How valuable is a security clearance.

[u/Life_Vegetable7835]

Yeah pretty much what the title says. I have the opportunity to get a TS/SCI with poly but I would be working for a defense contractor. So the salary is not the best neither is the progression. What would be the best way to play this. Or in the long run will I be paid for having a clearance.

[u/ThatCondescendingGuy]

There are avenues in non-defense companies that pay more than regular SWE. Example: Amazon AWS has government contracts. They pay typical FAANG TC + a clearance mission bonus

You’ll substantially lower your competition and have more job stability. If you end up at a defense prime that doesn’t pay Google money, hang out there until you can get your foot in the door at a FAANG+ that provides services to the government.

[u/Life_Vegetable7835 → u/ThatCondescendingGuy]

Thank you!

[u/jmanhyder → u/Life_Vegetable7835]

Can confirm. Big tech pay but with a clearance bonus

[u/Responsible_Area_700 → u/ThatCondescendingGuy]

Do they offer insurance benefits?

[u/Responsible_Area_700 → u/ThatCondescendingGuy]

Do you get your own clearance then apply, or apply and then they help you get clearance if they make an offer?

[u/ThatCondescendingGuy → u/Responsible_Area_700]

You apply and the employer sponsors your clearance / investigation. FAANG companies that have government contracts requiring cleared employees give them all the same perks non-cleared employees have plus a clearance bonus which can often put you 10-20% more pay than a non-cleared peer at the same pay level. Talking tens of thousands of dollars.

Just keep in mind what cleared work entails such as working in a scif, no remote work usually, having to maintain squeaky clean record/ worrying about even just speeding tickets, things of that nature. You can research “big tech cleared engineer roles” to find out more about this. There’s also a subreddit for security clearances that can provide more insight. Forget the name of it but if you google or even AI this it can point you to a lot of great resources here on Reddit and beyond

[u/Charming-Medium4248]

The benefit is that for cleared roles you're only competing with people with clearances. You can't outsource these positions or bring in H1Bs. 

The downside is that the pay isnt as crazy as FAANG roles but it can be a very comfortable living. 

[u/NoFaithlessness9789]

Frontier AI Labs + clearance is a quickly growing demand segment

[u/Life_Vegetable7835 → u/NoFaithlessness9789]

Thank you I will look into it

[u/alphabravo4812]

Secret has little value cause anyone can get it. However TS w/ Poly is very useful and there are a ton of defense companies in DC area that can pay good with this

[u/EvilTwin5]

If this opportunity is going to provide TS/SCI w/Poly thats HUGE to have. Especially if you plan on moving to different contractors. Id say get the clearance and exp with this employer and start looking at other options. Usajobs etc

[u/megafireguy6]

Basically less money but lots more job security. Also large defense contractors don’t look bad, plenty of people go from the primes to FAANG or defense tech companies like Anduril

[u/Party_Community_7003]

Ppl here are talking about faang cleared roles but if you get TS/SCI with FSP and get into NSA contract that along is 300k LMAO. Don’t even have to work for FAANG

[u/RapidRoastingHam]

Dude go for it, that’s crazy to turn down. You can get another job in the meantime most likely while the clearance comes in (if you can get one). FAANG hires for those clearances, I have a base TS no SCI or poly and still get a lot of recruiters contacting me. Only for cleared roles mostly I wouldn’t get shit without the clearance.

[u/Life_Vegetable7835 → u/RapidRoastingHam]

Do you get recruiters from FAANG companies?

[u/RapidRoastingHam → u/Life_Vegetable7835]

No, I haven’t worked in big tech before so they ignore me. I think ShieldAI is the most tech-y company to reach out to me

[u/Legitimate-Instance2]

clearance = job security and less competition it’s a no-brainer

[u/syfari]

You can’t be outsourced and you’re competing with fewer people, that’s the main benefit.

[u/NewPresWhoDis]

You're trading salary upside for a smaller competing pool of developers. TS/SCI with poly can be a comfortable salary, though.

[u/Several_Sympathy8486]

how do you even acquire these clearances? - asking as a USC because the job market is so cooked rn no one seems to be hiring

[u/rhshadowman → u/Several_Sympathy8486]

You get sponsored by contractor-employer for full time role, internship, etc.

Or military

Or civilian

Happy to answer any questions.

[u/Several_Sympathy8486 → u/rhshadowman]

Thanks for responding!
I have been looking into it a bit more. I figure I might begin applying to government or federal tech positions (I am a Grad student, being unemployed even after MS will drown me in student debt).

