In category: Resume
What Private Security Contractors Actually Make: The OCONUS Pay Bands Nobody Publishes
From August 2008 to April 2025 the Pentagon published a quarterly census of the contractors working for the Defense Department in the U.S. Central Command theater. The final edition counted 20,356 of them, 6,301 in Iraq and Syria. It also contained this sentence. "The Department … more
CI vs. Full-Scope Polygraph: Which Programs Require Which, and What Each One Asks
The Defense Department retired the phrase "full scope polygraph" in writing. Its polygraph instruction defines the exam readers mean, then adds five words in the glossary: "Previously known as full-scope polygraph." The government-wide directive did the same. Energy's rulebook ne… more
The FY2026 Defense Budget and Cleared Hiring: Which Programs Got Funded, and Where the Reqs Appear
In October 2025 the Department of Defense obligated $13.33 billion on contracts. A year earlier it obligated $29.01 billion. Congress had not passed the bill, and a 42-day lapse in appropriations sat on the year like a lid. Appropriations do not create jobs. They create the legal… more
Working on a Military Base as a Civilian: Contractor, GS, or NAF – and Which Needs a Clearance
On a large installation the commissary and the exchange sit a few hundred yards apart. A cashier in one is a civil service employee paid from appropriations. A cashier in the other is a nonappropriated-fund employee whom federal law deems not an employee for most OPM-administered… more
FOCI and the SF-328: What Foreign Ownership Does to Your Ability to Hire Cleared Staff
One sentence on the Standard Form 328 tells a defense contractor where it stands: your entity's eligibility determination, "e.g., a facility security clearance," cannot be decided if you do not complete and update the form. Nine questions sit above that line in the February 2026 … more