On the Job Live

Having problems on the job? Need advice on workplace issues? Ask Post Jobs columnist Kenneth Bredemeier about it.

Kenneth writes about workplace trends and controversies in his weekly column, and then comes online to engage the audience with questions and new ideas. He has reported for The Washington Post for more than 30 years on real estate, politics and the metro area. He now turns his attention to issues "On the Job."

The transcript follows below.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

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Fairfax, Va: How does one overcome not having a Security Clearance in today's job market? And will they ever change the job requirements to say the candidate must be clearable given the fact there is a more than ample supply of us qualified candidates out there who were laid off from DC's IT/Telecom sector.

Kenneth Bredemeier: Good morning all.

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Fairfax, Va: Ken -

I always enjoy lurking, watching other questions and chats go by. I now have my own question and I hope you will post it for you and the readers.

I am looking for some advice. I have a dilemma. I am looking for another position, however, I am finding it tough to find my old references. I have been at my present job for almost three years. Prior to this job, I worked for a dot-com that went bomb. The people who I had as references for that and previous jobs are no where to be found. How do I handle this when I go to an interview and am asked for references? I have only one I can truly count on and contact, but the others are MIA.

Thanks so much!

Kenneth Bredemeier: I'll try again, as somehow that first question went off my screen unexpectedly and got posted.
This is a hot question, affecting thousands of potential security clearance workers in this area and to some degree elsewhere. Given the politics and terrorism threat of the moment, I'd bet the requirement won't get changed. I am told that about all you can do is keep trying to convince some employer that you are clearable, to give you a lesser job in the meantime with some limited access to the extent allowable to information, and an immediate start to the clearance process. It almost seems as if the government is somehow questioning the patrotism of loyal Americans by its current policy.
Next question: How about a Google/Yahoo/Whatever search of names you might need? How about checking with professional organizations for membership and their phone numbers? Or just tell your new employer they're nowhere to be found and use more current references.

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Arlington Va: I have been at my current job for one year and three months. Although I was employed for six years with my previous employer, this is my first job out of college and in the field of my major. I knew coming into this position that there was no way to move up, this is a dead end job. Will a new employer see it as bad, if I am leaving my current job with only 1yr and 3 months?

Thank you.

Kenneth Bredemeier: I would not think so. I read recently that the average workers have a half dozen jobs in their lifetime, so you're well on the way. And people move on from first-jobs-after-college all the time, and often in short order. Just be sure what it is you do want, and that the new place resembles that career path.

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Arlington, Va: How is your employer going to know you are clearable?? Just you saying so is like saying the check is in the mail. Stop whining about not having a clearance. The problem is not enough money to hire enough bodies in DOD to cut down on the time it takes to get a clearance. DSS timelines on how long it tkaes them to complete an investigation are a joke within DOD. No one believes them except maybe a few members of congress. Individuals will lie on their Security Clearance Application, they will lie
during the interview and they will continue to lie through any due process action re: the revocation/denial of their clearance.
SO instead of whining join the reserves, serve your country and get a clearance.

A DOD adjudicator

Kenneth Bredemeier: A view from inside, from one of my faithful readers.

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Bethesda, Md: I used to work in consulting where the low side of yearly raises was 13%. Ah, the late 90s. Since then, I haven?t held a job long enough (grad school/contract work) to discuss a yearly raise. The coming months will be my first time in 5 years to have this conversation. I?ve been vital to the turn around of this office and 100%+ growth in the last year and think I?m underpaid (don?t we all). I want to ask for a $5-8000 raise, which amounts to 11-16%. I don?t think it?s a lot of money, but the percent seems huge. In this economy (and in a small, cheap company), am I being wildly unreasonable? Do you have a better way to go about it? Thanks!

Kenneth Bredemeier: I think you play your best hand here, and don't pay any attention to some percentage that it happens to work out to. What you need to do is focus on what role you've played in the turnaround of the company and the 100 pct growth, in revenue, I assume. Ask unashamedly for the raise and see what happens. But make your case professionally, not in some huff.

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Rockville, Md: At my company, I get the first look at the many resumes we receive for open positions. Even though these positions are part-time, we still expect a moderate level of professionalism. A good number of these applications have something that bothers me but I?m not sure if it?s a legitimate gripe. The email addresses are rather colloquial. It runs the gamut from silly to scary to bordering on offensive. More often than not, the email address alone gives me reason to doubt the person would be a good employee as our part-timers are our main face to our clients. My reasoning is if they can be so casual in their application process, what kind of impression will they give my clients. Do you think this is a legitimate reason to not consider someone for an interview? Sometimes it seems very minor to me, but sometimes I think that if a person can?t create a professional email alias, then they won?t affect a professional demeanor. Do you think I?m overreacting?

