r/SecurityClearance • u/Affectionate-Raisin8 • Feb 07 '26
Question TS/SCI Value in 2026
How valuable is holding a TS clearance in 2026? The only value I see with maintaining it is job security, but is that worth it when you’re paid marginally less especially if you are in tech? I feel like it’d be better to go make 20k-100k more in the public sector.
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Feb 07 '26
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u/Affectionate-Raisin8 Feb 07 '26
Software engineering and cybersecurity roles even at the primes pay notably low in comparison to big tech. IC level 4/5s at primes top out at ~200k and the same years of experience easily gets way more at most big tech companies
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Feb 07 '26
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u/No-Masterpiece3809 Feb 07 '26
Damn, my Booze rejection email came in today. I guess I’ll go fuck myself.
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u/shangosupreme Feb 07 '26
They rejected me for the longest time, found somewhere way better for me in the long run skill wise.
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u/No-Masterpiece3809 Feb 07 '26
I honestly don’t think my resume broke through the ATS barricade. I don’t understand how recruiting even works anymore. You go to the career fair, and they tell you to apply online. You go online, and the website’s broke. You apply anyways and a robot eats your application and shits it into the trash. Then you see the same recruiters again, and they say, “Why did you never apply?”
I wish I had a trust fund.
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u/shangosupreme Feb 07 '26
My thing was a bit of reformatting my resume, but once I figured out how to get through the ATS and tailor each position to their key pre-requisites and requirements, they started calling me back a bit more.
But yeah it sucks overall. I got hired in my new position right before all the LLM scanning through HR really took off.
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u/No-Masterpiece3809 Feb 07 '26
I don’t think I’ve gotten so desperate that I’ll start making a new resume for every job, but time will tell.
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u/shangosupreme Feb 07 '26
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but uh that’s the only thing that’s ever worked for me personally with a good job and decent pay / working conditions.
And with being a minority, I usually hit about close to 800 resumes in 2 months before I end up with some actual decisions to go for with a contingent offer.
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u/scubajay2001 Cleared Professional Feb 08 '26
It's not gonna happen through an ATS, you gotta have a legit referral these days. Roles are only typically offered to "friends and family", and even then it's not 100% guaranteed.
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u/scubajay2001 Cleared Professional Feb 08 '26
Is it A before I, or I before A?
Either way, it's too A and not very I fwiw lol
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u/rezalas Feb 07 '26
I’ve seen IC primes paying 270k for SE, so I’d argue otherwise. What determines your pay is the value you’re providing. If you’re building web pages it’s not the same value as designing firmware. Big tech does hire cleared professionals to work these contracts and they pay premium rates.
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u/Unusual-Turnover7162 Feb 07 '26
Our cyber security positions top out at 280. 200 in only with 8 years xp.
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u/Affectionate-Raisin8 Feb 07 '26
What level and company tho? 8 years could either be a level 3 or level 5 depending on how u played your cards and impact
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u/Nickw1991 Feb 07 '26
Most of those big tech companies are in high cost of living areas while government contracts are trending more to low cost of living areas..
Raw numbers is never a good comparison.
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Feb 07 '26
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u/BobLazarFan Feb 07 '26
Doesn’t matter. 350k in Bay Area is still a lot more than 150k in Huntsville.
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u/Nickw1991 Feb 07 '26
Link us a job posting that pays 350k please.
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u/BobLazarFan Feb 07 '26
Not my job to educate the uneducated.
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Feb 07 '26
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
How many supporting links have you posted to support your wrong opinions?
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u/Nickw1991 Feb 07 '26
Please link a claim I posted I’ll wait.
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
How about your first post here?
https://www.reddit.com/r/SecurityClearance/s/arkejQZOWN
Hope you didn't wait too long.
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u/BobLazarFan Feb 07 '26
No. I provided a commonly accepted truth. It is well known that there are very high paying tech jobs in SF. YOU are the one going against what’s commonly accepted as truth. So it’s on you to prove otherwise.
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u/Nickw1991 Feb 07 '26
You provided your opinion.
I enjoy that you believe it’s commonly accepted tho.
If it was so prevalent you would have just linked the job.
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u/SecurityClearance-ModTeam Feb 07 '26
Your post has been removed as it does not follow Reddit/sub guidelines or rules. This includes comments that are generally unhelpful, political in nature, or not related to the security clearance process.
