Firms vie to fill jobs calling for clearance

By Amy Joyce
Washington Post

As the technology downturn accelerated in October 2000, WamNet Government Services Inc. in Herndon, Va., received some great news: It won a seven-year, $7 billion subcontract from Electronic Data Systems Corp. to help design, build and operate the Navy and Marine Corps intranet.

The only problem was that the 20-person company would have to hire more than 700 new employees, all with security clearances. That job is proving to be as much of a challenge as creating a secure intranet for the military.

"It's a daunting task for a small firm," said Michael Barbee, WamNet's president, who constantly will be searching for more qualified employees until the seven-year pact is complete.

With the demands created by the federal effort to improve homeland security, the worldwide war on terrorism, and the need to lock down even the most ordinary government offices, more employers than ever are looking for recruits who already have federal clearances.

But just as during the dot-com recruiting boom of the late 1990s, government, technical and defense firms are aggressively seeking and competing against each other for qualified candidates.

"There's a huge shortage, and there's a backlog of people waiting to get their clearances," said Palmer Suk, president of Snelling Personnel Services, a recruiting firm in Vienna, Va.

But there's a Catch-22 quality to the hot job market. To get hired, you have to have clearance. To get clearance, you have to be hired. The conundrum is as tricky for employers as employees. Here's how it works:

An applicant for a federal security clearance, whether confidential, secret, top secret or sensitive, must already be employed at a government agency or contractor.

The employer files paperwork that states the background check will be performed, and then sends it on to be processed and adjudicated. The procedure can take several months to a year, depending on the level of clearance and the length of the backlog.

Currently, there are 237,816 security clearance applications pending at the Defense Security Service, the agency that handles clearances.

Some employees at WamNet are hired as clearable, but do not yet have clearance. Those employees work on assignments that do not need security clearances, until their paperwork goes through.

Companies are hiring search firms to seek out the right employees, and offering bonuses to those employees who refer a friend with the right clearance.