17 March 2025 Weekly Rundown: Security Clearance Pathways

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Good afternoon everyone.
Thank you for joining us onanother weekly rundown.
Today is going to be a day likeall the other days.
We're going to cover some goodinformation, touch base on a lot
of different topics and then doa quick Q&A at the end of this.
But Anwar had something to putout.
Go ahead, anwar.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
It's alright, I'm just gonna run a quick poll in
here for everyone.
Let us know about how often youguys have attended our
orientation, your militarystatus and what are you trying
to get out of this session, andthen in the chat, feel free to
share with us where you'rejoining us from and what branch

(01:12):
of service that you have wornthe uniform about.
You know, if you're Army, justput a who, everybody will
understand you.
Okay.
If you're Marine, just put acrayon, everybody will
understand you.
Okay.
If you're Air Force, maybe puta beach or something like that,
I don't know.
Good to see everybody here.

(01:35):
And if you're Navy, if youdon't want to disclose that, you
don't have to.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
That's your choice.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
We just won the last game, so we don't have to say
much.
It's all about your actions.
Remember, action, speak.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Is it back to four brag right now, are they?
Uh, it is back to four brag,all right.
I mean, are you still?
Uh, you still got your knees inthe breeze, or you're about to
retire, so are you trying totake it?
slow needs to the breeze.
So 1 october 26 is my uh,effective retirement date.

(02:11):
So coming up on the end,awesome man.
All right, welcome to thecrayon evangelists.
All right, and for navy guys,we welcome you here.
Jay is a navy guy, so if youguys want a free certification
voucher, all you have to say hey, I'm Navy, and he will hook you

(02:32):
up.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Okay, that's crazy.
It's true, though, but that'scrazy.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Manuel Ramos, welcome Yuland, everybody else, you
know we are here for you guys,so I got a lot of good questions
, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
So 79 percent wait wait, and where don't you?
But you have so somecertification connections too,
man.
I heard you like you guys gotto do a ruck march and then you
give them certifications at theend with mres or something like
that.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
That's, that's true, right only if you got your knees
in the breeze.
All right, only if you got yourknees in the breeze.
And then kevin too.
Yeah, kevin is one of ourawesome volunteers here.
He will remind you to save thechat if you are on your on your
computer, because we share a lotof links, so feel, feel, free.

(03:26):
As a matter of fact, I'm not onthe camera.
Why not?
So during this session, please,please.
As always, especially if you'rea first-timer, I'm going to end
the poll because we have 80%participation here, just to
share with you guys how manypeople are here.
For all the 100-plus folks thatare here for the first time,

(03:48):
welcome Act Now.
Education here.
Jay is our esteemed fearlessleader.
He's a Navy guy, active duty.
I don't know where he's atright now.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
I'm in the States.
This time I'm jet lagged, butI'm definitely in the States.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
He's here in the States.
Finally, if you want to switchyour computer, go ahead.
I mean you can come in anytime.
We're here for a couple ofhours to talk about different
things.
And please, in the chat you cansave the chat.
Kevin from Time to Time showsyou how to.
It's a three dots in there.
We don't send chats at the endof the call.

(04:27):
We do not send recording.
This is a bootstrap operation.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Very low budget, very low budget.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
We try to share information.
We welcome people toparticipate, ask questions,
write or open up all the linksthat will be shared hashtag
squirrelsyndrome so you cancheck it out later on.
Uh, if you come in there in themiddle, in the middle of the
session here, and say, hey, Ijust showed up, uh, what did I

(04:55):
miss?
Um, probably be ignored because, again, we share this all the
time.
I'm not, I'm being facetious alittle bit, but you understand.
Okay, this is just aboutsharing resources and building a
community.
Jay has a LinkedIn link where,instead of just you can feel
free to submit your LinkedInprofile and build your community

(05:16):
and network with people.
Or you can go to that LinkedInpost with already about maybe
300 or 400 people that havealready posted their LinkedIn
and just connect with them.
Build your community, get overthat 499 so you can have 500
plus, so nobody knows whetheryou have 500 connections or
20,000.
Okay, and the purpose here isjust I'm going to stop sharing

(05:41):
this poll because everybodyunderstood where we're coming
from.
I might add another questionlater on about branch of service
, to see how many Marines wehave in here, so we could maybe,
from time to time, speak slowand repeat our you know our
comments, okay, but we welcomeeverybody.
All right, we welcome everybody.
Veterans, transition servicemembers, active duty, who are,

(06:04):
you know, a year out, two yearsout, and planning their
retirement, their transition,which is awesome.
All right, spouses of allstripes If you're a reserve
spouse, active duty, veteranspouse, you're welcome.
This is your community as well.
I would ask everybody to mutethemselves when they come in to
prevent any hot mics in there.
But eventually, if you have anyquestion after that, feel free

(06:28):
to unmute.
We're gonna have a lady here.
I think I see katie here.
We'll talk about vertforcelater on and other stuff, as it
might just show up in the chator in the conversation.
And you know, tom margrave, Isee you in there.
He's coming in again to checkit out and hoping that Jay and

(06:50):
him will connect again so he canautomate this whole process and
make it easy for us.
Alright, but without furtherado, I'll give it to Jay Salters
, our esteemed Navy active duty.
I mean, this is a good way toshow you guys how Army and Navy
can work together.
Alright, this is beautiful.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Appreciate it, enomar , thanks for the introduction,
good way to show you guys howArmy and Navy can work together.
All right, this is beautiful.
Appreciate it.
Anwar, thanks for theintroduction.
Look folks.
Thank you again for joining ustoday.
We're going to cover differenttopics.
For those who are interested intaking advantage of some of the
resources we offer, likeCoursera, splunk we're going to
share that at the end of thesession, on the hour, so it's

(07:30):
probably going to be around twoo'clock.
That's when we share that.
We'll give you access to, orshow you how to get access to,
our career compass, which hasover six million jobs on it.
It shows you how to get accessto all the different
certification resources outthere over 70 different
certification resources, all forfree, and a bunch of other
things.
That's going to be on there, sowe'll cover that at two o'clock

(07:50):
.
So please do me a favor.
If someone in the chat joins onthe 12th hour saying, hey, man,
where's the, where's theCoursera stuff?
Tell them that is going to beshared at two o'clock, uh, 2 pm
eastern standard time.
So you guys are tracking, allright, so I'm going to go
through some things.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Sorry, I'll be remiss if I don't also introduce our
fearless GS guy, anibal Pacheco.
So he's one of our.
You know he's a team member, soif any of you got, he's a
warrants officer former warrantsso like all self-respecting
warrants, he's in the backgroundmaking sure everything works.
He will hook you up with allthe links and everything like

(08:31):
that.
So make sure that you get allthe links for whatever you know
Jay will be sharing and ifanybody's also interested in GS
jobs, feel free to hook up withhim, although we know what the
chainsaw is doing to our service, to our GS jobs.
But be that as it may, you knowyou want to connect with
somebody and continue servingyour country as a GS.

(08:52):
You know, look up Anibal andbuild your network in that
capacity, all right.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
All right.
All right, let's get sharing.
Oh, we got 266 people on thecall, all right.
Can everyone see my screen?
Yes, sir.
Yeah, yeah, roger, that Allright, cool, so Act Now.
Education nonprofitorganization.
We are a volunteer-basedorganization, meaning everyone
that you see on this side of thehouse is all volunteers.

(09:20):
None of us gets paid to do this.
We do this because we care.
On this side of the house isall volunteers.
None of us gets paid to do this.
We do this because we care.
If there's something wrong withthe way that we're doing things
or you think there's a way thatit can prove like we've had a
lot of recommendations, pleaseget to it, help us out, and
that's the way.
That's what we do.

(09:40):
We try to give back to thecommunity as best as possible.
So if you feel that there'ssomething that we could be
improving, please let us know.
Get in touch with us Directly.
Message Anwar, or her name isMona Contractor and we'll be
able to kind of get that processstarted for you.
So our focus for ourorganization for those

(10:01):
first-timers are we provide freeresources, so anything that we
talk about will be free to you.
There's not going to be a cost.
There's not going to be ahidden fee or anything like that
.
We're not about that.
We don't even sell anything onour platforms at all, and so
everything that we do for themilitary community is about
providing free resources outthere.
There's over 40,000 differentresources out there, and we just

(10:22):
want to be able to provide youwith some things that are going
to help you in your careertrajectory.
I know a lot of people postedtheir LinkedIn in the chat.
That is great, but unless yousave the chat and then manually
click on every single LinkedInURL, that will take you some

(10:43):
time.
So, to make this easy, we'veput a little scan me code in
here, and so all you would haveto do is scan this code, go to
the comment section, say alittle bit about yourself and
then make sure you connect withother people on that list.
There's over 400 people on thislist to include.
We have Chris McPhee, who talksabout the PMP.
He even has the PMP assessmenton there.

