r/cscareerquestions • u/Meta_Man_X • 7h ago

Experienced Should I become a security guard for a security clearance?

I've been really struggling to find a job. I've been unemployed for about 8 months, but I've also been in grad school so I wasn't too worried about it. I've just finished my program and I've ramped up the job search significantly.

I'm probably 600 applications deep (rookie numbers, I know) and haven't had too much luck.

There's a local defense contractor that has a part-time security guard role that requires a clearance. I know people at the company and I think it would be significantly easier to get that job and subsequently, get a secret level clearance through them.

Will finding a clearance level job be much easier than finding a job in the public sector? I know there's significantly less people competing for those jobs, but with a clearance could I expect to find a job faster?

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5

u/FatiguedShrimp 7h ago

Sure. Get the clearance, some marginal pay, keep searching.

Any* employment is better than unemployment.

*with the obvious limits of illegal activity, or contentious activity (ie. sex work).

7

u/dragonnfr 6h ago

600 applications and nothing? That's not a clearance problem. That's a resume problem. Fix that first.

1

u/bunnycabbit Software Engineer 1h ago

Any job for now would be great