Your clearance is your foot in the door - Military Careers, Second Careers - Air Force Times

Your clearance is your foot in the door

You are leaving the military and want to launch a civilian career that makes use of your security clearance. The trouble is you're still not quite sure what kind of job you want.

Employees who sign up with Kelly FedSecure have the option of sampling a variety of careers, all of which require the highly sought-after cleared status.

Kelly FedSecure stakes its claim as the first and only major staffing organization focused exclusively on placing employees at all clearance levels and with diverse skill sets. Employees are hired on either a direct or contract basis at companies and government agencies worldwide. Available jobs range from administrative to highly technical.

"In the last 20 to 25 years, the staffing industry has transitioned from 'Kelly girl'-type applications to a sophisticated operation that is heavily used in the private sector and, increasingly, in government as well," said Richard Piske, vice president and general manager of Kelly FedSecure.

The idea for a staffing company solely for those with security clearances was born after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "There was no real single destination to find employment if you had an active clearance," Piske said.

He and a business associate had founded FedSecure, a staffing organization mainly involved in providing white-collar security, earlier in 2001. After Sept. 11, they shifted the focus of their company to fill that clearance void. The company was acquired by Kelly Services Inc. in 2003.

Kelly FedSecure places people at all experience levels and with a variety of skill sets.

"We wanted to be a one-stop shop for [companies that need] cleared people," Piske said. If a company needed cleared individuals for an administrative position and a network security position, for example, Piske said Kelly FedSecure wanted to be able to fill both requests.

Jobs are available for everyone from recent high school and college graduates with few real-world work skills to highly skilled government and military retirees looking to transition to the private sector.

Among hot job fields requiring clearances today, according to Piske, the heaviest need is in technology. However, demand is growing for cleared individuals to work in clerical/secretarial, financial, intelligence analyst and other fields.

Like their more traditional staffing counterparts, Kelly FedSecure caters to job candidates who have a variety of employment needs, including:

• Contract. Employees are placed on site in positions temporarily -- be it weeks or months -- and Kelly FedSecure remains the employer of record.

• Contract-for-hire. Employees start out on a contract basis with a client's company. Kelly FedSecure is the employer of record. At some point, the candidate transitions to the client's payroll, and that client becomes the employer of record.

• Direct hire. Kelly FedSecure goes into its database to find candidates who match position requirements and presents them to the client. Once a selection has been made, the client is the employer of record on Day 1 of the job.

More than half of Kelly's job candidates once served in the armed forces, Piske said.

The company actively recruits retiring or separating service members, he added, through avenues that include working with the services' transition offices and attending job fairs geared toward former military.

Working at Kelly FedSecure allows candidates to explore career paths without a great deal of risk -- a philosophy of "try it before you buy it," Piske said.

"If you think about someone who has had a career in the military, they have become accustomed to the military life," he said. "Working as a contract or contract-for-hire employee gives them the opportunity to ease into the private sector and to really experience what it is like to work outside the military."

What about financial incentives? According to Evan Lesser, director of ClearanceJobs.com, people with clearances can earn $10,000 to $50,000 more per year in comparable positions and at comparable experience levels.

And those numbers hold up for people employed by staffing companies, Piske said.

"We see that [having] a clearance versus no clearance is worth anywhere from 10 to 30 percent more," he said.

Because the number of cleared workers cannot keep pace with the number of open jobs requiring clearances, "it's just so much easier to find a job," Piske said.

Kelly FedSecure offers job candidates opportunities throughout the United States and around the world. While the Washington, D.C., area is clearly the hot spot for clearance jobs, Piske said, "We're starting to see more growth in areas that may not have been a traditional base for cleared activity."

The only requirement to sign up with the company is an active security clearance.

To learn more, contact Kelly FedSecure at (877) 417-4757 or go to www.fedsecure.com.

Tagline: Jessica Lawson covers career transition issues for Decision Times. Reach her at Jlawson@atpco.com.