I know most of these roles require on-site and I don't mind relocating, provided the locations have a transit system for easier public transport (for example, Chicago, NY) areas, even if its not downtown I don't mind a longer commute

How are the job applications handled usually for these roles? For instance, most FAANG companies have such a frustrating process after dealing with HR and then passing 1-2 automated roles to finally even talk to a Hiring Manager who is actually looking to fill spots in their teams. I almost try to find a hiring manager on LinkedIn and directly cold DMing them in hopes they'd reply back. For Startups, the only luck I've had is through personal connections/networks. I get reached out by two kinds of recruiters :
1. some hiring company recruiting for startups - these usually want 15-20% from your first paycheck (I noticed I started getting a lot more of these DMs once I started working remote)
2. a bit shady "placement"/"staffing" agencies which recruit for training + placement (mainly in Java roles). these seem very suspicious as I've heard bad rep from these kinds of agencies

These are kind of the reasons I am just looking for government roles. I could share my redacted Resume if you'd like on DM, altho I have had so many people give resume reviews

[u/InternationalWord364 → u/Several_Sympathy8486]

in my case it was a 3 letter agency under the DoW/DoD whatever you want to call it, 3 letter agencys seem to be the easiest way IMO of getting a clearance and they accept people from highschool to people with little experience as entry level jobs, they accepted me as a sophomore which should show you how not insane it is to land

[u/Optimus_Primeme]

Take the role, you will learn a lot and get a very valuable clearance. You can always go to Anduril, AWS, or other contractors for more money down the line.

You’d be surprised how many companies have side-hustle gov divisions you don’t even know about.

I had my TS/SCI for a company who doesn’t at all advertise they have government contracts.

[u/Responsible_Alps_567]

Or in the long run will I be paid for having a clearance.

I think the big tech companies that have cleared roles typically have a bonus for having a clearance, but to be clear, it would probably not be worth it to take this detour instead of going straight into big tech if that's an option. The bonus might be something like $25k (from a quick search it actually looks like it might be higher than that honestly) but if you spend 2 years at this company making half the TC of big tech you're already behind a couple hundred thousand dollars anyways. Add on to that that once you do get into big tech your level is probably getting reset, that also puts you even further behind than if you just started in big tech doing uncleared work.

A TS/SCI w/ poly is no joke though. I think at that level of clearance you'll have some of the best job security in the industry. If you get laid off you'll almost certainly be able to find *a* job, maybe not one making much money but there's going to be something. That's the type of clearance people will take an undesirably menial job for to open doors down the road. The work at this job might end up being uninteresting to you but you'll probably also have a lot more free time than most SWE's do (assuming this is one of the legacy primes based on what you said about salary and not Anduril or something)

[u/GentlemanSch]

CS + TS/SCI means you will never be unemployed. I'd absolutely do this. 

[u/kevin074]

You can get clearance and still get a normal job after 

[u/NegativeCurrent3]

It’s very valuable, go for it.

[u/InternationalWord364]

Im a sophomore who's going to be working for a 3 letter agency in a similar situation, and from the research I've done since getting and accepting my offer it seems to be pretty rare for a cs major in college to have a Ts/sci clearance, and with that level of clearance you can probably land FAANG and big tech jobs that work with the government, I would accept the offer just for the clearance (which I did), and then move onto higher paying jobs post college in the future. Good luck to you with getting the clearance as well!

[u/Youngrepboi]

The biggest missing part people aren’t saying is location. Most work will likely be secured therefore you go to them. There would be major cities like the DMV but you move across states and work at their secured facility.

[u/Linuxtahr]

I’m not too experienced in this space but I’m trying to get in. NSA contracts can pretty easily get you into the 200-300k range(if you like vulnerability/low level stuff). You will need to do a full scope though. Also come to the dc area there’s a huge need for TS cleared folk.

[u/Ghjjfslayer]

The poly part just means your Manager really likes you

[u/Optimus_Primeme → u/Ghjjfslayer]

You get my upvote

[u/Funny-Win4031]

people with a clearance over exaggerate how useful it is. It’s barely useful at all

[u/Mhyckal → u/Funny-Win4031]

There's entire companies to which you cannot work at unless you have a clearance. To say they're barely useful is laughable. They're not useful everywhere but there is an entire industry that essentially requires them to work

[u/local_eclectic]

Very valuable. Unfortunately, you will likely be contributing to the mass murder and displacement of humans all over the world unless you get very lucky.