<p>Has anyone ever heard of a security clearance that was necessary for some of the government-sponsered research projects on college campuses? I was thinking that might look good to a recruiter, if you already had a security clearance.</p>
<p>Balthezar,</p>
<p>University reserach is generally in the public domain, which means that it is not classified information. It also takes a full year to get security clearance and costs anywhere from $5000 to $25000. In short - no, it’s very unlikely that you will get it or need it for university research.</p>
<p>If you are working on a classified project, it is a huge downfall because you can’t discuss the work you did during future interviews. (At least, if you want to keep your clearance.) You can say that you worked on a black project and that is probably about it (depending on the level of secret clearance). </p>
<p>It can be advantageous to have security clearance, but recruiters that are hiring for entry level positions won’t expect you to have it.</p>
<p>It does NOT take a full year or any money for that manner to get security clearance. Its not a very long or difficult process, assuming you are working/have an internship for a company that needs security clearance.</p>
<p>Spacepope,</p>
<p>The company who is sponsoring you has to pay the government for the cost of the clearance.</p>
<p>Temporary clearance is granted rather quickly, but permenant clearance can take up to a year depending on the clearance level.</p>
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<p>You are correct in that the company sponsoring you pays for it (@ ~$10,000), however it very rarely will take a year (even for a TS). Heck, I received my full-blown S in less than a month. When it takes extended periods of time is when someone has red flags in their background that take a while to fully look in to.</p>
<p>A security clearance processing time is dependent on many factors. If you are relatively young and have not moved around much, yes it can be quicker. If you were a military brat, it will take longer. If you have worked at many employers, that can also extend the processing time.</p>
<p>A Secret Clearance is not much more than a quick credit and criminal check. The Top Secret is when the Feds go back 10-15 years and ask your neighbors WHEN YOU WERE A TEEN about you. Add on the SCI to the TS and that is more investigation. After all of that TS + SCI, agencies like the one I contract for (No Such Agency) will require a polygraph.</p>
<p>Now companies can do what is called “Fast Track” you in which they will pay extra money to speed up your processing. The only thing is that for TS/SCI+Poly clearances is that it is “all or nothing”. If you fail the Poly, you get nothing…whereas with the longer route, you can fail the Poly and just settle for the TS/SCI or TS.</p>
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<p>It would look good to defense contractors; I’m not sure anyone else would care much.</p>
<p>If your record is clean, there isn’t much reason not to go for it.</p>
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<p>The employer will give you guidelines as to what you can put on your resume and discuss. Broad discussion of the sort of work you did will be permissible.</p>
<p>Clearance is “need to know”. Once you don’t need it anymore, you don’t just keep it forever.</p>
<p>Isn’t it funny that you can be President of the US without having to pass a security clearance, but if you want to serve the President of the US a bowl of soup, you have to have one? I understand it’s optional for party-crashers.</p>
<p>Anyway, I do know that some universities will do research with private companies that require them to sign NDAs. Linus Torvalds was critical of schools that would team up with Microsoft, and require their students to sign documents agreeing to keep the source code secret.</p>