(11:05):
We have a lot of differentpeople.
We have some recruiters onthere.
Connect with folks on there.
That's specifically what thispost was about for us to be able
to connect on LinkedIn, to makeit easier for people to find
people, and so you just neverknow what can open up through
your career in terms ofconnecting with people and using
LinkedIn for its intendedpurpose and networking.

(11:25):
So there's that.
Linkedin for its intendedpurpose in networking.
So there's that.
How many people are looking fora job?
Put a three in the chat, Iwould definitely say that's well
over 75 people, 100.

(11:50):
We're going up.
Okay, so we're doing a virtualfair.
Uh, on may 30th.
We have some really greatcompanies that are showing up
and I would highly recommend you, if you have the ability to um.
Eastern standard time starts at3 pm and ends at 6, so it's not
going to be an all-day ordeal.
It's only three hours long totouch base with recruiters and

(12:11):
folks that are actually hiringpeople.
Most of the folks that we bringto our hiring events have roles
open, are looking to work withmilitary and have had past
performance in hiring people.
Tech Systems hires a lot ofpeople.
I can't even count how manypeople they've hired, but
they've helped a lot of people.
Um, I can't even count how manypeople they've hired, but
they've helped a lot of peopleget jobs.
Recently, mad tech helps peopleget jobs.

(12:32):
We're going to have amazonthere.
Um, talking about different jobopportunities, um, I think
either microsoft I can't think.
I think it's microsoft might bemicrosoft, but there's at least
about 15 different companiesand it's real, virtual, real,
laid back.
Essentially, you get to talk toa recruiter, touch base with
them, ask them questions aboutthe role.

(12:53):
The best way to kind of networkwith a recruiter in that sense
is identify what roles are there.
Once we put out the full listof employers and then, when you
speak to them, say, hey, I'minterested in this role, I'm
already applied, already did theresearch.
Is there anything that youwould need to do for my end?
Or anyone that you can touchbase, I can touch base with, can

(13:16):
learn more about the role andthat way you can kind of help
align yourself with getting ajob.
So please, please, please dothat.
This is a free event.
There's no cost to it.
Jump on it, take advantage ofit, utilize it.
This, I think we won't be doinganother one until August, so
take advantage of this, thishiring fair.
All right, what else we got.
Did anyone see the post that Imade about the 60 certifications

(13:44):
that we gave away?
Put a one in the chat if youdid so a few people seeing that.
How would you like to be one ofthose folks?
So this next month, in June,we're definitely going all out.

(14:05):
I'm going to try to to tooutpace that 60.
And we're going to do a virtualeducation.
I mean, our virtual summit isgoing to be a call and we're
going to provide a lot of goodinformation.
So there's going to beinformation about Understanding
how to land a job, understandinghow to house hack your VA loan.

(14:30):
What else do I want to talkabout?
There's going to be informationrelated to utilizing different
like setting up.
What do you call it Setting up?
I'm trying to think of the nameof it.
It's not setting up like willsor anything, but it's

(14:51):
essentially setting up a trust.
We're going to go through a listof different resources out
there that most people don'treally talk about and most
people don't know.
Buddy Russians is working withme to put this on.
We have 10 high-level speakersthat are going to be coming to
you.
No one can sell you anything,so no one's trying to sell you
anything.
All they're going to be comingto you.
No one can sell you anything,so no one's trying to sell you

(15:12):
anything.
All they're there to do is togive you information related to
a tool or a resource that canhelp you change your life.
And so I'm bringing my networkin to be able to do this, and
Buddy's working with me to kindof be able to coordinate this,
and so we're going to have, Ithink, about 10 different
speakers throughout the day, andthen we'll have different
sessions, and we're going toannounce that probably like

(15:32):
within two weeks or so.
But if you want to be a part ofthe pre-celebration and there's
some things that we're going tobe doing for the
pre-celebration folks or thepre-party, I would say join this
link, Use this QR code to joinus.
It'll take you to a WhatsAppgroup and you'll be added to a
WhatsApp group and then I willdrop information related to that

(15:54):
.
I will let you know when thecertification drops are going to
happen, because there's goingto be a lot.
I'll let you know when thelaptop drops are going to be
happening, because there's goingto be a few, and so that's one
of the things that I'm going todo, and so that's one of the
things that I'm going to do.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
For those who are not aware, because you mentioned
Buddy Rushing, so we had him asa guest maybe a couple of months
ago or something like this.
He's a Marine Corps officer whogot out and eventually started
his company in real estate andinvestments and things like this
, so he's giving back to thecommunity in his own accord, so

(16:31):
he's a good guy to know and hearfrom.
So, again, if you areinterested, just click on that
QR code in there, join theWhatsApp group and that's just
going to have announcements inthere for when Jay will put
together all this summit.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yeah, so expect that to be a later part of June.
Like I said, we'll have awebpage for you to sign up.
It's going to be a greatopportunity to kind of learn one
day, to kind of knock out asmuch as you possibly can.
I could tell you I know a lot,but clearly I didn't know enough
.
When I attended one of Buddy'ssessions and he put me on game

(17:07):
with a lot of different aspectsand I was like, oh man, this is
something that everyone needs toknow, and so this is what we're
doing.
We're going to be able to dothat and share that with the
people, and so it's going to bebeneficial.
But, yeah, awesome, all right.
Well, before we get into how toobtain a clearance I want to
touch base with let me switch itover.

(17:27):
Stop sharing with Vertforce.
Vertforce is an awesomeorganization and if you're
looking for virtual jobs andopportunities, that's what they
do.
So we have Katie on the line,and Katie will tell you about
some of the opportunities thatthey have and what they have
going on at the Bird Forceorganization and shout out to

(17:49):
Mill Spouses Bird Force is ranby a mill spouse, kimber and so
definitely, definitely, utilizethat resource.

Speaker 10 (17:59):
Hi Jay and hi everybody, thanks for having me.
I am Katie Castillo, thecommunity expert at Bird Force.
So for those of you who don'tknow, like Jay said, we are
founded and run by militaryspouses.
All of us, our entire team, aremilitary spouses, which is
pretty cool.
But basically what we do iswe're, first and foremost, a

(18:21):
recruitment firm and a staffingfirm, so we help military
spouses and veterans findprimarily remote or location
flexible jobs.
So if you guys are in the marketfor a job, or you're going to
be, or you need resources forfinding a job, that's what we're
here for.
So I'm going to drop some linksreal fast for you guys.
I find this is helpful.

(18:42):
Also, it keeps me on track meon track.
So we highly recommend, ifyou're looking for a job or
you're going to be looking for ajob, following Kimber Hill, who
is our CEO and founder onLinkedIn.
She is great at helping peoplefind jobs.
That's literally what shefounded Vertforce to do.
So if you follow her, connectwith her, send her a DM.

(19:03):
There is a link in there for asocial networking like LinkedIn
post on there.
So if you're looking to buildconnections, that's also a great
place to do that.
We also have a lot of employerswho are part of Kimber's
community and they check outthat post, so it's a good place
to just say hi, introduceyourself and start connecting
with people.

(19:24):
So we have a job board.
Like I said, we're first andforemost a staffing firm and a
recruitment firm.
So we have a job board.
Like I said, we're first andforemost a staffing firm and a
recruitment firm, so we have ajob board.
It is free to join, but makesure you sign up for the job
board, otherwise you won't seeall of the job postings that we
have Right now.
We've got some positions onthere with CVS Health.
We have a very specialrelationship with Travelers
Insurance, very militaryfriendly, and there's a number

(19:45):
of other jobs on there as well,and they rotate frequently.
So once you sign up, we'll alsosend you some emails as we get
new job opportunities and wehave employer events and things
like that.
Um.
So make sure you're keeping aneye on that because, like I said
, they update frequently.
Um, we had, like, three jobs goup and get filled last week, so
, um, keep an eye on that.