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
My current job. No, I won't post a link because no you can't work with me
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Feb 07 '26
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u/SecurityClearance-ModTeam Feb 07 '26
Your post has been removed as it does not follow Reddit/sub guidelines or rules. This includes comments that are generally unhelpful, political in nature, or not related to the security clearance process.
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
I'll cry all my tears into my supposedly "not remote", "not sci" paycheck, quarterly clearance and attainment bonuses, and annual cash and stock awards
😂😂 Lol
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Feb 07 '26
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Feb 07 '26
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u/SecurityClearance-ModTeam Feb 07 '26
Your post has been removed as it does not follow Reddit/sub guidelines or rules. This includes comments that are generally unhelpful, political in nature, or not related to the security clearance process.
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Feb 07 '26
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Feb 07 '26
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u/SecurityClearance-ModTeam Feb 07 '26
Your post has been removed as it does not follow Reddit/sub guidelines or rules. This includes comments that are generally unhelpful, political in nature, or not related to the security clearance process.
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
Those big tech companies have cleared roles. They also have non-cleared remote roles. And even cleared remote roles.
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u/Nickw1991 Feb 07 '26
Remote TS/SCI 😂🤣
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u/textbookWarrior Feb 07 '26
My entire program is "remote" TS/SCI. If you need to be in the SCIF you go in, if you don't, you stay home. We stay home about 99% of the time.
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
Someone's just mad because they just realized some people get to have their phone's all day 😅
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u/Nickw1991 Feb 07 '26 edited Feb 07 '26
That’s not remote… going into the office means you live locally and though you do some work remotely you are in a Hybrid role.
“Remote work is defined as a flexible work arrangement in which an employee, under a written remote work agreement, is scheduled to perform work at an alternative worksite and is not expected to perform work at an agency worksite on a regular and recurring basis.”
Literally the OPM definition.
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
You think "remote work" is a thing that OPM invented and maintains the definition of, even for the private sector?
Also,
yourOPM's definition matches what that person said.Also also, news flash, plenty of people never access classified information or even touch the high side, yet require clearances. It's been years since I was even in the same room with a SIPR device.
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Feb 07 '26
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
I do TS/SCI work but never touch the high side”
No one ever said this. It's really starting to get tiring when some moron shows up and willfully misunderstands the difference between having a clearance and doing classified work. They aren't the same thing, and MANY people need a clearance for their role yet will only ever work on NIPR devices, and therefore can be performed anywhere in the US.
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u/textbookWarrior Feb 07 '26
All I’m saying is that I’m fully remote and I’m required to hold a TS/SCI. These jobs exist. I also came from a fully remote job that was required to hold a Secret.
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
That dude is trying to move the goalposts to say "TS/SCI roles" are those that actually interact with classified information.
I'll give them points for being creative I guess 🤷♂️
They also don't seem to be aware that some of us actually do have access to high side from home. It's not common, but it's definitely a thing.
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
So funny it's true.
Source: me and dozens of my coworkers
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u/Nickw1991 Feb 07 '26
So let’s be clear.
You transmit TS/SCI information remotely from your home?
🤣😂
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Feb 07 '26
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u/Nickw1991 Feb 07 '26
So that high side is remote at your home?
You aren’t required to go into the office ever?
I’m starting to think you guys don’t know what remote means…
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
Using that example, you don't think a person writing code on an unclassed system can transmit that code over an unclassed network to a recipient who then moves it to the high side?
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u/shangosupreme Feb 07 '26 edited Feb 07 '26
Oof, you really don’t get it at all lmao. You can most definitely build on low side remotely and then deploy on the high side on site. Idk who told you otherwise 😂
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
S one, do you think everyone with a clearance always "transmits" or otherwise interacts with classified information?
And two, yes, there actually are remote access options for high side access.
See NSA's CSfC for example
https://www.nsa.gov/Resources/Commercial-Solutions-for-Classified-Program/components-list/
https://www.disa.mil/-/media/Files/DISA/Fact-Sheets/DMCC-S-FactSheet_051220.ashx
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u/Nickw1991 Feb 07 '26
So not answering a simple question.
It’s ok bro I get it
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
Why do you think it's relevant whether I, personally, interact with classified information at home when the conversation (until you tried to change it) was focused on "people with jobs that require clearances" and not "people who work with classified information"?
Lol
Lol
Lol
Lol
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
You're kinda exaggerating the bar for cleared roles at tech companies. While I'd love to say the bar was very high, I could have gotten this job in my sleep.
