointed out, you do not get the job then get the
clearance.
> The clearance tends to come out of existing work or military involvement.
> Security clearance has never been something that was just handed out to
anybody
> that wanted it.
>

No, you have it backwards. In normal times, you get the job and THEN get the
clearance. It is a NEW thing to require a clearance first.

> I see this really as no different that job experience. If the job listed 5+
> years of expertise with PDQ Technology, you wouldn't call that unfair. This
> isn't really any different. Clearance is merely something that takes a while
to
> obtain, just like job experience.

It's much different. It's a catch-22 right now. Nobody in their right mind
would take "a" job in order to get a clearance.

>
> > 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.
>
> Bonnie, I explained a method you could use to obtain security clearance. You
> dismissed it. If you aren't willing to do what it takes to obtain this
> clearance, then I'm afriad you're out of options. Look for work elsewhere.
>


There is no method for getting a clearance except getting HIRED in a job that
REQUIRES ONE.

Bonnie Granat
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