(20:06):
Um, we also do educationalevents and like career coaching,
so upcoming events that we have.
We have a Travelers.
We call them Coffee andConnects.
We give away Starbucks giftcards for live attendees at
these things.
So at all of our events weusually give away Starbucks gift
cards and some other goodiesand things like that for being a
live attendee.
But on Tuesday of this week, onMay 20th, we have a Travelers

(20:28):
Coffee and Connect.
So if you're interested inpositions, it's a great chance
to come and hear from travelers,hear what they're all about and
the positions that they'rehiring for.
There are links to RSVP to thatin there as well.
And then we just had last weeka VA loan bootcamp.
We are doing another one onJune 24th with our sister

(20:51):
community, the military MLS, andit's free education just about
what the VA loan is, how to useit, how to use it more than once
, what an assumable loan is.
It's all question and answerstyle, kind of open conversation
with some experts who are alsomilitary spouses and veterans,
and great chance to learn somemore.
It was a great event.

(21:11):
We literally had nonstopquestions the whole time and it
was excellent.
I learned a lot.
I'm still learning a lot.
So those are two of theupcoming ones.
We are hitting kind of a quieterseason in employer events, but
stay tuned.
We have lots of otherinformation that goes out.
Something else Kimber and I golive every Tuesday to share what

(21:36):
new jobs we have some jobadvice, tips, things like that
on her LinkedIn and in ourprivate Facebook group, as well
as YouTube which, speaking ofthe YouTube, if you are looking
for more resources and things onwriting resumes, youtube, if
you are looking for moreresources and things on writing
resumes, how to interview,setting up your LinkedIn we just
did a huge three-week series onLinkedIn bootcamp.
That is all on our YouTube.

(21:57):
You can search Kimber Hill andfind that I don't have a link
for that.
I'm sorry.
I'll grab it in a second whenI'm done talking, and then I put
some links in there to our jobboard.
It's jobsbertforceus, kimber'sLinkedIn and then some RSVP
links.
If you guys have any questionsabout searching for jobs or
anything like that, feel free toreach out to me.

(22:19):
I'll be in the chat for alittle while, but yeah, we're
here to help, so if you needanything, please let us know.
We want to help you.
So I think I got everything,but so thank you guys for having
me.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Thank you All right.

Speaker 4 (22:33):
Back over.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
All right.
So today, for those who are nottracking, we're going to cover,
like I said, how to obtain asecurity clearance.
I'm going to talk about a lotof different topics.
I got a bit of flat online forposting that like this topic,
people are like well join themilitary.
Yeah, that is one way, but thereare multiple ways to kind of

(23:06):
get a security clearance, and sowe're going to cover that down
and we're going to show youexactly what that looks like, um
, in terms of the things thatyou would need to know, uh, how
do you go about doing it?
And then some aspects that you,you definitely would want to be
, uh, cognizant of going downthe process, and I'm gonna show
you different avenues, not onlyjust just the like I said, the
military aspect, but the otheraspects of how to necessarily

(23:29):
how to go about doing it, and soI'm going to share this and
then, once I get done with this,we can do a quick Q&A and then
we can get into the rest of thestuff that we have in store for
you.
All right?

(23:55):
So the first thing that I wantto talk about why is this
important?
Less than 2% of Americans have asecurity clearance.
It has to relate to you know,being able to show that you have
an understanding and able to,you know, maintain and hold the
nation's secrets with trust andreliability.
Right.

(24:16):
There are a lot of jobs,federal and contractor roles
available within the governmentthat require security clearances
.
There are some good benefits ofhaving some, and then also it
also like dovetails intodifferent industries, and so if
you're interested in cyber,intelligence, aerospace, you
name it there's aspects that youcan kind of touch base with

(24:39):
within having security clearance.
It also helps speak to thevalue that you bring to an
employer, especially if youalready have one or you are able
to bring in skill and get one.
That's just another addedbenefit because that's something
that you have now obtained.
There's value directlyconnected to that opposed from

(25:03):
you know you not having one,from you not having one.
So the simple about thesecurity clearance you have to
be some of the requirements forunderstanding what the security
clearance is is you have to havean employer apply for you.
I know a lot of people.
Overall, this is how anyonegets a clearance.

(25:25):
An employer is actually the onewho sponsors you for the role.
The government may have a roleor a design job opportunity that
is required to have a clearanceinvolved, and so what they
essentially do is they are theones that are doing the
background check, grabbing yourinformation and then sending
that off to the agency forcoordination and then, if you

(25:49):
are able to get your paperworkthrough and everything is good
to go and no issues, then youcan get your clearance.
The government runs theclearance aspect, and so most
people like for me, I got myclearance through the military.
Some people get their clearancefrom just a role that they pick

(26:10):
up.
There are different types ofroles and different
availabilities in terms ofgetting a security clearance, so
it really just depends on whatit is.
But for those who are notreally clear on what a security
clearance is, it's a way to beable to operate or work with
different types of information,and then your employer is
directly.

(26:30):
That role is directly relatedto it.
You can't have a role that doesnot require you to have a
security clearance.
So, like to give you an example, you can't have a role that you
may work at a company that hasroles that have a security
clearance, but if your role doesnot align with having one, you
won't get one.
It's more about the need to knowthan anything else.
All right, and so there arethree types of security

(26:55):
clearance levels top secret,secret and confidential.
There are different levels oftop secret, and then there's
more types of compartmentalizedclearances involved, but we
won't touch base on those toomuch other than TSSEI.
But overall.
Just to kind of give you anidea confidential, minimal risk

(27:20):
to national security, nothingtoo crazy in terms of the
information that you have accessto.
Secret can cause serious harmif the information is disposed
and top secret, grave damage tonational security if it's shared
Public trust and the reason Iadded this here is because some

(27:42):
people do get confused withpublic trust it's not
necessarily a security clearanceper se.
You do have to have abackground check, but it does
fall into other sensitive accessto information that's sensitive
in terms of, like, hr, finance,healthcare, things like that,
and so someone that works at IRSthey may have a public trust,

(28:05):
right?
So, understanding what thedifference is, understanding
what the requirements are andall of these do require a
background check and have abetter understanding of that is
going to help you align yourselfwith your goals as well.
Now, how to get one you need tobe a US citizen.

(28:25):
To get one, you need to be a uscitizen.
Um, you have to have no legaldrug use.
Uh, so not necessarily, likeyou have to have stopped, and so
it.
Just so I can kind of put thisout there if you smoke weed
before and you've stopped andit's been years ago it's.
You can still get a clearance.

(28:46):
I know many of people who stillhave a clearance that they've.
You know.
Uh, I forgot what they call itis um, not a tier one.
What, what?
What is the breakdown for thedrugs?
but everyone's schedule one orschedule a or something like
that yeah, so that's, that's oneof the big things that people
get caught up with.
You know, just essentially, ifthey have done things in the

(29:08):
past and they continue to dothose things, then obviously yes
, but if you have stopped thosethings and stopped those illicit
activities or things like that,then I've seen people, like I
said, get clearances with that.
If you have any felonies, ifyou have any major financial
problems, if you have anyfelonies, if you have any major
financial problems.
Now the whole thing about thisis being able to be blackmailed

(29:30):
or exploited or you know, youcan't have anything on you.
That's going to put you in a, acompromising situation when you
have, when you're workingaround, sensitive information.
So that's the reason why, interms of, like, the clearance
aspect, it's important to kindof understand that Then you have

(29:52):
to fill out an FF86.
This is 20 plus pages ofinformation about your whole
life story to to include anyforeign contacts.
You may have any foreign bankaccounts.
You may have all yourfinancials, all your debt, even
your family member, yourimmediate family member's
information as well, and so it'simportant to kind of understand

(30:15):
what that is and you do notwant to leave anything out
because there's a person thatthey will hire to verify it.
And so for me, when I joined,they sent an investigator to New
York, to my school, to my oldplaces of employment, and
they've asked characterquestions to them.
They've asked them, like I havemy friends like who's this dude

(30:39):
in a black suit asking mequestions about you?
It was kind of funny, butthat's the type of thing that
happens when you're getting inyour investigation.
They're going to ask, uh,people who are close to you, uh
about yourself and about yoursituations, and they're going to
verify the information that youput on your sf86.
Um, like I said, your employeeneeds to sponsor you, so that is

(31:02):
the main way people getclearance.
It's the only way that peopleget clearance.
Your your employer sponsoredyou and I'm going to show you
different ways to have employerssponsor you.
And the good news is, as longas you're honest, you have to
just be upfront about things.
Do not hide things.
I've seen people that I'veworked with get escorted out of

(31:23):
the buildings that I've workedin, never to come back in those
buildings because they found outthat there was something that
they were not upfront about.
And then, when they went to dotheir investigation or their
poly or whatever it is.
They realized that it's notmatching up and they were gone.
So just be sure to just behonest, some aspects that you

(31:47):
also need to understand.
So, within the community or theIC or whatever it is,
certifications can benefit you.
There's a lot of aspects tothat, but understanding if
you're trying to get into IT, ifyou're trying to get into tech,
there are some basic thingsthat you need to have to be
eligible.
So like Security Plus mayrequire you to have Net Plus,
and some may require you to haveto order to be eligible.