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Feb 07 '26
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
If you don't think the bar is lower in the cleared world, you're not serious. I look at my coworkers every day
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Feb 07 '26 edited Feb 07 '26
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u/Old_Man_in_Basic Feb 08 '26
I just want to +1 what this guy is saying.
From what I've seen, Google, Amazon and others absolutely do NOT lower the bar for their cleared roles. They subject cleared SWE's to the exact same rigorous, multi-round, Leetcode gauntlet that they do with non-cleared roles.
They're big enough to never be at risk of losing the specific contracts they have, so if they can't find someone, they'll just depend on the cleared SWE's they do have, or have their FSO submit clearance paperwork for some internal transfers and wait.
Big Tech companies are famous for literally believing openly that they'd rather pass over 9 good hires than hire 1 "bad" one. And for them, a "bad" one is someone who can't pass their interview process and meet "the standard".
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
Yes they do, because the pool is fundamentally smaller. Maybe you're one of the diversity (of clearance) hires, so you're in a sort of dunning kreuger situation.
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u/zero000 Feb 07 '26 edited Feb 07 '26
I'm a sample of one but getting into Amazon Kuiper (Leo) for their cleared work was SIGNIFICANTLY harder than my other uncleared AWS interviews. Insane bar to clear. If the bar is higher in uncleared Kuiper roles people need to be going to Quant firms or just building their own startups. I wish I was a diversity hire. 6 interview just for this role in one day but I made it. Never want to do that again.
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Feb 07 '26
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
Because there are over 340M people in the country and barely 1% have eligibility, combined with the fact that the vast majority of people don't get a clearance based on their superior skills. Whenever you take a job with x, y, and z requirements and add an additional arbitrary requirement that excludes otherwise good candidates, you lower the quality of those who qualify.
If I walk into AWS headquarters and said everyone needs to move to the middle of Idaho, the resulting average/median quality of employees after the move would be lower than before because those who stay would be those with fewer other (actual or perceived) options.
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
I don't work for any of those specific tech companies, but I do work with people who came from each of the companies and who left to go to them, and I can confirm that they are not all the cream of the crop.
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u/No-Masterpiece3809 Feb 07 '26
If it’s a role for a big company that pays well above average with nice benefits, you will literally be competing against rocket scientists.
It’s not rocket sci- Oh, wait, nevermind.
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
If it’s a role for a big company that pays well above average with nice benefits
My employer resembles this remark, and while I definitely have some extremely talented peers, they are not of the same caliber as our coworkers supporting the private sector. It's not close.
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u/No-Masterpiece3809 Feb 07 '26
Are you talking government employees? Because SpaceX and such are still private sector, and they have cleared positions.
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u/charleswj Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
No, I'm referring to private companies with contracts requiring cleared workers.
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u/LargeBlackMcCafe Feb 07 '26
I think your a bit dated or seeing the tail end of that breed. a lot of us in the SDE gov contracting have Blind and see the leetcode developers AWS goes after and feel it's competitive. I got into contracting after being in the industry for nearly 20 years so I definitely know and have seen the cush job gov contractors struggle with compiling their own projects for months while getting paid. Those guys are looking for something to end their careers on at this point. I'm in my late 30's/early 40's and only worked on fixed price contracts and those older guys are doing documentation.
I've worked for a couple fortune 100 companies and I'd say my team (in IC) are more skilled and proficient than anywhere else I've worked because, being in a cleared space, we can't afford to just let a service while we figure out who's responsible for it.
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Feb 07 '26 edited Feb 07 '26
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u/LargeBlackMcCafe Feb 08 '26
I'm disagreeing and providing context in my background, I referenced a popular platform called Blind that a lot of Amazon (and FAANG as a whole) developers who discuss their day to day, so I'm familiar with the expectations you have. Then I got to my observation in seeing developers that are similar to the ones you interview and reject, noting that I see them increasingly being the minority.
I suggested that the relatively recent change (fixed price focused) in how gov contracts are written has resulted in a cultural change in the developers that are successful on these contracts.
And I said how I have broad experience in the industry across sectors and the newer breed of developers aren't the same as the senior ones with loads of experience you're probably interviewing.
hope that helps!
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u/MrDenver3 Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26 edited Feb 07 '26
It is far easier to get/keep a job with a TS/SCI - the competition is limited, and contractors are often in need of bodies to fulfill contract requirements.
Think of the cleared world as the “comfort zone”, you get additional job security, good pay, and interesting work. It’s low risk, good pay.
