Sarcastic Rant for poorly staffing gov't security clearance linux admins.

Posted by socrplaycj@reddit | linuxadmin | View on Reddit | 59 comments

Our brilliant SR leadership has cracked the code on government contracts! Why hire one experienced engineer at $250K who actually knows what they're doing, when you can hire multiple $180K 'professionals' who need a step-by-step tutorial to run ls -la?

These strategic hires come equipped with zero experience in our software stack, a refreshing ignorance of cloud infrastructure, and that coveted deer-in-headlights look when faced with Linux logs. But don't worry - they're totally ready to navigate the government's delightfully streamlined 2-year approval process!

The best part? Their manager - who couldn't plan a grocery trip, let alone six months of technical work - has brilliantly delegated all planning to the magic of 'figure it out as you go.' So naturally, these highly qualified individuals spend their days asking my team to hold their hands through basic CLI commands via endless screen-sharing sessions. We get the privilege of watching them work while being legally prohibited from actually touching anything - it's like being a highly paid IT helpdesk that can only communicate through interpretive dance.

But hey, at least we're saving that extra $70K per person! What could possibly go wrong with this rock-solid strategy for handling security clearance work?

But seriously, some people on my team were like, i'll get clearance and make this process go really quick and you will not need to help me. But SR leadership was like nope, as soon as you get the clearance AND you are actually useful you will instantly be able to pull 250k. Which - technically we are spending that anyways. We have multiple people working on the same problems all of the time.

Super comical.

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Hotshot55@reddit

f you already have a clearance then you should 100% be working a security clearance job. They are always the highest paid job in any profession you work within

Ehh not necessarily, private sector is way more likely to pay for your skills than government work.

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ImpossibleEdge4961@reddit

Just ballparking it, about 90% of the jobs that require security clearance are private companies working on government contracts. They get fat contracts from the DoD to research how to weaponize dildos against the Islamic State but since they're secret dildos the people managing the infrastructure need to be trusted.

For instance, if you're designing F-35 you're going to need a security clearance because the DoD isn't going to indirectly fund a foreign nation getting valuable information about weapons platforms.

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Hotshot55@reddit

Just ballparking it, about 90% of the jobs that require security clearance are private companies working on government contracts

Yes, but those companies are still focused on working in the public sector.

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ImpossibleEdge4961@reddit

They're not classified as public sector unless they directly work for the government. Otherwise you'd end up considering people working at pencil factories public sector employees if the government bought enough of their pencils.

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Hotshot55@reddit

therwise you'd end up considering people working at pencil factories public sector employees if the government bought enough of their pencils.

Those people aren't directly providing support to the government though, those same pencils are being sold to the public as well.

Even with the contract company being a private entity, the work is being funded by the government to provide direct support to government operations.

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ImpossibleEdge4961@reddit

Those people aren't directly providing support to the government though

This isn't theoretical. "public sector" and "private sector" are legal categories and people who work for government contractors just have never been considered public sector employees.

Boeing only has one customer for the F-35 (the US government) but that doesn't mean the people who work on that project are government employees on any level.

bash_M0nk3y@reddit

Shit.. I'll take 180k and (usually) know what I'm doing with Linux!

No_Illustrator5035@reddit

I was gonna say, you get 250k for that?!

A lot of times security clearance jobs might come with other considerations and pathways that may not be fully disclosed (even to the person in question). Security Clearance is also kind of hard to come by. At least back in the day you could get it denied for something as simple as either being gay or having ever for any reason talked to a mental health professional.

I've already got a clearance. Makes me wonder if I should start applying at some of these places

If you already have a clearance then you should 100% be working a security clearance job. They are always the highest paid job in any profession you work within. There are job search sites specifically for people with security clearances. The only reason to not work there is either ideological or you just don't like the rules you have to follow.

certciv@reddit

Another big one that can get you denied is a history of financial problems. Large debts, and gambling issues are big red flags.

It's crazy how almost every single branch of the US intelligence community was fundamentally compromised by the Soviets due to them ignoring financials.

Hansen was getting gobs of money from somewhere, Ames was doing the same and even had his superiors question where it was coming from and he just said his wife's family was loaded. Apparently just nobody ever looked into it. Instead they relied on their nervousness detection machine (i.e "polygraph") and since he was a chill dude they just dismissed it.

