Just to be accurate, smoking weed doesn’t disqualify you from a clearance. It can, but it’s not automatic, and you might be okay depending on the job, clearance level, and time since you last did any illegal substance.
In my experience, it’s less about the job and more about the personal preferences of the agent running the background investigation. I’ve seen contractors for low-level non-sensitive positions have entire job offers rescinded because they were honest about past weed use earlier in their life (not current). I’ve seen contractors breeze through the same process while flat out lying about their past weed use, and I’ve been told that lying is typically the best option, because the agents don’t have the time or resources to follow up. But if you’re caught lying on a form you’re fucked, so it’s a mix of damned if you do damned if you don’t, but also you might be totally fine depending on how the agent feels that day. On top of that, many of the agents are contractors themselves, so there’s very little incentive for consistency.
Just to be accurate, smoking weed doesn’t disqualify you from a clearance. It can, but it’s not automatic, and you might be okay depending on the job, clearance level, and time since you last did any illegal substance.
In my experience, it’s less about the job and more about the personal preferences of the agent running the background investigation. I’ve seen contractors for low-level non-sensitive positions have entire job offers rescinded because they were honest about past weed use earlier in their life (not current). I’ve seen contractors breeze through the same process while flat out lying about their past weed use, and I’ve been told that lying is typically the best option, because the agents don’t have the time or resources to follow up. But if you’re caught lying on a form you’re fucked, so it’s a mix of damned if you do damned if you don’t, but also you might be totally fine depending on how the agent feels that day. On top of that, many of the agents are contractors themselves, so there’s very little incentive for consistency.