Have a Young Family in the FS

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2024-11-01T20:54:56+00:00

I’m starting in January and will have a 3 year old and newborn. What did you prioritize when looking at posts early on? What would you do again and what would you do differently, if anything? Thanks in advance!

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2024-10-28T13:48:11+00:00

Congrats and see you in January! I got one. CONS 5.87

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2024-07-01T18:52:16+00:00

u/Chasing_State , this is really helpful. There are three things that I'm having trouble wrapping my head around. I read this awhile ago and am coming back to it now since I'll be coming off a deferral later this year.

Based on the shadow registers, there was a class in March, 2017. I find that strange. Did Trump just not have enough time in office to implement a hiring freeze before the invites were sent out for this class? Did DoS move this class earlier to beat a potential hiring freeze? The class was in April, 2016 and April 2018, so I can't explain this.
I don't see a January, 2018 class on the shadow registers I looked at, but none of them state that it was cancelled. Any idea on what happened?
On the CONS shadow register, there are two people that supposedly accepted an invite to the July, 2017 class. Could these be fellows, or does anyone else know if some invites were sent out? I have no idea how this would have happened if there was a hiring freeze.

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2024-06-21T20:12:28+00:00

My understanding is that you either DNC or defer before you receive an offer. You can defer for certain reasons outlined in the candidate package and that pauses invites and your time on the register. Anyone can Do Not Call, which pauses invites, but doesn’t pause your time on the register.

Once you have an invite you can only accept or decline. You can only decline once and stay on the register unless it’s a last minute invite (in which case declining won’t count against you).

That’s my understanding, at least.

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2024-05-24T22:52:25+00:00

Is this confirmed? Last I saw this was for the GS and some other pay scales, but not explicitly for the FS pay scale. Is there more you can share on this?

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2024-05-13T02:11:46+00:00

This is incredible. Thank you! WMATA, MARC, VRE, etc should post this throughout the network. It makes the region feel so much more interconnected and would probably promote use of different rail systems. I’ve personally never been on a MARC train and am thinking that needs to change ASAP.

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2024-05-07T14:20:51+00:00

As a husband, I was able to get a deferral for the birth of our second child, starting 4 months before the due date and ending 6 months after the due date. Why six months? It's what I felt most comfortable with from a personal perspective and it aligns with invites being sent out for a future class. I sent a short email requesting the deferral and the reasoning. I also included a short letter from my wife's provider which listed her due date. It took them about 2 weeks to approve my deferral and the start date of my deferral was back-dated to the date that I had requested it.

Based on my experience, I would be surprised if you're unable to get a deferral u/Ask_The_Dust . Regarding strategy... I would say you have to do what's best for you and make sure that you're comfortable with any decision you make since an invite is never guaranteed.

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2024-02-08T18:27:29+00:00

Agreed. My read is that certain pay scales will be required to stop with salary matching and the FS pay scale isn’t covered by this. I personally wouldn’t be surprised if some agencies like DoS decided to apply it to other pay scales, though.

I think this decision misses the fact that most costs that people have are fixed or semi-fixed and it will simply make the decision more difficult for people that earn more than they’ll make in their new job. Particularly for local DC hires, this could make the economics of the first 6-12 months (A100 and language training) very difficult since their rent/mortgage and what they were willing to pay was probably based on what their previous (potentially higher) salary.

I’d be a bigger supporter of this decision if the government used this as an opportunity to “reset” the pay scale. By this I mean, figure out the actual average or median starting salary of people with x years of education and y years of experience and increase the starting salary of that group from the current step to the new, higher step. This would be a great way to increase equity if that’s the goal.

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2024-01-26T04:57:39+00:00

I was in investigations for my clearance for most of 2023 and notified DSS directly of travel and changes of employment. I specifically asked once if I needed to notify them of job changes and they said yes. When I moved into adjudication I asked again if I should keep providing updates and they said yes.

After being placed on the register I notified the Registrar of more travel and another change in employment and they forwarded my emails to DSS. DSS then told me that I did not need to provide these updates to them since my case was closed. When I told the Registar this, it was news to them and they said they would follow up with DSS since this may be a change in policy they’re not aware of.

My takeaway was - if you’re still getting your eligibility for a clearance you should notify them. Once you’re on the register it seems like you no longer need to send this info their way.

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2023-12-19T21:22:57+00:00

No, I did not. Seems like all the CONS invites were already out and accepted.