(32:08):
So, like security plus, it mayrequire you to have net plus and
some may require you to have Aplus, but it's all part of the
DOD 8140 and 8570 compliancestandards.
So you can't even apply like anemployee, will not even look at
you for sponsorship, if youdon't have those types of
certifications already aligned,because that's needed for the

(32:30):
role.
So before you do anything onthe network, before you push the
power button, before you log inor anything else, you need to
have these types ofcertifications if you're dealing
with anything in tech, andthat's why it's really important
to understand that before yougo down the route of trying to
get a security clearance fromthe government sector within IT

(32:51):
or cybersecurity.
So make sure you do that andmake sure you know what that
looks like.
All right, what can disqualifyyou from getting your clearance?
If you lie on something andthey find out for sure, a
thousand percent, that's thefastest way.
Like I said, I saw somebody getescorted out the building.
A couple of people get escortedout the building because they

(33:12):
lied on something Too muchunpaid debt or your finances are
questionable.
If you're not saying that youcan't have debt just being very
clear on that.
But if it looks like it's notmanageable, right, if it looks
like there's some issues there,if they figure they can't trust

(33:35):
you with your finance.
If you can't be trusted withyour finances, how would you be
trusted with the secrets of thenation?
Does that make sense foreverybody?
Kind of straightforward there.
Recent illegal drug use.
So if you are like yeah, Istopped smoking weed yesterday,
that is not a good thing.
So you need to make sure that,if this is the direction that

(33:57):
you want to go, that you stopwhatever illegal drug use and
make sure that there's a gap ora separation before you start to
apply.
Make sure that there's a gap ora separation before we start to
apply, if you don't report anyof your foreign relationships or
your bank accounts and theyfind out.
That's another aspect, and somake sure that you're just
upfront with that and, like Isaid, just disclose everything.

(34:20):
I know this picture has nothingto do with the actual, but I
just put it up there because Ilike the pug.
So, yeah, everyone's looking atthe the bug there, all, right?
Uh, the process is to get hiredby a company, the sponsored
clearances, right, like I said,fill out the ff86 and this is
everything I'm talking aboutyour job, your travel, your

(34:40):
family address, anything thatthey need to know, all that
information, all your pasthistory, all your past addresses
, everything.
Um, what helped me is, uh, ifyou use, have you been using
amazon for a long time?
Amazon has all your addressesin there.
So make sure you use all theaddresses and list them out
there.
I've used that several times tobe able to track everything.
I'm every place I've been, um,your background check, interview

(35:03):
, credit check, uh, maybe apolygraph, depending on what it
is, and then, like I said,clearance officer review and
they'll adjudicate it, and if itgets adjudicated, then you get
an interim clearance and thenyou'll get your final clearance
once that process or that timeframe is done.
After it, if you are notapproved, there is a way that

(35:28):
you can appeal, but typically itreally would just depend on
what the organization is, whatroles you're applying for and
that opportunity.
I've seen people who weredenied clearances from one
organization and they had towait a year before reapplying
again.
So that's just something tokeep in mind.
If you're denied, you can lookup cases on DOA, which is the

(35:54):
Defense Office of Hearing andAppeals, and this pretty much
has people's appeal relisted onwhat is it that they applied for
and then what they got deniedfor, and it breaks it down.
Actually, rather than talkingabout it, I'll actually bring
this up so you guys can see itthat way.

(36:14):
I know a lot of people havequestions about exactly what.
No, we need to do that.
Let me see.
Okay, here we go.
So can everyone see the slides?
May everyone see the page?
Yeah, so on here, these aredifferent cases for each year.
So if we click on here with2024, slow it down, all right,

(36:43):
these have different cases inhere that you can click on, and

(37:14):
so if you click on a case, it'llexplain and say who it is and
explain exactly whether theperson was, why the person was
denied, and then essentiallywhat they either did or what
they had to say or the thingsthat they've utilized to kind of
get the appeal approved.
And so fact-finding a minute,extensive comments, all
allegations related to financialconsiderations.
Regarding specific allegations,accounts, while denying the
allegations and denying the solespecific, and that was very
technical, I guess I'm trying tofind out.
All right, there it is.
I was trying to find out wherethe information is so right here

(37:35):
.
So financial considerations andpersonal conduct.
So that's mainly the mainreason why this person had
issues financial considerationsand personal conduct.
And if you scroll down it tellsyou like related to what policy
it is and it actually has likethe information on, like the
personal debt statement andthing like that.
So it's really detailed andit's public, just so you know

(37:57):
that.
So if you do appeal, yourinformation will be available to
anybody that wants to go lookat it to see what it is and
they'll tell you, determiningwhether or not this person was
approved or they kept thestanding.
So understanding that this isavailable.
But you can use this to kind ofsee what other or what
situations people have been in,so you can kind of understand

(38:20):
how best to appeal it.
You may be able to get a goodunderstanding of that as well
from this.
All right of that as well fromthis.
All right.
Yeah.
So fix issues, pay down debt orshow that you have a plan to
pay down debt, complete rehab,gather references, character

(38:42):
witnesses, anything that you cando to kind of be like, hey,
this is the path that I'm goingdown.
Now Write a clear appeal andback it up with facts, these
dates, these time frames.
These are the things I've done.
Many people will win appeals byshowing growth and transparency
.
That's very true and thenunderstanding that if you get

(39:02):
denied a clearance today doesn'tmean that you will never, ever
get a security clearance.
It just means you're deniedtoday.
Today doesn't mean that youwill never, ever get a security
clearance.
It just means you're deniedtoday.
And so, like I said, I've had afew friends of mine who applied
for a role and were denied.
They waited a year and theywere able to reapply and they
got a security clearance.
All right, where do youactually find these jobs?

(39:27):
So everyone's talking about youknow what opportunities are out
there, and I will show you whatthis looks like, and so, really
simply right, there are certainkey terms and words that you
look here, that I have it in theslides.
These are the words that helpyou identify what roles are out

(39:49):
there that actually getsponsored.
So you're looking forsponsorship.
Remember I said the employer isthe one who's going to bring
you on and there are certainspecific skill sets that they're
looking to be able to fill.
So they'll say, whatever therole is, ability to obtain a
clearance, meaning you're goingto go through the clearance
process, you're going to gothrough the ff86 process.

(40:10):
Once you get your clearance Imean once you submit all the
documentation if everything isgood to go, then you will be
granted your clearance.
Will in a sponsored clearance,clearance, sponsorship or a
secret eligible, like you'relooking for those keywords and
so if I just come in here and Ijust type in keywords, and so if
I just come in here and I justtype in clearance, sponsorship,

(40:32):
jobs, I'm not doing anythingspecial.
But I want you guys to see thisthis job is sponsoring a TS
clearance.
This is also sponsoring TSclearance.
This one is not saying whatit's sponsoring.
This is a TS clearance as well.

(40:52):
Clearance sponsorship forsoftware engineer, broadcast
mechanic, technician, armedsecurity officer that's the
first time I would say wesponsor Okay, so that's
different, but it's thereClearance sponsorship,
enterprise, test engineer.
So all of these roles here, ifyou can go through them, they

(41:17):
have sponsorships, right, and soyou can use Boolean searches.
And if you're not familiar withBoolean searches, it's just a
defined way to find a jobopportunity through Google, just
really specific.
So like, if I'm looking forclearance jobs, like, let me see
if, if I was looking for Well,this is kind of like a bullying
search, but like jobs inMaryland, I can search.