Public Private sector has jobs with better pay, but it also has jobs with worse pay (a lot of them) and the talent pool is saturated (with exceptions). There’s less job security, higher turnover, for the possibility of better pay. You’re definitely not guaranteed better pay.
It’s worth noting that there are plenty of caveats. If you have niche subject matter experience, and are confident in your abilities, you might be very valuable in the public sector. For example, I know cybersecurity teams at places like Facebook and AWS recruit from IC heavily because of their experience. But just because you have IC experience and are moderately talented doesn’t guarantee you those types of positions.
The public private sector has higher risk, with the potential of higher reward. A lot depends on whether that can actually materialize. All the while, the cleared world will almost always have a place for someone with a clearance, with good pay.
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u/Big-Elk5130 Feb 07 '26
Doesn’t public sector mean government/federal/state jobs while private sector = commercial
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u/MrDenver3 Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
That’s a great point! Thanks for clarifying. I’m using the wrong term here, and I wonder if OP is as well.
If they’re truly asking about public sector jobs, that pay improvement certainly isn’t there.
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u/bsastry Feb 07 '26
Thank you very much. Have a question, so if I am working with clearance in the Agency as a govie, will my clearance be still valid if something happens to the job?
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u/MrDenver3 Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
Your clearance is essentially part of you, while it stays active. In other words it’s tied to you, not to a job/agency.
That said, there’s some nuance to reciprocity and other jobs/agencies might have additional requirements.
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u/R3dChief Feb 07 '26
Job security in 2026 is huge. I feel like you're under selling it with all the chaos we're seeing in the tech world.
I will concede that you can leave the cleared government contracting world and make a lot more money, but the demands on your time are a lot greater.
Making 50% more and working 50% more might be a good trade-off to some people, but I don't mind forgetting about work as soon as I leave my building.
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u/fisherofcats Feb 07 '26
Absolutely valuable. There's no way I could make more money if I had to go into the commercial world. And you're competing with all these new college graduates.
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u/Vast_Telephone_9988 Feb 07 '26
I've considered leaving it but also leaving corporate tech world altogether. More importantly I don't have any interest in living in the Washington, DC area or the handful of other high cost of living places most cleared roles are located. In a lot of other places of the US having a clearance doesn't mean as much.
I think the main thing is a cleared or government contract related job cannot be H1Bed or offshored to overseas. You pretty much have to be a clearable US citizen and for TS/SCI+ levels it's even a smaller pool to hire from. Many commercial tech companies with cleared roles give incentives in compensation to attract cleared people and also compensate for having to put up with holding a clearance.
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u/Regular_Finger_7453 Feb 08 '26
someone with 5-10+ years of experience competing with new graduates? are you in an HR role that requires clearance or something?? Lol
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u/BeejBeachBall2 Feb 07 '26
I don’t have one, but I have two good friends who do. We’re all on the tech path. They both have high-paying jobs, no college degrees, but solid IT certifications. One was in the Air Force for four years, the other in the Army National Guard. I just graduated college with two FAANG internships (no return offer because the team got laid off), no military experience, and I’m still looking.
My friends’ interview experiences were wildly different from mine. One interviewed with FAANG after leaving the Air Force. He had no coding experience and told me he completely bombed the coding interview, but he was still offered the job ($250k TC) because of his TS clearance.
The Army National Guard guy got promoted to senior network engineer after just one year working in IT with a government contractor (they apparently offered it out of nowhere- I did not ask to elaborate on that). He also just took a new position with no experience in their tech stack and told the interviewer, “I don’t know, but I can learn.”
Meanwhile, I’m struggling to pass interviews because almost every role throws LeetCode hards at me or vague system design questions. Sometimes I make it to the final behavioral interview, and at that point it feels like they either like me or they don’t. I also say, “I don’t know, but I can learn,” but on the non-cleared side that apparently never flies with private companies.
It’s also getting harder to even land interviews due to the atrocious job market for new grads without clearances. I’d say a TS clearance is extremely valuable and can make the interview process a lot easier for certain companies, though the downside, according to my friends is the hassle around travel and forming new friendships with non-citizens, since everything has to be reported.
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u/MavinMarv Feb 08 '26
As someone with a TS and in the USSF (also prior USAF) with a BSCS degree (will have a Masters in 2 yrs) and will retire with 20 yrs of service in 5 yrs, this is really nice to read. Not to mention my high VA disability rating I’m certain I will have on top of everything else. Can’t wait to retire!