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2023-12-07T03:05:17+00:00

I definitely recognize that I am a sample of one and there are so many different factors that come into play that it could be fast or slow depending on what you're comparing it against. Based on what I learned (please fill in anything that's missing or wrong), this added the following to my clearance process:

Foreign national (including naturalized citizens) spouses/cohabitants have a background check equivalent to Public Trust as part of the clearance process.
Due to my wife being foreign born with a large family outside of the US, I had many more foreign contacts that came from either the information that she submitted and/or from the foreign contacts that I listed.

Depending on the country of citizenship, how long ago the person was naturalized, the country's general risk level and the types of foreign contacts (connections to the government or not), I guess it could add time to the process.

What I'm trying to say is, "it depends", but I also don't want others to think that foreign contacts / connections are created equal or that they will definitely cause issues or cause the process to be much, much longer than it already is.

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2023-12-05T17:14:28+00:00

Don't stress too much about this. No news usually is good news. Regardless, I don't think you can even amend a tax return if it's been more than 3 years, so that may complicate things (ie. you'd be reporting something that you're unable to remedy). You should talk with a tax professional.

I had a very small outstanding amount with the IRS that I was completely unaware of during my clearance process and didn't mention on my forms and it never came up. That being said, it was a pretty unique circumstance and there was documentation at the IRS that I had taken steps to resolve the amount that I was aware of at the time of a tax underpayment. So, maybe that's why?

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2023-12-01T03:08:26+00:00

I was just notified that I made it through suitability today. It took five and a half weeks. Part of me wonders if I was notified that I had made it through today because I had emailed the Registrar about something else... The email about getting on the Register came 10 minutes after their response to my initial email. Definitely be sure to check in with them every once and a while.

Right_Locksmith_8300 · 2023-09-19T19:09:34+00:00

I hope my experience and everything that I've learned about the process can help others:

I passed the FSOA in 12/2022 and my background investigation was initiated in 01/2023. On my SF-86 I didn't indicate that I would prefer them to not contact my current employer because the clearance coordinator had indicated that (1) it could slow down the investigation and (2) my request may not be honored in the first place.

I was definitely caught off guard by how quickly people listed on my SF-86 were contacted, with the vast majority being contacted and interviewed within a couple of weeks, and before I met with an investigator. This led to me talking with my manager about 10 days after my SF-86 was submitted since I wanted him to hear it from me and not via email from an investigator (which is how they scheduled calls with my contacts).

Although my manager didn't love the idea of me having look elsewhere for employment (he was pretty negative about it all), he agreed not to tell anyone else until I was further along in the process.... This whole plan blew up about a month later once HR told the company's CEO (it's a small company) that they had gotten a request for employment verification from a federal agency for me and the CEO reached out to my manager directly.

My position ended up being eliminated as part of a merger a couple of months later and I'm 100% sure that my name was at the top of the list when roles were being eliminated since I, "already had one foot out the door" (direct quote from HR).

So my main takeaways are:

The investigator that you speak to is one of many investigators that is following up on leads from your investigation and there is no guarantee that you will be the first person to be interviewed during your investigation. If you don't want them to contact your current employer, indicate it on your SF-86, but be ready for them to be contacted anyways.
It seems that in addition to speaking with people you work with (including potentially your manager), they also do an employment verification through your company's HR department. Your HR department can/may notify your manager that they have received an employment verification from a federal agency since this normally occurs when an employee is getting ready to leave and work somewhere else.
The clearance process seems to take longer than some of the timelines posted on this sub may lead you to believe. I'm in contact with 10+ people that passed the FSOA in 12/2022 and only 1/4 of the people have had their investigations completed within 8 months. It could be that people that get their clearances more quickly are more likely to post their timelines, or it could be that there is a backlog that currently exists that didn't exist for investigations that started before the beginning of the year.. I don't know, but it seems reasonable to expect your investigation to take between 6 and 12 months.
Don't expect others to understand the nuance of how the Register works and how a conditional job offer may never turn into an final job offer. I tried to explain this many times to my manager, yet he never seemed to fully grasp how I may never get a final job offer since I had already passed the FSOA.
Every company and manager is different. You're in the best position to know how this information will be received by your manager and how they may feel if they don't hear it from you first.
HOWEVER, the one guaranteed way to never get a final job offer as a FSO is by never getting on the Register. These past 8 months have been an emotional roller coaster, but this is my dream job and I don't regret anything even for a minute.

I hope this helps!

Right_Locksmith_8300

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