News + Career Advice
Stay current on security-cleared job search tips, trends, and news.
W-2, 1099, or Corp-to-Corp on a Cleared Contract: Which One Actually Pays More
One sentence in the industrial-security rule decides more than any tax table. 32 CFR 117.10(a)(7): contractors "will not submit requests for determination of eligibility ... for individuals who are not their employees or consultants; nor ... for employees of subcontractors." Read… more
Hiring an FSO: Salary Benchmark, Assistant FSOs, and When to Outsource the Role
The federal government has no occupational code for the job you are trying to price. An O*NET OnLine search for "facility security officer" returns 674 occupations by relevance, none carrying it as an occupation or alternate title. Created by regulation, staffed everywhere, measu… more
Do Government Contractors Get Paid During a Shutdown?
When Congress ended the 2025 shutdown on November 12, 2025, it did not forget the people who had gone unpaid. Section 116 of Public Law 119-37 made federal employees whole. Section 120 rescinded reduction-in-force notices issued during the lapse and returned those employees to du… more
Which Jobs Actually Require a Secret Clearance – and Which Ones Only Say They Do
On October 1, 2017, 1,198,684 people held eligibility for access to classified information and were in access to nothing at all. No document, no program, no compartment. They were 29.7 percent of the 4,030,625 individuals ODNI counted as eligible that year, and it is the most rec… more
Imminent Danger Pay, Hardship, and Post Differential: How OCONUS Cleared Pay Is Built
Congress capped imminent danger pay at $225 a month. Not $225 a day, not a percentage of salary, and not negotiable. 37 U.S.C. 310 fixes the ceiling, the services accrue it at $7.50 for each day in a designated area, and a full year maxes at $2,700. Most people searching "imminen… more