Sometimes I wonder how hard it would be to find a new job if you can't talk about much, if any, of your work for the past 5+ years.
It was a combination of finding someone to take a chance on me and the classification of my last program easing. When I started, "I do stuff" was about the extent of what I was allowed to say. When I left the name and nature of the program had been declassified so I could at least talk about some concepts in detail, though still not specific problems.
I ended up in NLP, which is similar enough to signal processing that the company was willing to roll the dice. I did have to take a pay cut, though.
I could understand suspicion if you were coming from some unknown enterprise company and wouldn't elaborate on your previous work, but this is still the NSA (that we all hate but are still super smart).
Well, first you'd have to get an interview with a resumé full of generic statements and a network that exists exclusively in the world you are trying to leave. Then you'd have to find a company willing to give you that chance. Took me two years to do that successfully.
> I could understand suspicion if you were coming from some unknown enterprise company and wouldn't elaborate on your previous work, but this is still the NSA (that we all hate but are still super smart).
Not all of us are coming from the NSA. I couldn't believe how many recruiters and engineers had never even heard of Raytheon.
I have. Fuck Raytheon. Those execs and their staff are responsible for large parts how the US is percepted abroad. Offensive, that is.
One has a bunch of certifications, a TS/SCI with polygraph, a list of skills/technologies that overlap strongly with the ones you are interested in, work experience with your biggest customers (responsible for 85% of revenue), but only has very vague information about what he has done specifically. Everything looks like a good fit, but it is hard to tell for sure because of the vagueness.
The other has an excellent, detailed, resume listing several jobs in the purely private sector. Even though he has worked in large enterprises, they weren't DoD and so the technology overlap isn't quite as good. But by and large you think he'd be an excellent fit based on the projects he has undertaken so far.
It will cost you six figures and take at least many months to get the second candidate security cleared, which will be necessary before he can start working on the project you have in mind. He might fail to get cleared in which case you will have to start all over.
Who do you interview first?
Contrary to the prevailing popular opinion that defense is run by complete idiots, a lot of programs are run by extremely intelligent people... that have a litany of pressures that are completely contradictory that results in completely insane outcomes.
I'd say walking away from that job might be the best option. You're not part of the mil/industry complex any longer, you sleep better after the next drone bombing of civilians, based on intel received from RQ-170 or similar.
Folks from LM should all walk away.
Thank you.