Recent content by JDGates

I too taught GRE prep for a while for one of the major companies, and this is spot-on. The only real advantage of a course over a book from the same company is the structure -- if you're not self-disciplined enough to study on your own, then this can be beneficial. But figure out where you stand...

No. Yes. There's supposed to be reciprocity between the various government entities regarding clearances; e.g., if you have a Department of Energy Q clearance, you should be able to easily (after some paperwork) be granted a Department of Defense Top Secret clearance, modulo some...

What exactly do you want to know? Weapons/technology analysts in the intelligence community pretty much try to figure out the state of other countries' technology, and the implications for the US. Three things to be aware of are that (1) everyone and their grandmother applies to the CIA...

So underlying this: And this: I take it you've got some data that you're hiding from us? I mean, points for trying to be funny, or trying to be provocative, or whatever it is you're trying to be, but do you have something to add that will be helpful to the questioners?

Since I like data (something I picked up during my graduate school years that were, according to certain embittered individuals on this site, otherwise wasted), I checked my undergrad alma mater's alumni directory for the years around my own graduation. I looked for people who majored only in...

Takes me back to the first year of grad school -- going out to a bar with classmates on Friday evenings, then back to our offices to work on the monster problem sets due Monday morning. I had to check my work very carefully the next day... I don't remember ever trying to grade student work...

Behold, the SF 86 in all its 127-page glory: http://www.opm.gov/Forms/pdf_fill/SF86.pdf If you think you think there's even a chance you might have to fill one of these out in the next few years, start recording your addresses, employers' info, and trips outside the country -- it's no fun...

Well...since the OP specifically references security clearances, this isn't entirely true. What's on the SF-86 (the form used for these things) under "Police Record" is: On the other hand, they only ask for information going back 7 or 10 years (depending on the level of investigation), which...

A time when the job market was certainly better than now, but well off its peak. These jobs still exist, as I said. I was referring simply to any science/math/engineering PhD. I recently went to a job candidate seminar where not only did the candidate have a theoretical physics background...

Yeah, I was mostly thinking of experiment, where I've known lots of people go on to lab-related jobs in semiconductor, pharmaceutical, etc. industries. I'm sure it's harder for theory. This why I was careful to say that I know for a fact that those two places are presently hiring (it's a...

But you were getting the game off to such a good start! Especially the advisor one. Anyway, these data really aren't relevant to the question addressed in the thread. I was more interested in not letting a frustrated ParticleGrl make an easily-checked quantitative assertion that might mislead.

Indeed. And when ParticleGrl comes back with a citation, we can all play a fun game of "handwave away the other person's statistics by casting vague aspersions on the methodology".

On the very first page of this thread you were active in discussion of other industries. But for anyone just jumping into the thread, I'll throw out some: Management consulting, defense/aerospace analysis, logistics management, air traffic control management, nuclear regulation, systems...

Misdemeanors from several years before application will not, in general, result in a security clearance rejection. If you're planning to keep committing them, on the other hand...

Yeah, the big ones are going to be hard for all the reasons discussed. There does appear to be a bit of a summer hiring lull (some of the places I know are pretty much always looking don't have anything advertised, anyway), but there's some stuff out there. For example...