Irish,
I will not pile-on and I post in here out of the general public forums out of courtesy to you. You should take heed in the advice that has been given in the other threads. It is dead on. Since you are pursuing a career in the Army as an officer and will likely be screened for a clearance, let me share something else. I only do so for your benefit.
I too had a TS (SCI) clearance. Not bragging, as it was just part of the job. Just letting you know I’ve “been there”. One of my commands was at a “special” command. All members had this same level of clearance. As Jaybird indicated it is VERY pricey for the government to perform the background checks, additionally, it takes in excess of a year to complete. Because of these factors our command had a policy of prescreening candidates prior to submitting a SBI (Special Background Investigation) request.
The first part of the screening included reviews of an individual’s performance history. Only 1 out of 20 made this cut. Those that made the cut were contacted to see if they were interested in the job, although we couldn’t give them any details other than duty station location and an estimated deployed time. If they were interested we conducted a phone interview and sent them a very detailed package they needed to complete and return.
Once the package was received it was reviewed to see if the person was indeed a candidate, roughly 1 of 5 were. These candidates were further screened to include: a face-to-face interview, a look at the individual’s financial situation, criminal background down to the parking ticket level, the individual’s moral standards (extra-marital activities, compulsive liar/exaggerator/bragger, etc.) and interviews with co-workers / friends. Usually about half of the candidate made the cut and were hired contingent on passing the SBI.
There was/is much more to it, but this gives you an idea of the detail we put into every candidate for hiring. Mind you that all of these folks were active duty Navy (E-5 to O-5) and this hiring process is unique. I spent the last 16 months performing the enlisted screening process for my command.
OK….where the hell is all this going? :silly:
In the end, if at any point I found an individual to be a “chest thumper”, an obviously liar or someone that provided to many details about our command or the hiring process, I’d reject them as a candidate. We’ve put folks through the entire screening process, including the SBI and they were within a month of transfer to us when we found out that the individual just couldn’t keep a low profile about his next duty station. We fired them before they arrived. Have you ever tried to find decent orders with 30 days of your transfer? Not fun. Likewise, if a member in our command brought undue attention to themselves or the command, they were transferred ASAP.
At any rate, rest assured that the folks performing the SBI are much more thorough than our process. They look back 15 years and into all aspects of your life, including your recent Internet activity. Do not underestimate that they will look at Trackpads, DRN and any other sites you frequent as part of determining suitability for a clearance.
Ask yourself this: If I were the person hiring me, would I do so based on my DRN posts? Would I trust someone with national security that might exaggerate the amount of intelligence information they possess or even disclose the fact that have any classified information?
Again….this is not intended as a pile-on, just food for thought from one VET to another.
Scott
I will not pile-on and I post in here out of the general public forums out of courtesy to you. You should take heed in the advice that has been given in the other threads. It is dead on. Since you are pursuing a career in the Army as an officer and will likely be screened for a clearance, let me share something else. I only do so for your benefit.
I too had a TS (SCI) clearance. Not bragging, as it was just part of the job. Just letting you know I’ve “been there”. One of my commands was at a “special” command. All members had this same level of clearance. As Jaybird indicated it is VERY pricey for the government to perform the background checks, additionally, it takes in excess of a year to complete. Because of these factors our command had a policy of prescreening candidates prior to submitting a SBI (Special Background Investigation) request.
The first part of the screening included reviews of an individual’s performance history. Only 1 out of 20 made this cut. Those that made the cut were contacted to see if they were interested in the job, although we couldn’t give them any details other than duty station location and an estimated deployed time. If they were interested we conducted a phone interview and sent them a very detailed package they needed to complete and return.
Once the package was received it was reviewed to see if the person was indeed a candidate, roughly 1 of 5 were. These candidates were further screened to include: a face-to-face interview, a look at the individual’s financial situation, criminal background down to the parking ticket level, the individual’s moral standards (extra-marital activities, compulsive liar/exaggerator/bragger, etc.) and interviews with co-workers / friends. Usually about half of the candidate made the cut and were hired contingent on passing the SBI.
There was/is much more to it, but this gives you an idea of the detail we put into every candidate for hiring. Mind you that all of these folks were active duty Navy (E-5 to O-5) and this hiring process is unique. I spent the last 16 months performing the enlisted screening process for my command.
OK….where the hell is all this going? :silly:
In the end, if at any point I found an individual to be a “chest thumper”, an obviously liar or someone that provided to many details about our command or the hiring process, I’d reject them as a candidate. We’ve put folks through the entire screening process, including the SBI and they were within a month of transfer to us when we found out that the individual just couldn’t keep a low profile about his next duty station. We fired them before they arrived. Have you ever tried to find decent orders with 30 days of your transfer? Not fun. Likewise, if a member in our command brought undue attention to themselves or the command, they were transferred ASAP.
At any rate, rest assured that the folks performing the SBI are much more thorough than our process. They look back 15 years and into all aspects of your life, including your recent Internet activity. Do not underestimate that they will look at Trackpads, DRN and any other sites you frequent as part of determining suitability for a clearance.
Ask yourself this: If I were the person hiring me, would I do so based on my DRN posts? Would I trust someone with national security that might exaggerate the amount of intelligence information they possess or even disclose the fact that have any classified information?
Again….this is not intended as a pile-on, just food for thought from one VET to another.
Scott
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