I think I looked into it and in the mid-80's pretty much just the Air Force and the NRO were free from any fundamental Soviet compromise.

My main reason is that my current role only requires me to be onsite about .5 days a week which is really nice, but I should probably do some interviews. In the worst case, I'd just get some interview practice under my belt

Lurksome-Lurker@reddit

Dude, I have literally seen engineering firms literally advertise to returning soldiers from Iraq that they will pay for 4 years of college for an engineering degree and give them a part time job at the same time if they can verify they already have their security clearance. THATS how coveted those individuals are in DoD contract friendly firms.

WeedFinderGeneral@reddit

The gay thing is a mixture of homophobia and just a general recognition that it is something that could be found out about you and used to blackmail you.

Third option: they'd fast-track you into working for the CIA and you get a starring role in the blackmail tapes with a bunch of also secretly gay Russians and Cubans.

But nooooo, now they gotta be homophobic because the government is run by a bunch of weirdo Jesus freaks, so I can't even get that job.

Well good news, you can now be gay for the deep state! The gay thing was at a time when there was a lot of bias against homosexuals in society. So some of that leaks into intelligence world as well as produces this general sense that even if someone didn't care you were gay they might still question whether or not you might still be vulnerable to blackmail.

meagainpansy@reddit

The problem is they will definitely look in your butthole before they give you the money.

My butthole is already inspected fortunately lol

Then go get paid brother.

PudgyPatch@reddit

Well 180 and the job security that fearless leader allows for you until he doesn't

Runnergeek@reddit

Please point me to these job listings. I don't see anything on USAJOBS that has anywhere close to this salary

Newbosterone@reddit

You won't. It's the contractors making these salaries - GS makes much less. Search the big defense contractors or the places they gather (Ft Mead, Boston, Dayton, etc). Typically it's the TS/SCI jobs in expensive markets (NoVA, Boston) that pay that.

karo_syrup@reddit

Shit, I got a TS/SCI, cissp, oscp. I know what I’m doing tonight.

mkosmo@reddit

Even at contractors, those numbers are unreasonable for all but a few.

TomaCzar@reddit

It's the contract that makes those numbers, not the contractor.

That said, you could go 1099 and see those numbers ... unless you want sick days, health insurance, vacation, not to spend 40 hours a quarter on paperwork and/or hire a CPA to file taxes every quarter.

But, if you're young/healthy and married to a CPA who provides you health insurance, 1099 is a lucrative way to go (or so I'm told).

It's the contract that makes those numbers,

Very important piece there. Whatever you're being paid is probably only 1/4 to 1/3 of what the company is charging the gov.

duderguy91@reddit

Work in state government. I wish these were unreasonable numbers for useless parasite consultants.

True, that's way above average.

WillitsThrockmorton@reddit

It's a contractor position.

Government issues out contract to support program. Someone like Mitre tells the government "you should need 5 admins based on these requirements". Government has a pot of money for full time employees (FTEs). Government says "we will pay you(the contractor) x amount of money per FTE. If you want to pay someone more than than, you need to figure it out, or accept that you may only have 4 Linux admins instead of 5".

Also, and this is key, "we need you to staff this immediately". This means you need to onboard with an active security clearance. Maybe it means secret,maybe it means TS(or Q) maybe it includes a polygraph. But the important thing is they need it filled now so that means someone who already has that is going to be grabbed over someone who will take months/years to get ajudicated.

So, this means some help desk guy who can barely spell Linux may show up and be expected to run O&M, do configuration management, etc. Or maybe you'll get a greybeard who started on HPUX.

OOP is basically complaining about something that is a feature, not a big of the whole system. Contractors are incentivized to get people in the door, and frequently the operations managers have only the dimmest glimmer of what is needed; could be in the ancient past they had a MCSE or something but that doesn't help them ask questions during interviews now.

I would say it is more "working as intended" than a feature.

