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July 29, 2005

Jobs Blog: Getting Your Foot In the Door at Defense Contractors

Jobs Blog: Getting Your Foot
In the Door at Defense Contractors

By Sarah E. Needleman

Looking to expand your online job hunt beyond the big boards? Web sites and email lists dedicated to postings in specific fields can supplement your search. Here's a look at niche job boards and email newsletters from around the Web. (Some links may require registration or subscriptions.)

Defense companies are clamoring for candidates with security clearances, but these door-openers are hard for most job hunters to come by. Here's a rundown of sites devoted to postings at defense contractors, most with ads open to applicants without these special government clearances.

DefenseJobsBlog.com carries only openings that don't require security clearance. The blog links to posts for senior-level defense-company jobs from other employment sites. About 20 new positions are listed daily and 40 to 60 jobs are posted on average. They pay annual salaries from $50,000 to $110,000, reports Jason Gorham, chief executive officer of Careermetasearch.com, which publishes the blog. The Lake Worth, Fla., firm also publishes SecurityClearanceJobsBlog.com, which posts similar jobs that do require security clearance, says Mr. Gorham.

Intelligence and surveillance pros, engineers, systems analysts and linguists can check out IntelligenceCareers.com. About 80% of the site's jobs don't require security clearance, reports Bill Golden, chief executive officer of the site's publisher, Intelligence Careers Inc. in Prince William, Va. About 800 new posts are added daily. Advertisers are mostly private-sector employers, nonprofits and executive-search firms.

The National Defense Industrial Association publishes a job bank at defensejobs.com. Advertisers are primarily defense contractors, but you can find postings from government agencies and academic institutions. Approximately half of the jobs require security clearances, says Thomas Nordby, assistant vice president of business operations at the industry association, which is based in Arlington, Va. Up to 10 new positions are listed weekly, and around 70 jobs typically are posted. They include only mid- and senior-level posts and pay between $60,000 and $200,000 in annual salary, he says. The site also features a calendar that lists the six to seven job fairs that the association hosts annually nationwide.

DefenseTalent.com supplies the postings for the career pages of a network of 26 defense-industry-related Web sites. About 85% of the positions listed require security clearances. They're advertised by mostly defense contractors and aerospace and homeland-security companies. Between 100 and 200 new jobs are added daily, and the site averages 2,000 positions from entry to senior level. Annual salaries range from $40,000 to $150,000, though the average salary offered to candidates is $115,000, says Dave Germond, chief executive officer of the Riverview, Fla.-based job board.

Among the sites in the network is RFcafe.com, a site for radio-frequency (RF), wireless, science and engineering professionals. Its message board offers additional job postings. Executive recruiters and corporate human-resources managers post one to two new jobs there weekly, some requiring security clearances, says Kirt Blattenberger, an RF system and circuit-design engineer who co-publishes the site with his wife Melanie in Kernersville, N.C.

Those who have security clearances will find plenty of ads on ClearedConnections.com and ClearanceJobs.com. ClearedConnections posts jobs from only classified government contractors requiring security clearances for employment. Twenty to 100 new positions are added daily and about 1,000 positions usually are listed. An additional 30,000 to 50,000 jobs that the Reston, Va.-based site is trying to fill aren't listed for security purposes, says Robert Esti, site's founder and president. To be considered for these opportunities, post your resume through the site's secure submission function, he says.

ClearanceJobs is a site from the information-technology job board Dice.com that targets IT and engineering professionals with security clearances. About 2,500 new positions are added monthly, and 1,500 jobs are listed on average, reports Evan Lesser, co-founder and director of the site, which is based in Urbandale, Iowa. The jobs, from entry to senior level, pay annual salaries ranging from $30,000 to $200,000. Government contractors post the majority of jobs, with the remainder from federal agencies, executive-search firms, private companies, nonprofits and academic institutions. The site also provides free resume critiquing from certified resume writers who will post your resume on the site for you.

Finally, we found the most positions by far listed at the Web site of the U.S. Department of Defense, dod.jobsearch.org. During a recent visit, a search of all jobs in the U.S. produced more than 35,000 results. Jobs from entry to senior level are in more than 40 career fields, including health care, law, sales, finance and transportation.

Posted by Jason at July 29, 2005 11:18 AM

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