An excellent little article about the value of the clearance. It’s cool to see salaries starting to edge up a little in Afghanistan as well, and it is about time. All of this just emphasizes that if you can get any job you can that will sponsor you for a clearance, do it.(thats if you have never had a clearance) More and more these days, companies want guys with clearances before they will look at you.
There is another interesting angle with the clearance deal. Perhaps one of the positive outcomes of requiring clearances of contractors, is the fact that they have to really watch their finances and everything if they want to maintain it. That is good, because that actually helps to filter out the less than desirable types. It does nothing for increasing the quality of leadership or skill set for the job, but at least we have guys that have to keep their personal and financial business at home squared away, for fear of losing their clearance.
Now if we can get a red card/database system going, where internationally recognized standards that each contractor has are kept, along with clearance level and status, then we are getting somewhere. I hope that one day, I will show up on contract, and at anytime a government or military professional can ask me for my red card qualifications so I can prove that I am who I say I am, then that would be cool. That is what I had for fire fighting in the fire services, and it was an outstanding system. –Matt
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Value of security clearance rises more slowly
By ANTONIE BOESSENKOOL
May 19, 2009
Salaries for government and contractor employees with security clearances continue to rise, yet that growth is cooling off, according to a survey by ClearanceJobs.com, an online job board for job seekers with security clearances.
Despite the slowdown in other parts of the economy, professionals with security clearances working for the federal government or government contractors have seen their average salaries increase nearly 2 percent — to $73,961 — in the last year and a half, ClearanceJobs.com found in its annual survey.
However, “salaries are leveling off a little bit,” said Evan Lesser, founder and director of the site.
“A few years ago, we were seeing 5 [to] 7 percent per year increases — very, very high. And a lot of candidates were receiving things like $10,000, $15,000 [or] $20,000 signing bonuses. … It was very hot and heavy a couple years ago, but that’s leveled off a bit. I think that employers are a little bit more in control now than they were in the past. In the past it was definitely a candidate’s market where they could command any salary they wanted.”