(41:39):
That way I can change it up towhere I say let's see what other
words.
I say, let's see what otherones clearance let me grab the
other one.
So the secret eligible, I wantto make sure it says eligible.

(42:15):
So this is me putting eligibleand parentheses.
This is me putting eligible andparentheses and then coming up
in here and seeing this one'srequired, required sponsored
security clearance.
So you just have to searchthrough these roles, but

(42:37):
understand that not only throughGoogle you can do this, you can
also do it through, I mean,clearance jobs has a bunch of
them, indeed has a bunch of them, and so if I came down here I
don't know what happened to mycamera, but I'm still here, guys
but you can see these companiesand these organizations all
provide big defense contractors,have opportunities, and so for

(42:58):
them, like I said, they'relooking for a skill set or a
problem that they're solving fora client.
It may be the government, itmay be, um, you know, and and a
need that, like I know for forsure, like software engineers,
like a big thing.
They need a lot of softwareengineers.
So they need people withclearances to be able, they need
people with software engineerbackground to be able to get

(43:19):
clearances, and they takeanybody with no experience to,
however many years of experience, but there are a lot of
different job opportunitiesrelated to it, and so you just
have to be able to do it.
So, making sure that you searchfor, like the ability to obtain
clearance, any one of thesesearches that you put in there
and you put the type of job inthere.
Now I can tell you, if you'researching for like we'll sponsor

(43:47):
project management, like we'llsponsor clearance for project
management, that is not going tobe a thing, because anyone
could be a project manager andit's a very wide field, like
they're really specific on skillsets or opportunities, that off
ramp into that.
If that makes sense, all right,all right.

(44:10):
How to get a clearance and abest way to kind of fast track
that Some people.
So here's the thing If youdon't have a clearance and
you're trying to get one, thereare certain aspects that you can
take advantage of.
There are overseas jobs that youknow they may pay.
The pay may be okay, may not belike fantastic, but if you take
it it will be able to help youget that clearance right.

(44:32):
And getting a clearance is justthe starting point, right, and
so just understanding that.
So if you're going from secretor you're going to TS and trying
to get your clearance andthere's a role and they're only
paying maybe $60,000 a year.
That might be the sacrifice youhave to take in order to get
that job, in order to get theclearance.
Once you have the clearance,you have it so you can work

(44:52):
there, get that experience andthen transfer to another role.
But you may have to go overseasfor a role or you may have to
come into the DMV area for arole.
A lot of jobs within Maryland,dc and Virginia do require folks
to have clearances Not sayingthis is the only locations, but
there are a large amount of jobsthat require security

(45:15):
clearances in this area and,like I said, accepting lower
salary.
It's no different from trying toget into the tech community.
If you don't have techbackground.
Right, if you want to be intocybersecurity, if you want to
get into IT, you might have totake a help desk job in order to
start, or you might have totake a lower paying job just to
get your foot in the door.

(45:35):
And once you get your foot inthe door, then you can build up
from there.
Understand you're playing thelong game, you're not playing
the short game.
So once you have it, then youcan expand out to different
opportunities.
They say, if you have asecurity clearance or secret
clearance, the average pay isroughly around $75,000 and up.
If you have a TS, it's usually$90,000 or $100, plus right.

(46:02):
Starting with those types ofsecurity clearances and so
understanding that those bringvalue, those are opportunities
for you to be able to takeadvantage of All right.
Now what are some other waysthat you can do it?
So some other ways that mostpeople don't really talk about
is through programs likeCyberCorp or Scholarship for
Service.
So these programs arespecifically geared towards

(46:24):
providing educational benefit toindividuals that want to get
into the technical realm.
So if you want to, you know,get a STEM degree, or you want
to work in STEM careers, or youwant to get, you know, a degree
in cybersecurity or whatever itis, these programs will fully
pay for your graduate and yourundergraduate degrees, at no
cost.

(46:44):
Now, they'll give you your fulltuition, they'll give you a
stipend and they will guaranteeyou placement.
You still have to find thecompany that you're going to
work for, but they willguarantee you placement within
the federal, local,municipalities or state level.
And so you have to understandwhat it is that you're trying to

(47:05):
do, the goals that you'retrying to go about, and then how
does that align.
Each of these programs aredegree programs or
degree-bearing programs, and soyou take advantage of these
programs and while you're goingthrough school, during the
summer months, you're actuallyworking at different
organizations to get theexperience and to be able to
touch base on that.

(47:26):
I know quite a few who've gonethrough these programs,
specifically the CyberCorpprogram, and they were able to
get security clearances justbased off of that, just going
through the program aligning it,just going through the program
aligning it, and sounderstanding that these
programs already have arelationship with these agencies
and they're trying to pull inmore talent.

(47:46):
So they want more talent inthere.
Even though you know there's a,you know what's going on with
the federal, with with thefederal industry, there are
still roles that are availablethat need to be filled right and
, to be quite honest, a lot ofthe folks that are leaving some

(48:08):
of these senior folks or folkswith experience of leaving are
putting a major gap into, youknow, just the normal operations
.
So they need new talent tofulfill those roles, or they
need new talent in fulfill thoseroles, or they need new talent
in the doors, and so this isgoing to probably cause like a
massive um, you know, a massiveinitiative where they need newer

(48:31):
talent in the doors to be ableto be able to do things, to
innovate old processes, createnew um solutions and develop new
opportunities.
And so these programs likethese the Scholarship for
Services and the SMARTscholarships are great programs
to be able to take advantage ofand, like I said, you're not
paying any money for this.

(48:51):
It doesn't cost you any money.
You're getting paid to actuallygo to school, but then you're
also having a job opportunity onthe back end.
All right, another way.
So let's say, you don't want todo the degree aspect.
You know you're not, you don'twant to go to school.
I don't feel like doing that.
Apprenticeships is anotheropportunity, and so these two
programs are apprenticeships.

(49:12):
One is the Department ofHomeland Security.
They have a cybersecurityapprenticeship and, for those
who are not tracking whatapprenticeships are, it's
usually a six to 12 monthprogram.
They provide you the training onwhat you need to know and then
you do get paid.
You get paid while you gothrough the program and then,
once you complete the program,you graduate the program, you

(49:33):
come on as a full-time employee.
And so the Department ofHomeland Security has an
apprenticeship and an AT&TCatapult Apprenticeship is
another one and that isconnection to Howard County
Community College and thenanyone that's in the Nova area
so the Northern Virginia area isa paid part-time role in IT.
They teach you networks, theyhave like five or six different

(49:55):
roles and then you complete theprogram and they will support
you with getting your TSSCI fromnot having Now, I don't know
about you guys, but like knowingabout these opportunities is
one thing and in understandinghow this can make an impact on
yourself and like the aspect ofbeing able to expand your career

(50:19):
by taking advantage of theseprograms, because they are
underutilized but they doprovide you with a pathway to
get into security clearance orget your clearance.
Now aside from that, let's sayyou have kids right and you want
them to be ahead of the game.
There are a bunch of differentprograms that are related to
children that are either in highschool or about to graduate

(50:41):
high school, and here are just afew of them right.
So you have FBI Teen Academy,you have the CIA STEM Camp, you
have the NSA High SchoolWork-Study Program, you have the
StarTalk and GenCyber.
For the first three, well,specifically the I want to say
the NSA high school work-studyprogram, this is towards your

(51:07):
junior to senior year of highschool and, like I said, they
pay them and they get them aclearance.
Now imagine your kids having aclearance before turning 18.
Imagine your kids having aclearance before turning 18.
That is a blessing because thatis something of value that will

(51:27):
help open their doors to a lotof different opportunities.
Startalk is a program thatspecifically just focuses on
languages, and so they touchbase on five different languages
, four different languages, butArabic, russian and Chinese are
the main top tier languages andthey teach you that.
And this is all for free,there's no cost to this, there's

(51:48):
no cost associated with it.
And then you have the GenCyberprogram, which is a summer camp
Everyone has.
I would say every state hasdifferent programs that may be
related to GenCyber.
If you go to GenCyber and lookit up, they'll talk about it and
they're available throughoutthe summer.
So they have everything fromelementary to junior high school

(52:09):
to high school that you can getyour child in there.
They don't necessarily get aclearance or anything like that,
but they get exposed to, youknow, opportunities that will
help provide, maybe, a pathwayto get a clearance.
If that makes sense toeverybody, all right.
Here's some other opportunities,and so you have NGA, like I
said, department of HomelandSecurity, you have ODNI and then

(52:32):
you have the State DepartmentPathways these programs
depending on if they're highschool students or if they're
graduate students or undergradstudents or you're're an
undergrad student or you're agraduate student.
There's internships involvedwith some of these programs that
you can take advantage of and,like I said, they align you with
getting your security clearanceand also doing uh work on the

(52:54):
job.
So you get experience ahead oftime, um, from not having any
experience to learning thingsabout.
You know the industry, whetherit's the intelligence community
or you know whatever aspect ofSTEM that you're interested in,
and it's not only just STEM.
It's also other aspects.
I know they have finance inthere, they have logistics in
there.
They have a lot of differentthings that you would have to

(53:15):
just touch base and see whichones you're interested in.
But all of these differentorganizations, three-letter
agencies, agencies if you go totheir site and look up
internships or you look up highschool programs or graduate
programs, they have programsspecifically there for that.
Now, state department pathwaysis, uh, the paid internship for
high school graduates, uh, highschool to graduate level.

