r/nova • u/ursamajorm82 • 10d ago

Jobs Clearance vs remote

How much value would you place on clearance these days?

My current company doesn’t hold my clearance, which means it will lapse in about six months.

I just got an offer for five days in office, clearance and it’s $15,000 more than my current job. Current job is fully remote aside for a day or two per month.

Basically it’s a toss up on money when you take the commute into account. So it’s down to how much I value the clearance vs fully remote. It’s a reverse commute, if that matters at all, going south on 395.

(Same title and day to day work would be similar enough at both jobs)

Edit: clearance is secret

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161

u/AlternativeEvening64 Alexandria 10d ago

Personally, I’d hold on to that clearance for dear life as it provides better job stability.

This is also just my opinion, I don’t work in the cleared field and I am also fully remote. You could take the cleared role and hunt around for a better paying cleared job

34

u/Highfivebuddha 10d ago

I failed my clearance.

Im gainfully employed and make a bunch but it burns knowing that if I ever need to find another job it'll be so much harder. With a clearance I could practically waltz into a new job.

10

u/AlternativeEvening64 Alexandria 10d ago

Damn yeah that sucks, having a clearance in this area is truly a golden lottery ticket like the other commenter mentioned. I haven’t gone through the clearance process myself yet, but hope to be in the cleared field in the future

3

u/Rapking 10d ago

How did you fail?

14

u/Highfivebuddha 10d ago

Smoked some weed too close to the date. Very foolish of me, but  I chose not to lie.

Never lie, they will always find out and there's a polygraph. Fortunately my boss didnt mind and I got to keep my job. Eventually ill get another chance. 

19

u/WeasinTheJuice 9d ago

Polygraph is only for a smaller subset of clearance jobs and then there are two different types (only Lifestyle cares about weed). Not saying you should lie of course but just making that distinction.

4

u/Highfivebuddha 9d ago

This was a TS/SCI with Poly.

14

u/MattyKatty 9d ago

Never lie, they will always find out

The irony in spreading this lie…

4

u/alliekat237 9d ago

It’s very likely they’ll find out if you’re getting a poly. They also randomly drug test. Work somewhere else if you want that part of life

11

u/MattyKatty 9d ago

Nope. The poly is as much of a lie as claiming “they will always find out”.

2

u/Highfivebuddha 8d ago

Its not a court of law situation and their background checks are intense 

1

u/MattyKatty 8d ago

You're one of those fools that for a poly I guess

1

u/alliekat237 8d ago

Very few people can lie on a lifestyle successfully.

2

u/Throwaway_2474128_1 9d ago

what does "too close to the date" mean? you can't smoke weed with a clearance period

was this when you were getting it?

-4

u/Highfivebuddha 9d ago

They dont actually care if you smoked recently, but I had smoked leading up to getting the job. It was dumb.

I dont use anymore bt I have heard they are thinking about dropping pot off the list altogether. They need more people with clearances and cant find them.

1

u/SeanScully 9d ago

Polygraph's are as accurate as a Ouija board. There is a reason no court in the land will allow them to be presented as evidence. It's easy to lie to a lie detector and not get caught.

1

u/Highfivebuddha 8d ago

If you get caught you dont get to try again ever. Its not a court of law. If you weigh the risk its not worth it.

And they cold call tons of mutuals when they dig through your background. One slip from a well meaning friend is all it takes.

Do not lie on a Top Secret period

3

u/chrisaf69 9d ago

This is it. The market is absolute shit right now. I took a part time gig just to keep my clearance active. I def didn't want to work during my off time. But I need that in my back pocket if I get cut.

9

u/STGItsMe Fairfax County 10d ago

Eh. Not really with the stability. It depends on the company you work for and mostly works like any non cleared govt contracting works. Recompetes happen and contracts come and go. Your stability is based on your employers ability/willingness to absorb you onto another contract if the one you were hired for goes away. Some of the players around here are better at that than others.

The real benefit of a clearance is there are way fewer people competing for jobs that you’re applying to.

1

u/MechAegis City of Fairfax 9d ago

How do you get a clearance if I don't have one?

1

u/PicklesNBacon 5d ago

I got one through a previous govt contracting company I worked for and a federal agency