How Valuable Are Security Clearances in MBA Jobs?

The Weekly Sitrep

Happy Monday Sitreps Team!

I hope everything had a great weekend. My wife and I were busy taking the kids to soccer games on Friday and Saturday, and then celebrated my West Point classmate's birthday with a Chris Stapleton concert here in Austin. 

This week on the “Weekly Sitrep” I am going to talk about the value of an MBA + a security clearance like a Top Secret (TS) in the private sector. The now mostly defunct kd_complete meme page was doing an ama and was asked a very similar question. I reposted this question on my story and oh boy I got a lot of DM’s about it. This is a clear signal to me that this is a good topic for the Weekly Sitrep.

So let's dive in.

On the surface, a security clearance seems like only a value add for a transitioning service member. Security clearances (especially anything above secret) are onerous and expensive to get. However, any transitioning service member should remember the basics of access to classified information and security clearances. 

For example take a TS/SCI clearance. You have a top secret clearance, but the SCI portion is only because you have a need to know. The SCI portion will not travel with you. It goes away as soon as you leave your program or unit. So putting on your resume that you hold an active TS/SCI clearance is not factually accurate. It would be more accurate to say that you hold a TS clearance and have had access to SCI in the past.

Remember that your access/clearance is based on three things:

1. A favorable investigation
2. A need to know.
3. A signed non-disclosure agreement.

Ok great, thanks for the refresher Kyle…but I still have my security investigation/clearance right? A company that is doing work for the government and needs cleared personnel will value the fact that I already have a favorable investigation and they do not need to go through that process again?

As with anything in the private sector…it depends.

It is true that the companies want and need employees who can either get and maintain a clearance or already have a clearance.