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Comment by csnewb | Hacker News Reader

Out of curiosity, is past drug use considered an automatic disqualification? I've never been convicted of literally anything, my record is 100% clean. But let's just say college was a very experimental period of time. I'm interested in getting a security clearance but that's the only major red flag I see that could count against me.

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It depends.

Selling is an automatic disqualifier (as you showed you are willing to commit a crime for money).

Past usage is not an automatic disqualifier, and shouldn't be a problem if it was years ago. Lying is an automatic disqualifier, if you get caught (and perjury if they decide to pursue).

However, it is of my opinion that you should only selectively share information, and only the information that they are likely to learn in background checks.

I had a security clearance about a decade ago, and know many others who received them and other who were denied. The ones who were completely honest were denied. However, this was also immediately after college, so there wasn't ten years of clean living in between. (This circle of friends also experimented with pretty much every substance available during college.)

Overview of the current rules.[1]

Getting cleared to CONFIDENTIAL is easy. SECRET involves a background check and filling out the SF-86 form [2].

In some ways, the higher clearances (TOP SECRET, SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION) are easier. It's not a checklist thing at the higher levels. You get to discuss problems. There are long interviews, lie detector tests, checks of original records, and interviews of people in your past. The FBI used to do this work, but I think it's outsourced now. The current processing time for a TS clearance is about a year.

(It's been decades since I was in that world, but I've held clearances.)

[1] http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/security-clearance-jobs... [2] https://www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/sf86-non508.pdf

Any suggestions for looking for jobs that one can use to obtain a TS clearance (with a tech background)? Always looking to stay as marketable as possible for lean times.

You know the place. Also defense contractors and national labs with an interest in small supernovas.

Thanks! I hear Hawaii is not too bad.

They care about leverage. Does it matter to you that nobody knows you did/do drugs? Then you are at risk of someone using that as leverage against you.

Yup. Increased potential for addictions like gambling, spending, sex, ideology, drugs or gossip makes someone a liability. A health-nut, teetotaler, nerdy dude (or dudette) uninterested in sex, doesn’t talk much and able to resist and report manipulation or pressure would be ideal. (“Boring is beautiful.”)

They look for patterns of behavior. Specifically how recent your negative behavior patterns are. Drug user 5 years ago but have been clean (without any indication otherwise) so long as there are no other negatives (debt beyond your means, domestic violence, etc) you’ll be fine. The more negative behaviors you’ve maintained, the more in the past it has to be.

No, it is not an automatically disqualifying factor. However if you do not disclose in full, or they find something that doesn't match what you've disclosed, _that_ will disqualify you.

Exactly. You must be 100% honest and forthright with your experimenting, and then it will be no problem. I was cautioned once "you'd better report it in the beginning, because they/we will find out" but it did not seem like a disqualifying factor at all, just something to know about. Maybe someone who went that direction in life and does recruiting or screening can helpfully chime in with a throwaway account.

Admitting to some drug use is almost an asset. I don't drink. It's been more than 10 years since I even had a glass of wine. But such answers on a background check make you look like a recovering addict, which I am not. During my recent checks my references weren't asked about my reliability, only my "alcohol use". The investigators were obviously trying to see if I had lied about my not drinking. I would have been screwed had one of my references made a mistake, for example if they saw me carrying a glass at a party and erroneously assumed it was mine. Luckily that didn't happen. But had I instead lied and said that I drank a sixpack every weekend the investigators wouldn't have even bothered to check.

Nah... Just disclose it. I've done all the drugs. Well, many. Some of them in large quantities. Just be honest about it. They are going to find out and DQ you if you lie.

There are few things that automatically DQ you, for which you can't get a waiver - I guess, I never needed a waiver. Just admit all your drugs, whoring, improprieties, and deviant thoughts. They've seen worse.

Of course, admitting that means they leave you in a DB for years, keep the DB online, let it get breached, and then give you credit monitoring and a form letter.

It's all about leverage. If your drug use could leave the possibility of someone have leverage they can use against you - yes you will be disqualified. IMO, security clearance investigations are not about finding out naughty things from your past simply to find them, they are just a search of "how vulnerable will this person be to being blackmailed?".

They want the list of people who can pressure you to be non-existant or incredibly small.

No, it isn't. Empirically, based on my family's experience, no, it really isn't.

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