Hi,
I've not posted here in years! Not since I posted that we'd never ever go back to Ft. Bragg, NC and one of the moderators said, "well, I bet that's where you'll end up." She was right. (smile)

I'm here, and I have a nice job in the civilan world. I drive an hour back and forth to my job. I'm out of my house 14 hours a day. I'm so grateful to have a job (so why are you posting you ask), but I miss my kids.

I would really love a job on post so that I can be close to home in case my little ones need me (4 and 6), but like many others I need to work to pay the bills.

I have an IT degree and more than 10 years of on the job experience. But, because my job is IT all the contractors and most of the Army jobs require Secret or Top Secret.

I cannot figure out anyway to get Secret on my own since it's required before you'll be considered due to the cost. I'm over 40 so I cannot just join the military. Plus being dual military, my kids might miss out on two parents.

I'd like a foot in the door, but I'm not finding these "foot in the door" opportunities for which qualify. I also am not sure if there is a way I could get Secret Clearance on my own. I'm pretty sure not.

But, I know that there are brighter minds than mine here who are a wealth of knowledge. I'd appreciate any of your helpful comments.

Thanks for taking time to read my post.

You can get a clearance on your own but it will cost you about 30K-look at the job announcements-if the announcement says you must be able to aquire or maintain a clearance many times the company will get it for you. I know the company i was orginally hired by ( Anteon which was asorbed by General Dynamics information techology) got my clearance for me -i work in digital training and IT i my area as well. I would say go ahead an apply for any positions where the announcement does not say you must HAVE a secret clearance-the worst that can happen is that they will tell you that they can not hire you because you dont have a clearance. How that works really depends on how the prime contractor bid the contract-and if the cost of clearance investigations was in the contract. Also dont discount GS jobs especially if you have a CCNA-lots of times the government will pay for your investigation.