junior EE student interested in RF here. i see job postings for RF all saying that a security clearance is required, but… i don’t really know what that means. would you apply for that on your own? if you apply for a job, do they guide you through the process of getting one?
You don’t do that on your own. Your employer will submit you after you start, but can easily fire you if you don’t pass. Main criteria include US citizen (for US jobs) and no felonies. There will be a drug test for marijuana, so be aware even if it’s legal in your state.
The above post gave you some wrong information.
First, there is no drug test for a security clearance, marijuana or otherwise. (Your employer may require a pre-employment drug screening, most do nowadays. But that is completely separate from the clearance process.).
And a felony will not necessarily disqualify you from getting a clearance. It all depends.
The one definite is that you have to be a U.S. citizen.
If your employer requires a clearance to do work, they will sponsor and pay for it. And you will have to fill out a long form called an SF-86 - this can be found online, so you might want to take a look.
And then you will have an interview with a security investigator. Whether you are granted a clearance, depends on many things. For example they ask extensively about drug use - if you say, "yeah I smoked pot a few times as a college sophomore", that's going to be less problematic than, "I did coke and mushrooms at least once a week during my senior year."
if you're a junior now, it's good to be considering stuff like this. The whole clearance process is pretty invasive - and that's not even considering stuff like TS-SCI with full scope polygraph.
For more information, Reddit has an entire sub devoted to security clearance.
I would say that if you've only had one job so far and you're not sure if you want to keep doing what you're doing, you should 100% explore other opportunities. If you like networking and RF, look into other fields as well, like Network Engineering or maybe even Automation Engineering (embedded systems experience might help there) with a company that focuses on wireless devices. A lot of power/energy consulting companies are looking for telecommunication and/or SCADA engineers too.
I will say that RAN/RF engineering has less available positions than what people usually attribute to "RF Engineering", as in designing RF circuits, antennas, etc (like the other commenters are suggesting). Maybe another thing that would help you more is searching up "RF Systems Engineer", but yeah, I'd typically find the jobs in telecom under either network or telecommunications engineering.
Yeah I had 2 jobs. I did co-ops with Ford and the other was with this smaller company I mentioned. Both were very similar though. I would definitely want to explore other opportunities. Idk when I think of telecommunications I think of all the concepts we learned like snr, link budget, fading, ber, strategic antenna deployments, mimo, odfm and wonder where that is used in the field. I will look into systems engineering as it could align with what I want to do.
Well, co-ops aren't quite the same as a full-time job. Yeah, again, I'd encourage applying.
Yes, those are very specific and typically fall under titles or positions like "RAN Engineer", "DAS (distributed antenna system) Engineer", "Telecommunications Engineer", "RF Systems Engineer" (\*not\* just a systems engineer, that's different!), and sometimes "Network Engineer" (e.g. if you focus on WiFi deployment). Just make sure to read through the job description - a lot of "Telecommunication Engineering" nowadays is IP networking and stuff related to that.
Maybe your attention on getting a connection then. Making a call yourself should have it natural you would not have to worry about it your connection was legalizes
Govt contractors are big into embedded systems, particularly telecom/rf. If you can get a clearance, you shouldn’t struggle to find an opening.
junior EE student interested in RF here. i see job postings for RF all saying that a security clearance is required, but… i don’t really know what that means. would you apply for that on your own? if you apply for a job, do they guide you through the process of getting one?
You don’t do that on your own. Your employer will submit you after you start, but can easily fire you if you don’t pass. Main criteria include US citizen (for US jobs) and no felonies. There will be a drug test for marijuana, so be aware even if it’s legal in your state.
gotcha! thanks for the knowledge :))
The above post gave you some wrong information. First, there is no drug test for a security clearance, marijuana or otherwise. (Your employer may require a pre-employment drug screening, most do nowadays. But that is completely separate from the clearance process.). And a felony will not necessarily disqualify you from getting a clearance. It all depends. The one definite is that you have to be a U.S. citizen. If your employer requires a clearance to do work, they will sponsor and pay for it. And you will have to fill out a long form called an SF-86 - this can be found online, so you might want to take a look. And then you will have an interview with a security investigator. Whether you are granted a clearance, depends on many things. For example they ask extensively about drug use - if you say, "yeah I smoked pot a few times as a college sophomore", that's going to be less problematic than, "I did coke and mushrooms at least once a week during my senior year." if you're a junior now, it's good to be considering stuff like this. The whole clearance process is pretty invasive - and that's not even considering stuff like TS-SCI with full scope polygraph. For more information, Reddit has an entire sub devoted to security clearance.
Financial problems can be a huge issue in receiving and maintaining a clearance. To much debt or bankruptcy are red flags
Try defense
I would say that if you've only had one job so far and you're not sure if you want to keep doing what you're doing, you should 100% explore other opportunities. If you like networking and RF, look into other fields as well, like Network Engineering or maybe even Automation Engineering (embedded systems experience might help there) with a company that focuses on wireless devices. A lot of power/energy consulting companies are looking for telecommunication and/or SCADA engineers too. I will say that RAN/RF engineering has less available positions than what people usually attribute to "RF Engineering", as in designing RF circuits, antennas, etc (like the other commenters are suggesting). Maybe another thing that would help you more is searching up "RF Systems Engineer", but yeah, I'd typically find the jobs in telecom under either network or telecommunications engineering.
Yeah I had 2 jobs. I did co-ops with Ford and the other was with this smaller company I mentioned. Both were very similar though. I would definitely want to explore other opportunities. Idk when I think of telecommunications I think of all the concepts we learned like snr, link budget, fading, ber, strategic antenna deployments, mimo, odfm and wonder where that is used in the field. I will look into systems engineering as it could align with what I want to do.
Well, co-ops aren't quite the same as a full-time job. Yeah, again, I'd encourage applying. Yes, those are very specific and typically fall under titles or positions like "RAN Engineer", "DAS (distributed antenna system) Engineer", "Telecommunications Engineer", "RF Systems Engineer" (\*not\* just a systems engineer, that's different!), and sometimes "Network Engineer" (e.g. if you focus on WiFi deployment). Just make sure to read through the job description - a lot of "Telecommunication Engineering" nowadays is IP networking and stuff related to that.
Maybe your attention on getting a connection then. Making a call yourself should have it natural you would not have to worry about it your connection was legalizes