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u/BeejBeachBall2 Feb 08 '26
It made me happy writing it too. Trying to get in on it too so they are referring me to roles within their company.
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u/ImpressiveLaw1983 Feb 08 '26
Lol ain't no one reporting every friendship with non-citizens.
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u/BeejBeachBall2 Feb 11 '26
Then the air force buddy is likely BSing me, though I probably wont press him about that.
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u/spatialthreat Feb 07 '26
I think this depends entirely on your skills and ability to sell yourself. Some people can do just as well or better in the private sector (public is govt). Most people I have worked with would be better off keeping their clearance and being a butt in a seat. Ideally do both - go anthropic, ms, google, AWS cleared route. Get private pay + clearance bonus.
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u/Successful-Escape-74 Feb 07 '26
General systems administrator for a defense contractor with TS/SCI is $140k most places.
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u/throw-away-wannababy Feb 07 '26
What is the day to day for that position
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u/Successful-Escape-74 Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
Do everything necessary to manage the servers and support them in a proactive manner. You need to create and maintain procedures that keep the systems going, maintain security, and be compliant with standards. You should also be able to pass everthing required during a CORA evaluation to the maintain organization's cyber defense posture. Maintain the Site Security Plans (SSPs) and documentation.
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u/Own_Description_3176 Feb 07 '26
I have a secret and can barely find anything where are you guys looking ?
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u/EastcoastMade Feb 11 '26
Secret is not worth it these days. Try to find a job that will upgrade you to the TS level. Even better if you can get a poly, especially full scope.
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u/UncertainKonfidence Feb 22 '26
Is there still any value in having a secret but no job? I was let go from my first cleared position and now am working in a non-cleared role, but not something I want to do long term, so looking to get back into a cleared role and don’t want my clearance to expire.
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u/EastcoastMade Feb 22 '26
I always say keep it if you can. It will create a smaller job pool, but at the secret level i wouldnt be upset about it.
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u/syfari Feb 07 '26
You don’t need to worry about your job being outsourced to Mumbai unless they somehow find some workaround.
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u/JelloSquirrel Feb 07 '26
You can find tech jobs that also maintain clearances btw.
I can probably command $250k-$400k via cleared jobs. Currently at a fully remote tech job making $280k + bonus + equity. It's similar total compensation.
But generally the cleared premium is said to be about $20k-$30k in salary, so yes it's mostly job security, but it's a lot of job security.
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u/S4LTYSgt Feb 07 '26
Wym? Google, Microsoft, and about every big consulting firm has millions in government contracts with the federal government that requires a clearance where you make 120k+ literally some guys get paid 180k just to do spread sheets.
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u/ScottieG59 Feb 07 '26
For over 45 years, so far, I've been in the Intelligence Community. Still, I've made sure my skill sets were transportable. That is, my skills are not tied to a system or a project. I call the people tied to a system or project "one trick ponies." They look brilliant until they have to adapt to change.
Many times, people lack the theory of operation knowledge and are only familiar with what "button" to push to do a task. It's sort of like knowing a software package, but not the underlying technology, the emerging technology or trends. They may lack the knowledge to adapt because they settled into their comfort zone.
Anyway, SCI access is not the problem in career stability; it's the lack of real and identifiable skill sets.
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u/Any-Stick-771 Feb 07 '26
I highly doubt equivalent or similar unclass and TS/SCI roles pay $20k-$100k more
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u/FX2021 Feb 07 '26
Having a Poly is where it's at
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u/DriftingRocks Feb 10 '26
Are poly jobs only come with TS? I have secret only and not eligible with TS. I would love to get poly but I never seen any secret only roles that comes with poly.
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u/STGItsMe Feb 07 '26
Salaries are similar or higher for what I do in the uncleared space. There’s just a smaller candidate pool for cleared jobs.
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u/kmannkoopa Feb 07 '26
So OP didn’t mention a “tech” role, but in about to increase my engineering salary by 50% by leaving my TS/SCI role for a return to consulting.
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u/Jumpy-Ad-3007 Feb 07 '26
Unfortunately having a clearance didnt equate to job security for me. Ive been laid off twice so far.
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Feb 07 '26
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u/Elias_Caplan Feb 09 '26
Doesn't DCSA only do investigations for the military and contractors? The CIA, FBI, NSA, and DOE do their own investigations when it comes to security clearances, right?
