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February Podcast Roundup: Beware Employment Scams and Finding an Employer Who Treats You Well
Security Cleared Jobs: Who’s Hiring & How is brought to you by ClearedJobs.Net and hosted by Kathleen Smith and Rachel Bozeman. Our February roundup includes:
- Tony Kuhn, Managing Partner, Tully Rinckey PLLC
- John Martin, President, ProObject
- Sarah Williamson, Division Lead Intel Sector, BlueHalo
- Kirsten Renner, AFS and Kris Rides, Tiro Security and Via Resource
A successful job seeker is one who is well-informed. This month our podcast guests share valuable information, including how international relationships can affect your clearance and how to avoid cleared employment scams. Yes, that’s a thing. Plus, two recruiters offer inspirational insight on how they value employees.
Tully Rinckey PLLC | Tony Kuhn
If your job experience or life history includes interactions with foreign nationals, please know that this will be highly scrutinized during your security clearance process, especially if your ties are with China, Russia or the Middle East. You will be required to show that you can’t be influenced by these relationships.
There are many things that will be closely examined, so be truthful in all aspects of your history. If you have dual citizenship, you do not have to denounce the other country, depending on circumstances. If you have a foreign passport, do not use it to travel into the U.S. – that will be viewed as showing preference.
Be aware that cleared contractors must seek approval for foreign travel and will be debriefed within five days of returning from outside the country. Also be very cautious about becoming romantical involved with a foreign national.
For more information on this important topic listen to the complete episode. You can reach Tony at [email protected].
ProObject | John Martin
ProObject is a woman-owned tech firm that focuses on cyber and enterprise IT, with roots in object oriented analysis and design – hence the company name. Today they build systems to collect, process, analyze and report intelligence. They are very much committed to the safety and security of our nation.
Currently ProObject has over 100 funded cleared opportunities with a big need for full-stack software engineers. John is also looking to fill prime and subcontract positions for backgrounds in DevOps, IT and cyber policy/planning. The company culture centers around their passion for technology.
John views the interviewing process as the opportunity to get to know a candidate – identifying what are their goals. They use information obtained in the interview to place a job seeker in the right position, to ensure they hit the ground running and are set up for success.
You can connect with John on LinkedIn or reach out to their recruiting folks at [email protected].
BlueHalo | Sarah Williamson
The three mission domains at BlueHalo are space technology, cyber and intelligence. In Sarah’s division, they work to develop custom engineering hardware and software solutions providing tools for tasking, collecting, processing, exploiting and disseminating multiple types of intel. Her greatest need is for cloud engineers, front-end and full stack software engineers – and program managers are always vital.
Positions are available in Virginia and Maryland, and they do require employees being on-site. Sarah is proud of their commitment to employees. The culture is very much a supportive environment. The mission is hard, the projects are hard, so their people bond over company events outside of the office. As Sarah says, “Find a company that does just as much for you as you do for them.”
Their employee referral bonuses are amazing – up to $15,000. They even pay a bonus to folks outside the firm who make referrals. If you want to jump on this bandwagon, you can reach Sarah via LinkedIn or by email at [email protected].
Bonus Episode | Employment Scams
These days scams are rampant and that includes the cleared employment community. Kirsten Renner talks about scammers who take real job postings from company websites (logo and all) and position it as one of their own. They congratulate recipients on their job offer, talk about benefits like provided housing and then request an upfront payment for a deposit.
Beware. Be aware. Do your due diligence and never send money requested without proper verification.
Kris Rides talks about finding scammers on LinkedIn who list themselves as employees of his company. It’s a small company so he knows his staff. These nefarious folks are information harvesters, and they rely on pace – not giving job seekers a chance to think before they share vital details about themselves.
Diligence is also needed when hanging out on social media. It’s so easy for scammers to set up a fake profile posing as a cleared employer. When in doubt – or always! – go to the company website for accurate information. Listen to the entire episode for more good insight from Kirsten and Kris.
Tune In for More Episodes
Don’t miss out on new episodes filled with invaluable career intel every Wednesday. You can access each episode, notes about the show, transcripts and ways to contact each recruiter via https://clearedjobs.net/podcast. Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and other popular podcast directories.
