Why does this job require "Secret" clearance?

[Elok]

From www.usajobs.gov :

POSITION LOCATION: Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Office of International Visitors, Near East/North Africa/South and Central Asia Branch, in Washington, D.C.

The selectee of this position will serve as a program coordinator with responsibility for assisting in the development and administration of International Visitor Leadership Programs, and performing statistical analysis and other information management functions associated with these programs.

KEY REQUIREMENTS:

* U.S. CITIZENSHIP IS REQUIRED
* LEVEL OF BACKGROUND CLEARANCE REQUIRED: SECRET

I don't get it. Are all State Dept. employees required to have Secret clearance as a matter of course, or are they afraid I might be a menace to Homeland Security by working on their educational programs? Maybe it's because it's the "Near East" branch, they think al-Qaeda types might try to slip in "Death to America" propaganda?

[Lorizael]

Clearly, they expect you to spy on the international visitors.

[b etor]

that's a convenient site.
the only jobs near me are helping veterans tho.

[Elok]

No, I understand they're typically more subtle when they recruit spies...

[Dauphin]

When I worked for government (Fraud Office) I was required to sign the official secrets act (can I tell you that? )and I was supposedly vetted.

It's no biggie, quite often it's just the government equivalent of a confidentiality agreement.

[Zkribbler]

Here's an interview with someone from recruitment. She doesn't say anything about the needs for a "secret" clearance. I linked to the State Dept.'s website and again no blanket requirment for a clearance.

LINK

[Apocalypse]

Nah, I have a secret clearance and there was no check on whether or not I wanted death to America.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Apocalypse
Nah, I have a secret clearance and there was no check on whether or not I wanted death to America.

Of course not. If you did, you'd keep it a secret.

[Kidlicious]

Re: Why does this job require "Secret" clearance?

Originally posted by Elok
From www.usajobs.gov :

POSITION LOCATION: Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Office of International Visitors, Near East/North Africa/South and Central Asia Branch, in Washington, D.C.

Probably everyone working at this office needs a secret clearance.

[snoopy369]

Secret isn't that high of a clearance, is it?

[Pekka]

It's not a big deal if they put it out like that. Not likely an extensive background check.

ps. security clearance of a sort has been done to me twice for work in the past, it's "reliability statement" from the secretive authorities. Not a biggie, it sound slike a biggie but it really isn't. There are biggies, but they aren't for jobs like these, and if they just put it out like that, it won't be a biggie, don't worry about it.

ALso, most of the times your actual job doesn't matter, it's where your job is at. THe building it's in, the organization that you're in, that's basically the ... default stuff. Like it doesn't necessarily make sense that YOU have to have it, but they have a policy that everyone in the site has it and so forth.

[snoopy369]

"Secret" clearance is a big deal per se, in that it requires a background check that takes several months to a year. However, I thought that most people that they bother requiring clearance of at all, they require Secret for, unless you're talking a contractor or something.

Wiki mentions here that

New information has not been labeled "confidential" for more than ten years.

I am curious if it means "nothing classified confidential can be so classified for more than ten years", e.g. confidential = classified for 10 years or less (not how I read E.O. 13292), or that no document has been given a Confidential classification for 10 years (makes no sense to me either, why bother having the classification, especially maintaining it under EO13292 much less than 10 years ago)...

[Patroklos]

All personel docsuments are confidential.

[Sirotnikov]

Originally posted by snoopy369
"Secret" clearance is a big deal per se, in that it requires a background check that takes several months to a year.

I doubt it.

From what I read about your clearances, secret does not entail a huge background check. Even TS would take less than a year.

New information has not been labeled "confidential" for more than ten years.

I am curious if it means "nothing classified confidential can be so classified for more than ten years", e.g. confidential = classified for 10 years or less (not how I read E.O. 13292), or that no document has been given a Confidential classification for 10 years (makes no sense to me either, why bother having the classification, especially maintaining it under EO13292 much less than 10 years ago)...

Well that statement is somewhat odd indeed.

And it seems odd that a single person would have the overview to know how many classified material was written and how it was labeled.

Though maybe people are sticking higher classifications on stuff.

I know in Israel that lots of things are getting the TOP SECRET and beyond, just because the CLASSIFIED and SECRET stuff are stuff that people fail to handle properly.

[Jaguar]

My sister worked for a while with the State Department in a position that probably didn't require any security, but it existed anyway. I'm not surprised if they do a solid background check on all their employees, but I don't think the description means that you couldn't get the job because you don't have "secret" clearance yet.