(53:35):
And they also have a programthat actually, uh, it's like a
language program that helps youlearn a language or improve upon
your language in order to beable to open up doors to get
into the State Department, whichis great.
And then also they have a bunchof other, you know, scholarship
opportunities.
All right, lastly, let me seewhere that Mouse furrows.

(54:10):
There we go.
Lastly, if you are interested intrying to take advantage of any
of these resources right, likethe biggest thing is, you need
to do your research.
Granted, I probably ran down alot of that information really
quick and fast so that you canbe able to understand what's out
there, but you still need tounderstand your situation what's

(54:33):
needed, what opportunities areout there.
When it comes to trying to geta security clearance, the focus
would be the type of role thatyou will be fulfilling right,
and so you're looking into thattype of background and what's
needed for you to do that.
So you need to do your homeworkon that.
If you need to touch base withanybody, you can use Mill Mentor
to be able to touch base, totalk to other people who are

(54:55):
currently in the industry, askthem how they went about it.
What opportunities are there?
Understand that it may requireyou to take a pay cut if you're
trying to get a clearance andyou currently have a role that
pays well, but you really wantto just be able to switch it up
and look for differentopportunities.
It may require you just to behumble, humble yourself a little
bit, and so you have tounderstand that if you want this

(55:18):
aspect of it, depending on whatit is that you want to do,
there may be just differentopportunities and different ways
to get it.
Another way is and like I said,obviously everyone knows like
applying to different roles orseeing different roles that are
available online is one aspect.
Joining the military is another.
You can join the reserve if youwant to Look up for specific

(55:40):
MOSs that deal with classifiedinformation, so that way you can
be able to do that and obtainyour clearance through that
means.
So there are differentopportunities to be able to do
it.
It's not as hard as people makeit out to be, but it's more so
the knowledge aspect knowingwhat is out there, knowing how
to apply for it, knowing whatopportunities are really going

(56:00):
to help make a difference andimpact, and then going along
with that route.
If I would have known about theCyber Corps program, it
probably didn't exist when Ijoined the military.
But if I would have known aboutthe Cyber Corps program and it
did exist, I would definitelyapply to that because I didn't
know there was something thatcould have fully funded my
degree and give me hands-onexperience and require me to

(56:22):
work for the government so I canget a better understanding of
what opportunities are out there.
So, like, those types of thingsare important.
These jobs are not goinganywhere.
They're going to be there.
Regardless of what's going on inthe current market, we still
need to be prepared for whatevergoes on around the world Our
adversaries, everything that'sgoing on.
So there's a need, there is aneed of talent.

(56:45):
There's always going to be aneed of talent.
There's always going to be aneed to be able to support those
mission sets that we have.
Understanding how to connectyourself to whatever roles that
you're trying to get a hold ofit will help you identify what
that looks like.
Any questions on theinformation that I covered?
Was this helpful?

(57:05):
Was it a lot of stuff that youalready know?
Very helpful.
Someone has to go to.
Salesforce.

Speaker 10 (57:15):
Very helpful.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
What Zoom are you on?
All right yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
If I could just add a couple of things here.
Jay, for everybody else who arestill looking for security
clearance or anything like thatafter the service, again also
get educated on what he wastalking about.
Service again, also geteducated on what he was talking
about.
Just because you had a securityclearance in the service and
now you're civilian, it doesn'tmean that you might be

(57:50):
guaranteed one.
Okay, like he said, it dependson the job, the company willing
to sponsor you and everythinglike that.
Right, and on top of that one.
One other thing here is abouthumility.
I've seen that three or fourtimes happening.
Last last one was when I was afull hood.
We had a retired sergeant,major e9 got out, for example.

(58:13):
And this is, you know, this isjust examples.
Okay, empirical evidencedoesn't mean it's ruled, but
again you see certain peoplecoming with that type of chip on
the shoulder, retired e9showing up, retired from korea,
came over to us, like you know,he was a uh, you know signal
background and you know it andsignal and whatnot.

(58:33):
Got accepted as a ds12 at thenetwork enterprise center, the
neck for the base.
He found that his boss wasgoing to be you know, and he
went through the whole clearancebecause he took about three or
four years of break in serviceand then he got cleared again
and everything like that.
He found that his boss wasretired e8.

(58:53):
He quit within five minutes.
He's like I'll be damned if I'mgonna work for somebody who was
lower grade than me when I was,who cares?
You're a civilian right now.
Okay.
So humility, both in learningand also in the jobs and things
like that.
So you have all this type ofpeople and again, like you said
and we had somebody last year webrought two ladies that work at

(59:14):
disca.
You know that were it went.
They went through all of thisstuff here and they talked about
you.
You know you could have allkinds of things happening in
your background.
As long as you're truthfulabout this, you know they will
understand or evaluate it incontext.
Personally, I had a staffsergeant working for us when I
was in Germany.

(59:34):
The dude was crazy before hejoined the military.
He got E6 in about six yearsand wanted to apply for dia.
He had to fill out 56 pages Iwill never forget it 56 pages of
supporting documentation toaccount for all the craziness he
did before he joined themilitary.
And guess what?

(59:55):
Yeah, he's in the military, ofcourse, you know it might be
different, whatever, but stillhe showed up and he's at the dia
.
Same thing for another person,you know.
So, again, there's alwaysempiric, empirical evidence out
there.
But at the end of the day it'sup to that adjudicator from opm
who will conduct yourinvestigation, interview all

(01:00:18):
your known associates, familymembers and all of that stuff,
provide his report and it's upto those adjudicators to figure
out what to do with yoursituation.
Okay, so be truthful, explainit properly.
Like you said, you know, if youhad debt, show how you can get
out of or anything.
It's all about showcasing tothem how you cannot be coerced

(01:00:43):
by foreign adversaries or anyoneelse into divulging sensitive
or classified information um,how many people would actually
want the a few people wants?

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
how many people want the slides?
So some people want the slides.
There's some people on theslides.
Much wrong with mine.
I was going to provide theslides with them.
Looks like my alright areas,all right, so don't, don't top

(01:01:18):
anything.
I'm going to drop the slides inhere for everybody so you can
actually grab them.
So just hold on one second.

Speaker 8 (01:01:30):
Jay, while you're dropping that, even if you don't
have a clearance, you can applyfor a lot of these jobs and
they'll take you.
You can apply for a lot ofthese jobs and they'll take you.
I actually was hiring peoplewithout a clearance and putting
them on the bench for six weeksand training them on their job
before they actually had the job.

(01:01:51):
They got the clearance and Ihate to say it, but that was the
position I was at.
I had a clearance years ago 20plus years ago and I had to go
through the whole thing all overagain.
Now my clearance is just apublic trust right now and it
doesn't guarantee that you havea job.

