'Cleared' and Taking Off
He's a high-tech wiz, which makes him marketable enough. But it's his top-level security clearance that makes him such a hot commodity.
He's so sought after that he doesn't even have to hold down a steady job in one place. Instead, Derek, who would not provide his last name for security reasons, does freelance information technology work for the government and private companies looking for someone trusted to keep secrets. Derek, 34, earns about $170,000 a year, jumping from project to project.
And whenever he needs a new gig, he goes to Kelly FedSecure, a Greenbelt-based personnel firm that works exclusively with "cleared" people.
Richard Piske and business partner Gary Morris noticed the growing demand for workers qualified to work on classified projects. Two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, they founded a headhunting company and temporary agency for people with clearance. In 2003, the company was purchased by Kelly Services Inc., one of the largest personnel service companies in the country. And over the past year, Kelly FedSecure has had double-digit growth from month to month, Piske said.
"The overall demand for cleared people . . . is up significantly since 9/11," he said. "And the forecasted demand is not projected to abate for the foreseeable future."
Pat Hiban, a Columbia real estate broker, knew only that his former neighbors worked for the NSA. Every so often, an investigator he assumed was an FBI agent would knock on his door. Polite but persistent, the investigator would say he was updating background checks on Hiban's neighbors.
"Have they done anything you'd think would be unpatriotic?" Hiban said the investigator would ask.
Even after those visits, Hiban never pressed his neighbors for more detail about their lives. They simply were like a lot of people he meets, through business or the neighborhood, who quickly change the subject when employment comes up.
"You get used to it around here," he said. "It happens pretty frequently."
