It is my understanding that before you are hired for a job with security clearance that the company or government does a background check on you after you apply for the job and you have been considered for the posistion. ONce they have let's say 10 people they want to look at out of the 1000 applicants they do an initial background check on all 10. This weeds out say 5 of the 10 and they pick a person to make an offer to out of the 5. As your job dictates higher clearance at later times then more detailed background checks are done each time they want to bump you up to a higher clearance level. This is a standard procedure but that is not to say that every company will do it this way. If you were asking how to get clearance before you apply for a job then I don't know the answer to that one. I don't think it works that way but I could be mistaken. Anybody else?
