News + Career Advice
Stay current on security-cleared job search tips, trends, and news.
VEVRAA and the Mandatory Job Listing: Why Your Cleared Reqs Must Go to a Veteran-Facing Service
On January 21, 2025, Executive Order 14173 revoked Executive Order 11246, the decades-old rule that had required federal contractors to run race- and sex-based affirmative action programs. Compliance teams read the headline and drew a wide conclusion: the Office of Federal Contra… more
Interim Security Clearance: How It Works, How Long It Takes, and Why It Gets Denied
Federal regulation caps an interim security clearance at one year. Not one year of active work, but one year of validity before the government has to finish the full background investigation or formally extend the temporary grant. That ceiling, written into 32 CFR 117.10, tells y… more
The DoD Hiring Freeze: What It Actually Does (and Does Not Do) to Contractor Hiring
At noon on January 20, 2025, every federal civilian position that sat vacant in the executive branch stopped being fillable. A presidential memorandum froze those billets in place and barred agencies from creating new ones. Defense contractors kept hiring the next morning. Key ta… more
NISPOM in 2026: What 32 CFR Part 117 Requires of a Cleared Employer
February 24, 2021 is the day the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual stopped being a manual. On that date it became a federal regulation at 32 CFR Part 117, with the force of law behind every paragraph, and contractors had six months to implement it. If you run … more
CMMC Level 2 and the Staff You Now Have to Hire: Assessors, ISSOs and Compliance Leads
On November 10, 2025, the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement rule for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification took effect. That date started Phase 1 of the rollout, and it is the moment CMMC stopped being a policy slide and became a clause in live Department… more