(01:02:12):
I'm unemployed right now,looking all right, so don't
stress out that you don't, or do, have a clearance.
Don't let that worry you thatmuch.
This is more the process ofwhat you need to go through and
apply for the jobs.
Sometimes they'll work with youto get that job, but if it says
on the job application requiredtop secret clearance or

(01:02:35):
required secret clearance, don'twaste your time, Don't waste
their time.
Okay, Leidos has a lot of jobsout there, a lot of clearance
jobs and it says required and Idon't apply to them, but there's
also a lot of jobs out in thecivilian market that don't
require clearances, so don't befocused that you need a

(01:02:56):
clearance.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
What Tom said is absolutely true.
Sometimes, you know, it canchange in the other way around.
Okay, like for example myself acouple years ago, I was looking
, I was in the final running,like monday I was supposed to
start the job with dhs remote.
Okay, that says, will sponsorclearance.
They call me on friday.
They say, hey, do you haveactual clearance?

(01:03:21):
Right now I'm like no, itexpired.
And they say I'm sorry, theyjust changed the contract
requirements on us and they wantyou coming in hot with the
clearance.
So again, you might thingschange per contracts, per
requirements, per the employer,so you just have to keep on
looking and working.
But then if you get it, youknow it's easy to, I guess you

(01:03:42):
know, move it from company tocompany.
As long as that uh, I forgotwhat they call them uh, sso or
something yeah, you know, yeah,they will uh bring it in under
their umbrella.

Speaker 8 (01:03:52):
So also let me add this it, you know it says you
have to be a us citizen.
You have to be a US citizen.
You have to be a US citizen notnecessarily born in the States,
but naturalized too.
So my last job, I had somebodyworking for me from Pakistan,
afghanistan, india.
They were all naturalized.

(01:04:14):
So if you have a spouse that'snot a US citizen, they get
naturalized.
They can pick up a clearance Scitizen.
You know they get naturalized.
They can pick up a clearancetoo.
So it won't be a high SCIclearance, but you know a
clearance is a clearance.
It does help.
So just giving that extrafeedback.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Absolutely, Thank you .
Thank you for that, Tom.
All right, so we are at thehour, so we're going to share
you the Coursera information.
So we'll Anibal will drop thatinto the chat for your Coursera
and then for Splunk, he'll dropthat as well.
And that's how to get access toSplunk.

(01:04:52):
One thing to keep in mind withCoursera and Splunk, or Coursera
, is a great opportunity to beable to take advantage of you
know, further your learning,further your development.
The program is only good for ayear, so if you are not ready to
take class within a shortamount of time from signing up,
don't sign up.
I've seen way too many peoplesign up for these accounts and

(01:05:16):
then wait six to seven months tostart doing something and then
it expires, and so there'snothing that we can do.
Once your account is up for the12 months, we can't do anything
else, but just utilize it forwhat it is.
You can use it to help youunderstand.
There's a lot of jobopportunities.
So if you're looking to getinto software development, if
you're looking at a softwareengineer or you're looking to

(01:05:37):
get into cloud computing, usethat for what it's, what it was
worth, because it does have somegood resources on there and
some certificates that arerelated to it.
I'll bring those up so I canshow you, but then we'll go into
um looking at what the other uh, the other resources are.
But let me bring this up realfast so you can see it.

(01:06:00):
So a lot of people sleep onCoursera but, like I said, I

(01:06:23):
highly recommend people utilizeit because there's over 12,000
courses and there's almost everysingle topic known to man
that's on it right to include.
And this doesn't have all thetopics on it, but this does have
the specific topics related tothe certificates that they have.
And so if you are a ux designeror want to be a ux designer,
they google has a certificatefor that.
They have a digital marketingcertificate.
They have it automation.
They.
They have AI essentials.
They have digital marketing,e-commerce.

(01:06:43):
Is that the same one?
It's the same one.
I got to remember that.
They have the data analytics.
They have cybersecuritycertificate.
They have a project managementcertificate and you complete
this one.
This actually prompts for the 35PDUs that you need to be able
to test for your PMP.
Just know that what PMI teachesfor PMP and what Google teaches

(01:07:08):
for project management iscompletely different.
The only thing that this does.
It helps you, afford you theopportunity to be able to test,
because after you've gonethrough this, you've learned
enough about project management,but you still would have to go
through the PMBOK and everythingthat's associated with the P&P
IT support.
If you are trying to break intotech, you know using these

(01:07:30):
opportunities to kind of padyour resume for that.
If you take advantage of anapprenticeship program, you know
align yourself with that.
If you knock out some freecerts, we're going to show you
how to do that as well.
So all of these differentthings will help you For
certifications, for the Splunkwe dropped that in the chat but

(01:07:51):
you need to complete the 22courses.
Once you get through the 22courses, you'll have the ability
to take any one of thesecertificates certifications,
sorry certifications and so weoffer I still have a bunch of
vouchers left to take any one ofthese certificates
certifications, sorrycertifications and so we offer I
still have a bunch of vouchersleft, so they are first come,
first serve.
So if you complete the coursesand you hit me up and say, Jay,

(01:08:11):
I've completed the courses I'minterested in taking, you know,
a certification, I will send youthe voucher and you can get to
go from there.
That is the only program thatwe will directly send you in a
voucher without you having to gothrough anything, Just as long
as you show me that you completethe 22 courses.
Mad-20, we gave away all thosewe already talked about, so all
right, Coming up, we'll have aservices success cohort.

(01:08:35):
This cohort just helps youprepare for employment
opportunities.
This will be an August timeframe, so just be, I just want
to put it out there just to becognizant of it.
But we provide certifications,we provide a mastermind, you
connect with a cohort and we getyou through a lot of different
opportunities and we go throughdifferent resources, with you

(01:08:56):
Missing one thing, All right.
And then today, obviously, I'llshow you this, but this is just
a quick snapshot of what it isthat you guys are going to be
accessed to, and so I'm going toshow you how to get access to
this specifically, because it'sthe steps that you would have to
take to do so.
But this will give you accessto a bunch of resources hundreds
I mean, sorry, thousands ofresources.
Linkedin integrator you canbuild out your LinkedIn profile.

(01:09:18):
You can.
Linkedin integrator you canbuild out your LinkedIn profile.
You can create your resumes.
You can build out a coverletter.
You can tailor your jobs ortailor resumes to your job.
You can find job opportunities.
You can, you know, manage theroles that you're applying for
and when you're applying forthem, and this does this all in
one platform, and so this is ourcareer compass.
It's free to you.

(01:09:39):
Everything that you'll see onit is free.
If you want multiple resumes anda lot of other bells and
whistles that I did not talkabout, that is a separate fee,
and that is not from us.
That is from the organizationof the company that we're using
their platform to do so.
Just know that if you aregetting this account, use it,
because it's going to bebeneficial and it's going to

(01:10:00):
help you, and so I'm going toshow you what this account looks
like, and then I'll give youthe access to it.
So, mind you, you see melogging into CareerFlow.
This is all the steps.
Everyone's going to have to dothis as well, but don't do it
now, Especially if you don'thave a CareerFlow account.
Don't do this now.
But CareerFlow is anorganization that allowed us to
build on their back end, and sothat's how we were able to

(01:10:23):
create everything that we haveusing CareerFlow.
So you log in through ClearFlowand then your logins
automatically go and go throughand then on.
Here is where you're going tohave access to all the stuff I
just mentioned.
So you'll see the job trackerhere so you could track jobs.
You'll see the resume builderis in here so you can build out

(01:10:46):
your resume.
You'll see job overview, so ifyou go to jobs, you'll see how
many jobs are actually in thejob database, where these jobs
located at and applying to thosejobs, and they can
automatically go back to yourjob tracker.
So we got 8 million jobs inhere.
Now the good thing about thisis if you tap on any one of

(01:11:08):
these jobs and you add it toyour job tracker and then you
can put it into your resumebuilder and you can write a
tailor-made resume with theassistance of AI to help you
create a resume.
And as far as applying for them, you can apply directly to the
site, and so if you click onthis link, it'll take you
directly to the site.

(01:11:28):
So there's no internalapplication, because we want you
to actually go through theprocess of applying through
whatever platform or whateversite that the company is hiring
you from so that you can gothrough their system, but that's
the aspect.
From there, you have yourresources in this section.
A lot of people ask mequestions.
They don't know how to find theresources.

(01:11:49):
It's in the organizationsection.
Click on this switch grid andit'll break it down like this
and if you scroll to the rightat the top of the bar, all of
these resources is what you'regonna have access to right.
So if you're looking fornursing programs, you can click
on that.
These are nursing programs.
That's available.

