| Topic Name: |
Energy practice? |
| Message Name: |
Clearance in defense |
| Date Posted: |
01/18/2006 |
| In Reply To: |
Clearances are certainly important for defense work - no argument there. Unless you're working w/ nuclear power DOE doesn't need clearances.
I also don't see how the clearances are a "real barrier to entry" for defense work. I could hire a few consultants and ex-military guys w/ clearances and start bidding on contracts tomorrow and probably win some. A security clearance is associated w/ a person and people are very mobile.
So the clearances are certainly not a barrier for energy work (unless you're dealing w/ nukes) and at best an unsustainable advantage in defense work. Now if you got a law passed that put a cap on the number of active clearances you'd have a real barrier of entry. |
| Message: |
There are clearances -- and then there are clearances. Low-level clearances are fairly easy to get. More elaborate clearances are not. Even more difficult is to find a trained commercial strategy consultant with industry (not military) experience who has a high security clearance. That is the real barrier to entry. There are relatively few people like that and I suspect they all work for Booz Allen.
And, yes, there is an effective cap on the number of those clearances -- that's why they are called "tickets" -- and even more importantly, you can't get one unless your organization is already involved in that work. Sort of a Catch-22.
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