Author Archive

Marko Hakamaa

Marko Hakamaa served in various military police positions with the United States Army worldwide for 22 years before retiring in 2006 as a Master Sergeant. Afterwards, he transitioned into the civilian workforce as a contractor background investigator for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) before entering civil service as a Security Specialist in 2009.

Security Clearance Denial

Every once in a while, I run across an appeals case that makes me shake my head and wonder why on earth they tried applying for a job that required a security clearance. This particular one takes the cake. The applicant was initially denied clearance eligibility by the DoD based

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Security Clearance Denial

Getting fired from a job is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to getting a security clearance. There are many reasons for getting fired from employment. It could be because of performance, not meeting quotas, personality conflicts, or even just downsizing. These are things that do not factor

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Security Clearance Process

Like the Intelligence Community (IC) agencies, the Department of State processes their own background investigations and security clearances by using the personnel security resources from their Bureau of Diplomatic Security, specifically, the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). The DSS also assist other federal agencies in processing their background investigations. According to

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Career Advice

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hiring process is arduous and lengthy, as evidenced by many who posted on this site about the long wait time to hear back. If selected as a candidate for a job, they will give you a conditional job offer. There are, however, some other things

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