SECRET Clearance

Make sure you keep a copy of the form, both electronic and paper. Down the road you may need to fill out another form for a clearance, and it's handy to have the history. In theory, eQuip has the history and fills it in for updates, but I don't trust it.
The problem with eQuip is that they keep changing the software and add new questions to ask and while it is 'supposed' to re-populate with your previously entered data, it is hit or miss and you tend to have alot of gaps when you go to renew.

Or it keeps asking you five times questions about a foreign relative who died since the last update. I finally went off on a tirade on the last eQuip form. Gave the interviewer a chuckle.
 
The problem with eQuip is that they keep changing the software and add new questions to ask and while it is 'supposed' to re-populate with your previously entered data, it is hit or miss and you tend to have alot of gaps when you go to renew.

Or it keeps asking you five times questions about a foreign relative who died since the last update. I finally went off on a tirade on the last eQuip form. Gave the interviewer a chuckle.


Yeah, on my last 5-year interview we spent most of the time correcting eQuip induced errors. Seems like every time they update eQuip they change the number formats, and all my date entries get screwed up.

OP, don't sweat it unless you've married a foreign national or had an affair with one. Just disclose everything honestly, especially the $130k you paid to a porn star so she wouldn't lie about you. And don't carry a can of beer into the interview, or smoke a joint. At least not without sharing.
 
Just sittin' here thinkin'......

If a person had a secret clearance, would not that clearance keep that person from telling us he had a secret clearance..??? :idea::lol::lol:
 
Just sittin' here thinkin'......

If a person had a secret clearance, would not that clearance keep that person from telling us he had a secret clearance..??? :idea::lol::lol:


No.

It's often a key selling point on a resume, given the delay in getting one these days. My son has been waiting 6 months for his so far and at his age he has very little background to investigate!
 
Years ago, some feds showed up at my door asking about the guy who lives across the street. I'm guessing he might have worked at Lockheed. I don't remember what they asked, but I couldn't think of a thing bad to say about him.
 
Years ago, some feds showed up at my door asking about the guy who lives across the street. I'm guessing he might have worked at Lockheed. I don't remember what they asked, but I couldn't think of a thing bad to say about him.

Try harder next time...
 
No.

It's often a key selling point on a resume, given the delay in getting one these days. My son has been waiting 6 months for his so far and at his age he has very little background to investigate!
The bigger issue is the cost. A lot of time you can work around the delay with an interim clearance once the paperwork is submitted.

But if you go to work as a government contractor, the company has to pay the cost of your clearance if you don’t have it, or let the periodicity expire.
 
Other than China. Thanks OPM.......though free credit monitoring was a silver lining I suppose

You mean, "free credit monitoring from a company that also lost all their customer's data", I believe. :)
 
Used to be an ENTNAC (entry National Agency Check, usually NLETs) will get you an interim Secret--may have changed.
As has been posted, a Secret is pretty non invasive. TS wirh a SSBI (Single Scope Background Investigation) involves interviews.

Not to demean anyone but even then you are dealing with government "workers" who have shall we say a "defined" work ethic and level of competence.

Did a job for an agency one time and they asked if I woukd consent to a poly. Sure! About halfway though the job they said I had failed the poly and I had to come in for another. Asked them one question: "what part of 'a poly' was unclear to you?" Finished the job as they had no alternatives.
 
No.

It's often a key selling point on a resume, given the delay in getting one these days. My son has been waiting 6 months for his so far and at his age he has very little background to investigate!
I've heard the government (exec branch) is so backed up, the people running the place are doing so without clearances.
 
Just disclose everything honestly, especially the $130k you paid to a porn star so she wouldn't lie about you.
Um, that was paid by my attorney. The one who's on retainer!
 
I've heard the government (exec branch) is so backed up, the people running the place are doing so without clearances.

Anyway, with any luck, should I get the job, I'll be retiring before they get around to me.
 
I don't know what is involved in getting a Secret clearance these days, but back in the 1970s it was rather simple. I don't recall filling out any paperwork. They ran an FBI check on you and if you came up clean, bingo, you had a clearance. My TS was a bit more involved and my SCI (when working for the Navy) and EBI (when working in aerospace) was a bunch of paper, followed by interviews with various people. I recall being interviewed when someone in our office was going for a TS and another interview when someone was being investigated to see if he would keep his TS. Both were successful, in spite of our best efforts to be "helpful". :p I haven't had a clearance since late 1983, so take this for what it's worth. But, back in the day, I was cleared for everything up to and including ridiculous and never had a polygraph exam.

You know what we called people who didn't have a clearance? They were cleared for airmail.
 
I lived in the same college dorm for 5 years. One of the things that you picked up on having been there for a while was a lot of our engineering graduates went to work in places that mandated secrecy. Which explained why we'd get guys in suits strolling the halls several times a year asking "Do any of you remember Joe Blisfik who lived here about 3 years ago?" If you did remember Joe, you got the 20 questions.

The bizzarre thing was when they would come around asking about someone who'd graduated 7 years ago. C'mon...
 
Just sittin' here thinkin'......

If a person had a secret clearance, would not that clearance keep that person from telling us he had a secret clearance..??? :idea::lol::lol:
Depending on the job, I will add a statement near the top of my resume indicating the department and level of clearance. There are types of these things that one does not announce, but there are "phrases", shall we say, that those involved understand. The secret decoder ring ....
 
The bigger issue is the cost. A lot of time you can work around the delay with an interim clearance once the paperwork is submitted.

But if you go to work as a government contractor, the company has to pay the cost of your clearance if you don’t have it, or let the periodicity expire.


<------scratches "periodicity" off POA Bingo card. :thumbsup:
 
Years ago I had a secret clearance,but nobody ever told me a secret.
 
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