Kenneth Bredemeier: I have not heard this before, but I understand fully. If your email address is im2cute or ps2king, or worse, one would have to wonder. I suspect the younger workers ought to have something more professional. And your weeding them out on this is entirely within your prerogative, sort of at-will hiring. Here's one thing that you might do, however. Say you like the looks of some resume, how about going ahead and interviewing and if you're ready to hire them, making the hiring conditional on them getting some other email address?

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Somewhere, USA: I don't hear back from headhunters. Sometimes I include my resume, sometimes just the name of the (prestigious) organization I work for (so as not to pigeonhole myself). Either way, strangely to me in that they live off commissions, I don't hear back, whether I write or call. My conclusion is they're inundated in that the job market is so bad. Your thoughts?

Kenneth Bredemeier: Could be. But keep persisting on trying to get through to someone for setting up an interview, because getting them to believe in your potential as a worker is actually is the same in this case as your potential as a commission for them.

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Silver Spring, Md.: washingtonpost.com ran a Live Online chat last week with Derrick Dortch about security clearances...Hit was really useful.

Fairfax should go read that.

washingtonpost.com: Here's the transcript.

Kenneth Bredemeier: Thanks for this bit of information.

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Bethesda, Md: A commute question, really but work related. Was wondering if anyone could give any info on the commute from Bethesda to Alexandria (Beauregard street?). not familiar w/ that area and wanted a view from someone in the know, any shortcut tips, etc. Thanks!

Kenneth Bredemeier: Posting, looking for help.

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DOD Adjudicator.: I have to say this comment about "being clearable" and "serving your country". I grew up around the military, so I have LOTS of experience with this mentality. Why does the military think they are on a pedestal b/c they served? Are all the other jobs out there less noble? What about nurses? Child advocate workers? Teachers? Trash collectors? Landscapers? Are these people not "serving our country"? They are - they just didn't join the military to do so! The military has a lot of bene's, so "stop whining" about that. I worked as a contractor for the Army, and those people, whether (former)military or civilians were no more or less noble or important than anyone else. Seriously - draw the line. It's old.

Kenneth Bredemeier: A retort for our DOD adjudicator.

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Stuck in the Cubicle: Hi there!;

I work with military personnel as a contractor. It is seamless and awesome. Love it. However, recently we've had a reservist who now sits in my cubicle. Recently, I've heard at least 3 different racist/prejudice remarks exit his mouth and it is really turning me off. First, I'm married to one of the "minorities" he was talking about. The other comments were just terrible (but under the breath). How should I handle this? It angers me a lot so I try not to say anything to cause a rift but at the same time, I think it is out of place and uncalled for. Any ideas how to handle this? Any wise comebacks I can use towards him?

Kenneth Bredemeier: A pointed direct comment, that you find his views out of line and objectionable is in order. "I am married to ______" ought to put this guy in his place. If he does not stop, you ought to alert a higher-up military personnel. The military does not countenance this kind of behavior.

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Concerning Clearances: To meet the clearance (and other) objectives, the company I work for solicits government employees (with clearances) who are about to retire. So, staffing is achieved by transferring retired government personnel to contracting positions.

It is causing some real problems and it just doesn't seem right for a government employee to retire on the taxpayer's dime; and then go out and take a job that a regular, non-retired person really needs.

I keep seeing more and more of this. It has me concerned because I may find myself competing against a retiring government employee - and I just can't compete with someone who only needs to supplement his $50,000 income. Plus when I complete a project, my clearance is pulled if the next project doesn't require one; so I can't even compete on that level either.

Kenneth Bredemeier: Hiring the recently retired in some consulting or temp job is an old game in Washington. May be unfair, as you say, but I suspect this aspect of life here is, well, here to stay.

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Reston, Va: While I am not currently looking for a job, I like to keep my resume current. I have been at my job for three years. On my resume, I have some reference from my job previous to this. Are these references out of date since I have not worked with these people for three years? Should I keep them on as personal references since I work in customer service?

Kenneth Bredemeier: No, not out of date. Three years? Not long enough to cut from a resume, and why would you cut anything of substance?

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Re: DOD Adjudicator: Why does he assume all clearences must go through DOD. Mine didn't - it was all FBI. Not all clearences are the same and not all go through the military. As an FYI, even people with military clearences had to be re-submitted in order to work in my department - so not all of them transfer.

Kenneth Bredemeier: More on clearances.

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Security Clearance: The post by the "DOD Adjudicator" above is the perfect example of what is wrong with the clearance process and federal hiring in general- there are plenty of great candidates who could add their experience and dedication to the federal workplace, yet are given the proverbial smack down by being told to "join the reserves"- like that is the absolute best answer to a serious hiring problem. Just because a person served in uniform, that should not be the litmus test to see if he or she will then make an outstanding fed.