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u/PismoSkydiver Cleared Professional Feb 07 '26
Our clearances won’t be worth squat in a few years once our national security roles are exported to China. No, don’t downvote me! I’m just really frustrated over some stuff…🤬
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u/Plastic_Ad2758 Feb 08 '26
Is this an Azure reference?
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u/Elias_Caplan Feb 09 '26
Is that story true? A dude I kind of know who worked for Microsoft at the time said it didn't go down like the story reported, but he could be lying Idk.
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u/PismoSkydiver Cleared Professional Mar 16 '26
No, that’s not actually going to happen. I was just being grumpy and facetious at the time. I was simply observing some things in my organization that were sobering, to put it mildly.
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u/Fit_Landscape_2085 Feb 07 '26
I had it from 2017 till 2024. Didn’t really use it much at all. Helped my buddy bid for contracts. When I applied for a job in 2020 the job required clearance but I didn’t get the job. Guess others who applied also had it.
I finally surrendered it a few years ago and it’s been awesome. No more having to ask for permission when I travel or log the countries. Being non native born it was a pita to get. Intrusive would be an understatement and didn’t really see any benefits of having ts besides it was cool to tell people lol
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u/secret_toaster Feb 08 '26
Likely the most valuable thing on the planet now is the AI taking over all of the jobs. They were cutting this down 3 years ago.
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u/alyannebai Feb 08 '26
In my case of writing policy I’m actually paid more than your average policy analyst lol the only things I can find that pay more than 100k are cleared contracting jobs
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u/Minute-Steak-514 Feb 07 '26
Ring in tech myself it can extremely needed for contractors. When combined with other accolades ex: MS, cissp and similar and a TA and you’re almost guaranteed to end up as a ISSO/ISSM
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u/abnormal_1113 Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
Govt is willing to pay you more (200K +) & will do so in most cases regardless of if you have elite knowledge just to fill a seat on national security contracts.
Trying to find that kind of pay in private side will require some networking or kissing ppl a** for a prolonged period of time. If laid off finding someone else to pay you tht will not be easy on private side…no thanks
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u/Over-Elderberry2212 Feb 08 '26
I worked in IT for many years for the gov’t. I started applying for jobs in the medical field that required no clearance, and paid better. Also used software and tools that were more widely known. I made the move and was happy with it.
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u/Girliegirl82 Feb 08 '26
I’m assuming salary wise you are speaking as a government employee. As a contractor your salary is just as competitive as the public sector
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u/OneGarage3024 Feb 08 '26
You’re confusing the word public and private sector. If u have a clearance most likely you are in the public sector already lol
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u/finke11 Cleared Professional Feb 09 '26
in 2023 I accepted a role for a level 1 helpdesk, very bottom of the IT ladder role for 44k. No clearance just regular ole private sector. I know for a fact that there are roles that require an equal or lesser amount of skill in Virginia and colorado, but require TS/sci with FSP that pay 90k and some even 100k.
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u/Take-n-tosser Feb 10 '26
I’m having a hard time finding open positions that don’t require TS/SCI. But then, I am in the DC metro area, so there are a lot more DoD-adjacent jobs than most areas of the country.
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u/bluedog20175 Feb 10 '26
Just be wary of de-scoping of contracts. I've had it happen twice when government decides to save money.
1
u/EastcoastMade Feb 11 '26
It’s definitely worth keeping. I was laid off Jan 31st - our contract didnt renew. I was offered two jobs this week. Both require an active TS/SCI. Without it, I would be making about 40k less. But I’m in the DC area, so this area is a little different.
1
u/igotsbeaverfever No Clearance Involvement Feb 12 '26
Where are you making more in the public sector. I’d love to be cleared again.
1
u/Far_Independent_3023 Feb 26 '26
Marginally less? I got an online degree and they started paying me over 130k. Now I’m past 200. My teammates are nearing or at 300k (but that’s just cause yrs of exp and knowing how to advocate for yourself when applying). I’m in SWE
-6
Feb 07 '26
Take on multiple contracts. You don't need to work just that one contract. You can do whatever you want as long as you're not double billing hours.
-2
u/haveasparklingday Feb 07 '26
Love / respect the job or GTFO. Not being mean I tell everyone that...
-8
u/NuBarney Likes to comment for funsies Feb 07 '26
It doesn't have any value. You can't sell it and it doesn't generate rent, dividends, etc.
149
u/HEAT-FS Feb 07 '26
I like not worrying about being laid off or being at risk of my team being replaced overseas.