Top Secret

Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.

  Career Development  

There has always been a James Bond-like, cloak-and-dagger romance about having a security clearance. If Bond, a.k.a. Sean Connery, was a real person instead of a globe-hopping Hollywood super sleuth with a penchant for tall, beautiful women, I bet he'd have a top secret clearance. He would finesse one on charm alone.

These days, however, security clearances are more than the stuff of Hollywood spy flicks--they're the real deal. And project managers holding them have a great deal of mobility in terms of where they work, the types of projects they work on and their career prospects. In short, a security clearance means opportunity. This story looks at the security clearance and the types of jobs where they are mandatory.

Getting a job with a government agency or government contractor has always involved bureaucracy. Exhaustive reference checks and interminable interviews have been part of the application process. And security clearances have always been around, but now they've ascended to center stage with the advent of the Department of Homeland Security and its taking of competitive bids for military contracts.

Who needs a security clearance? Anyone who works or will work for a federal agency or company that needs access to restricted information. It's technically a license and is issued by the head of a department, division or agency of …

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