I would also say that with the current administration, especially with the consequences of DOGE, nothing is guaranteed or working as intended. Government contracting is going to be fouled up in one way or another for decades to come because it was decided to cut power without parking the write head in the name of "efficiency."

admin4hire@reddit

Defense contractors. Ain’t no $$ working directly for gov.

readfreeh@reddit

Holy sht i can ls - lash and netstat -tulnp does that let me qualify?!

TechGuyworking@reddit

In experience has been that no one will hire anyone that doesn't already have government clearance. Mine has expired since I left the army years ago but no one is interested in renewing it.

dts-five@reddit

Echoing the chorus. Point me to the applications. Mercy!

mfinn999@reddit

I can run ls -la without tutorial. Where can I make $180k?

kai_ekael@reddit

It's not 180k to you. It's 180k to the Contractor you work for. They might give you half.

Source: Me, the guy screwed over by various to-the-goverment contractors for eight years

I sure as shit never ran ls -al, I'm smart enough to make a one-character alias for that on all the damn systems I have to work on.

alias d='ls -aF --color=auto'
alias v='d -l'
alias cp='cp -i'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias rm='rm -i'
export LS_COLORS="di=00;01;34;42"

weirdgermankid@reddit

Tried „dir“: didn‘t werk Tried „del“: didn‘t werk Tried „@ECHO OFF“: Had to reboot

Your .bash_aliases does not werk for mees ☹️

banjoman05@reddit

Not to brag but I can compose a valid tar command without reading the man page. I'd also like that $180k.

$150k is for the active security clearance, $30k is for whatever skills you may bring to the table.

Dell Consulting* once offered me a 25% pay cut to keep my job. When I told them to kick rocks, they back-filled me with a "sysadmin" who was excited to learn about grep their second week on the job.

Most of the SIs, especially the big names, are body shops. They aren't looking for quality, they're looking checks in boxes, so they can put checks in banks. With the paperwork that it takes to get someone removed from a contract, you might get an entire year of billing out of them before you move them over to another contract that doesn't know any better or just cut them loose.

(*) Naming and shaming without content or context because screw those guys.

Bro, you deserve a raise!

Kalvers@reddit

amarao_san@reddit

You can hire a highly qualified European for $60k.

TheFireSays@reddit

I don't think they're getting cleared.

I once met a guy who was hired as a "technical leader" for a UNIX engineering team on a DoD contract who had absolutely no idea what the man command did.

NL_Gray-Fox@reddit

Man of this was 10 years ago i could have written this exact message.

dhsjabsbsjkans@reddit

Inform DOGE. 😆

adamantium4084@reddit

I know what ls -la is! am I hired?

Amidatelion@reddit

Man. It sounds like you have a brilliant career ahead of you as a consultant to fix these issues :)

kholejones8888@reddit

I got a Linux Foundation Certified Sysadmin 10 years ago, can I join, I only cost $200k

I’m serious tho

JackLong93@reddit

this is hilarious

Bphag@reddit

Tell me where to apply 🤣🤣

enigmatic407@reddit

Came to make this comment lol

straightouttamidtown@reddit

I wonder if they’re still using DII-COE. What a mess. I left govt adjacent work in the early 2000s cause of “seniors” who couldn’t even sftp and were perfectly content with being my bathroom escort and not much else. But maybe they were on to something cause at least there was no oncall.

Automatic_Beat_1446@reddit

the manager you mentioned may be that clueless, but i suspect they wanted to build their own team to increase their own job security

socrplaycj@reddit (OP)

I appreciate that perspective, though in this case I believe the issue stems more from execution challenges rather than strategic maneuvering. The manager in question appears to struggle with effective planning and implementation rather than pursuing deliberate empire-building.

I've escalated these concerns to the CTO, but the hiring decisions were ultimately approved at that level. The process itself was quite telling - I was invited to participate in interviews with only 30 minutes' notice, and when I asked about the specific role requirements, no one could provide clear answers. Given the lack of defined responsibilities and the last-minute request, I declined to participate.

This situation essentially resulted in hiring candidates for positions where the fundamental job requirements hadn't been properly established - which helps explain why we're now experiencing these operational challenges.

Full-Preference-4420@reddit

Sign me up! I can run sudo rm -rf / without tutorial!

Haha I just went contract again and feel this every day.

os2mac@reddit

Welcome to every it contract I worked on.