Thomas Kunich ⋅ San Leandro, CA U.S. Air Force, Airman ⋅ 6 years served

Thanks guys. I got a concussion in 2009 and didn't work for several years. In fact I didn't even know who I was for a couple of years. My best friend - an NCIS agent retired - found a neurologist who knew how to treat my type of concussion which caused seizures similar to those suffered by diabetics. Total memory loss of the seizure ever happening. Then it took me a couple of years to get used to the side effects of the medication and to gain sufficient confidence to try working again. Turns out that the section of brain for my work is separate from the area that was damaged. So now that I know I can work OK I want to stop the boredom of retirement. One interesting thing is that age discrimination is so bad that companies would rather go out of business than hire an older employee. A man at Google said that it was so bad there that when he turned 40 his career was over. That he could never again hope for any promotion or step up the ladder. So now important jobs such as Lawrence Laboratories or Sandia don't want me because I would need an active security clearance.

Byron Andrews ⋅ Houston, TX Department of Homeland Security ⋅ 30 years experience

Thomas, I can answer your question from anecdotal experience/observation as a current govt employee w/ a clearance. I have colleagues who retired from Federal govt, waited a few years, and went to work in the private sector in positions that required clearances. The determining factor in each of the 3 cases I am personally very familiar with, was how much time was remaining for each candidate until their 5-year periodic re-investigation (PRI) was due. One of the guys retired soon after his PRI was completed, waited 4 yrs, and went to work with a defense contractor; part of the reason he got his position was because his clearance was still valid and his employer had only minimal paperwork to complete, which saved them time & $. Another guy's clearance had lapsed, being 6 yrs since his last PRI. He too was offered a position and the employer benefited from having to only pay for a relatively short background investigation, covering only the 6 yrs since his last PRI.
Part of your question involves what YOU can do to change/refresh your clearance. Unfortunately you cant do anything: the employer that requires you to have the clearance initiates (and pays) for any investigative work required to renew and expired clearance, or upgrade one. The clearance game is completely controlled by the employer.
Finally, I have heard that its common for a defense contractor to pay approx. $10K to obtain a TS clearance for an employee who has never held a clearance, say--a new college grad. That clearance can easily take a year or more to complete to allow said new employee to work on the TS project. The value to an employer in hiring ppl with active clearances is obvious.

Robert Rahni ⋅ White Plains, NY Fordham University ⋅ 13 years experience

Hi Thomas,

Thank you for your service and Happy Holidays. My understanding is a candidate has two years to remain on a “current” status before moving to an “expired” status. An “expired” clearance is one that has not been used in more than two years and cannot be reinstated. If you have not used your security clearance in the past two years, chances are as you alluded to, it is now expired. Once sponsored, the candidate must resubmit a security clearance application and go through a new Personnel Security Investigation (PSI) to have access.

Hope this information help,
Robert