Kenneth Bredemeier: Yet another view.

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DOD Adjudicator again: Kenny,

"Stuck in a Cubicle" should quit whining- the reservist served his country, and everyone who addresses him should avert their gaze and prostrate themselves, to give honor and respect to someone who obviously is enlightened and should be the first in line to get his security clearance.

I'm being sarcastic.

Kenneth Bredemeier: Everyone has a view on this.

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Athens, Ga: Hi Ken, I really enjoy reading your live sessions. Even though I just graduated from college, I still feel like I get so much out of them. My question pertains to networking. I'm still hunting for a job and my family is so eager to help and talk to people...except they don't seem to understand what it is I want to do. My degree was in Risk Management and Insurance but nobody I know seems to know anyone who works at a company that is either in insurance or has a risk management department that will hire recent grads with no previous experience. Any ideas on how to branch out my networking so I can get better prospects for job opps? Thanks

Kenneth Bredemeier: Is there a professional group of some sort you could join to make lots of contacts? How about checking back with your college placement office, to see who other grads are in your field?

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RE: Email addresses?: What is a professional email address if you are sumbitting a resume? I can understand not using im2cute, but what about a variation of your name? You wouldn't want "accountant2b" or something, would you?

Kenneth Bredemeier: I suppose there's no totally correct answer to this, but if you can do your name in some way, I would think that certainly would be a plain vanilla solution.

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Arlington, Va: Before the crash of IT and Web firms no one wanted to work for DOD or a contractor. They were all interested in making the big bucks and stock options. Now I need a job, whine, whine. Why do I need clearance? How long is this going to take? What I have to wait for the clearance before I can start the job? Whine some more! Oops I was to busy to send you the information you needed for my clearance. The world changed sorry. Reality set in. You wanted some help I gave it. DOD is not a welfare agancy. We are not here to be the employer of last resort. Problem is there are too many unemployed system administrators, programmers and web designers
who chose their career field because of the IT bubble. It burst. You chose short term gains. I chose the long term. You lost.
Get over it.
A DOD adjudicator

Kenneth Bredemeier: And now the response from the DOD adjudicator in this tense verbal go-round.

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Arlington, Va: A clearance is a privlege not a right. Sorry.
Complain to Congress. Clinton and congress cut funding and postions with in DOD for clearances. Then they wanted to have a fee for service with DSS. Clinton and his minions
destroyed DSS and are directly responsible for the delays in the current system.

A DOD adjudicator

Kenneth Bredemeier: And one more shot.

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Pittsburgh, Penn: Yikes! Can anyone share some unemployment advice? I received my layoff notice June 13. My last day is June 27. I will have six weeks of severance and maybe 8 days of vacation time in which I will be paid for. Prior to my layoff, I was enrolled part-time as a graduate student (MLIS), taking one class a semester (three classes a year). I did receive tuition assistance. At the close of this summer semester, I will have seven out of 12 classes complete. Admittedly, my boss gave me a heads up the Friday before Memorial Day, so I have been in a bit of a tail spin ever since.

Given my situation, my husband and I agree the logical and best thing for me to do is to return to campus full time in the fall and finish the degree, while also looking for a job. To add to the mix, after my boss told me, can you believe I found a paying internship at a local public library? I am so proud to be working as an adult services reference librarian for 8 ? 10 hours a week. The position in which I am being laid off from is a communications manager role.

My real questions are about timing for filing for unemployment. Should I wait until my severance runs out before I file for unemployment? While filing on June 30 makes sense in some ways, I will exhaust my unemployment (26 weeks) right before Christmas. I?d rather delay filing, if I can, until my severance runs out, as I could use the unemployment to carry me into the new year if I don't have a new job (which may be the case since I won't graduate until mid-December). Also, how will my paying internship affect my unemployment?

Other questions, any thoughts about my unemployment status combined with my FT student status in the fall. I assume whether or not I attend school FT, if I file for UE, I must look for jobs, or might I get some type of dispensation? Lastly, given my academic and UE circumstances, are there any other resources out there that I can take advantage of to pay for my graduate studies?

Whew? thanks for listening. I will ask UE offices these same questions, but I was hoping to get some advice from you and readers first.

Kenneth Bredemeier: I think you've analyzed it carefully. Not much of answer, but you really do need to check with the unemployment insurance folks in whatever state you live in, for the simple reason that these payments, and the conditions they're made under, vary widely by state. Is there schaolarship money available at your place? You won't know unless you ask.

That's it for today, folks. Thanks for the chat, the opinions, the advice, as always. You can always reach me at bredemeier@washpost.com with more questions for possible inclusion in the Sunday column in the newspaper. Seeya back here next Wednesday.

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