(01:12:10):
If you're looking for militaryspouse opportunities, you click
on that.
These are military spouseopportunities.
If you are trying to getcertifications IT and
cybersecurity training these areall cyber and IT training.
If you want financialcertifications, if you want

(01:12:39):
entrepreneurship these, I'msorry for cyber and IT
certifications you click onthese, and all of these are
different opportunities to getfree, free, free, cyber and IT
certifications at no cost.
Coding, community collegemakeover the list goes on.
So you can just scroll throughthis list.
Make sure you do the left andright to scroll, because I know
a lot of people are not findingthis, but it's here and it has
all the information that you mayneed and these are resources
that we feel are of value foryour LinkedIn once you connect

(01:13:01):
it to your LinkedIn I'm sorryfor your LinkedIn.
When you connect it to yourLinkedIn, you can directly
connect your contacts and soyou're able to say what the
relationship is to your contactand then their information in
here and so you can reach out tothem and if it has their email
address, it will pull down theiremail address.
This is Find find recruiter.

(01:13:22):
So this allows you to find therecruiter.
You just put whatever the roleis and then where you want the
role to be.
So if I'm doing HR and I do aquick find, what this is
supposed to do is it's supposedto tell you on LinkedIn, using

(01:13:45):
Boolean search, which we talkedabout earlier, who is currently
hiring related to HRopportunities, and so you can
use this to kind of help youbuild out.
You know who to reach out to,who you're touching base with
and how to expand your network,who to reach out to, who you're
touching base with and how toexpand your network.
Lastly, you'll have a differenthost of other resources in here.

(01:14:08):
You'll have your AI toolbox, soit has your email writer, your
elevator pitch, your LinkedInheadline, your LinkedIn about
section all that stuff to kindof help you refine your LinkedIn
, because it's important to doso and let me see.
And then in your applicationsmaterial, it also has your
LinkedIn in here and they'lltell you, based off of what you

(01:14:31):
currently have when you'reLinkedIn, how good your LinkedIn
is.
So mine is a 71.
I could definitely approve.
These are the areas that istelling me I need to improve on.
So once I do that, I can get ithigher, and so that just goes
to show you use the tools, usethe resources that are helpful
to you.
And the last thing I want toshow you, guys, is Jay.

Speaker 8 (01:14:56):
Yes, you might want to mention that some of these
functions require purchase.
To go farther, like the AItoolbox, is all purchase stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:15:06):
Okay yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:15:08):
That doesn't stop you from going to another AI and
copying that information out ofan AI to build this description
or something like that for youand paste it in.
So just don't think you have topurchase everything in there.

Speaker 1 (01:15:24):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
This is what I want to show you.
This is what it looks like whenpeople are using this to their
advantage, right?
So, in here, this is just atracker, right?
This shows you how many peoplesave jobs, how many people
actually applied 121 peopleapplied last week, six are

(01:15:45):
interviewing and five receivedoffers.
This is a tool for you to useto be able to well, I mean, like
I'm just showing, like this isa tool that other people are
using to help them find jobs andjobs opportunities.
So if people are doing it, youcan do it as well, and so use it
to your benefit.
That way, you can be able tofind that career, jobs,
opportunities.
So, if people are doing it, youcan do it as well, and so use
it to your benefit.
That way, you can be able tofind that career and opportunity

(01:16:06):
.
All right.
Now most important how to getaccess to this really easily.
You go to the Act Now Educationwebsite.
You come in here where it saysCareer Compass Application.
You might want to accept allcookies, if you have some, but
you click on this and it's goingto ask you have you attended

(01:16:28):
our weekly rundown?
Everyone has just done that.
You press yes and then there'sa code that you need, and the
code is 3434338.
Okay, and that code is only goodfor a week, and so make sure
that if you're trying to getthis done, knock it out by

(01:16:49):
Tuesday so I can create youraccount.
If this happens which happens alot when people are trying to
do this sometimes Let me jump onanother.
You just have to have to switchyour browser.
You said 3434338?
.
Yes, sir, you have to switchyour browser, and then that

(01:17:13):
didn't work for me, so I have toswitch my browser again, but
it'll eventually work, andyou'll see a different screen
that has information on fillingout the application.
You just want to get to anapplication.
Once you get to the application, you fill it out, fill out
every single tab on thatapplication, and then, once you

(01:17:33):
complete that, you submit it.
It'll automatically submit tous, we verify it, and then, once
it's verified, you will getyour account.
Now, that doesn't happeninstantaneously.
That does take some time for itto happen, and so I just want
to give everyone a forewarning.
It's not something that happensright away.
We have to go througheveryone's account just to make

(01:17:55):
sure you are who you say you are, because, believe it or not,
some people will apply for thisand they're not affiliated with
the military communitywhatsoever, and so just know
that that's the case.
Let me see something here.
Stop sharing my screen, but ifyou look in the chat, the link

(01:18:18):
is in the chat.
Anibal, provided that.
So for you to have thatinformation and fill out the
code and then you get access tothe database.
Give it some time.
We're kind of like doing like adenial of service Everyone
trying to do it at one time.
We have 300 people trying to doit, so it may take you a couple
of tries, but just be patientand know that it'll eventually

(01:18:39):
work.
And so that is pretty mucheverything that I wanted to
cover.
Did anyone have any questions?
Go over the application, okay.
Yeah, fine, I will do that.
Yeah, all right, so this iswhat the application looks like.

(01:19:02):
Um, there's nothing specialabout it, just filling this that
.
Everything needs to be filledinto.
Just make sure that.
Uh, two king, the two key thingsto note.
Uh then, email is uh kind oflike a, an act and response
email.
So you're going to put yourinformation in here and it's
going to send you a verificationcode.
Check your spam folder and thenjust to verify that you submit

(01:19:26):
the right email.
If you didn't get anything inyour spam folder.
You probably did not put theright email, so make sure you
put the right email in there.
Put your full LinkedIn as yousee it here.
Put your full LinkedIn as yousee it here.
So H-H-T-S sorry, h-t-c-p-scolon slash, slash, www.
Whatever your LinkedIn is, donot put LinkedIn slash feed or

(01:19:50):
don't go to your feed.
Make sure it's your name inhere, because I can't connect
your career compass account tothis if I don't have your
LinkedIn.
That is a key component to it.
Fill out all this information.
Everything in here is meant todetermine whether or not you're
looking for opportunities.
If I come across an opportunitythat you're eligible for, I

(01:20:13):
will reach out to you.
Lastly, we already provide youthe Coursera.
We provide you Splunk, if weprovide you the Spunk.
If you want to attend theService to Success, you click on
that and then we'll let youknow when the next Service to
Success is.
If you want to donate to ourorganization, we'd be more than
happy to have your support.

(01:20:35):
Just know that 100% of ourfunds goes back to the military
community, and so we either usethat for certifications or help
somebody you know navigate arough time in their life in
terms of what they're trying todo.
Everything that we do is careerfocused, and so we're not just
helping people, we're teachingthem how to fish and then
helping them to fish, and thenthey'll be able to do what they

(01:20:57):
need to do.
So just know, that is kind ofthe way that we do things here.
Jennifer, you have a question?

Speaker 9 (01:21:05):
Yeah, hey, jay, welcome.
Welcome back stateside.
Always a pleasure to have youback on this side of the water.
Question about Sensei ChrisMcPhee about about the pmp.

Speaker 1 (01:21:16):
he had mentioned this week that maybe that
application was going to getlaunched on the act now website,
so just add us on that yeah, sowe we are planning on doing the
launch, but I have to postponeit because there's we have a lot
of moving parts right now, soI'm going to end up pushing that
back.
Um, I talked to him thismorning to let him know why.

(01:21:36):
Send him a text message, but,um, we'll put that out and we'll
we'll go hard in the paint oncewe announce.
It'll be a big announcementlike, hey, we're starting a new
pmp irc.
Um, just to be honest, we'rethis is a lot of moving pieces,
and so we just I just need tomake sure that we're good to go
before we launch, because thisis going to be a bigger
component and we have our summitthat's coming up at the end of

(01:21:59):
the month, and so yeah, yeah,absolutely.

Speaker 9 (01:22:01):
That's awesome.
But also, um, you know, whenyou had the uh, the employment
opportunity with I think it wastech systems for like a pmp kind
of transition, did any?
Is there any kind of status,anything more get worked out for
maybe some more senior membersdoing something like that?

Speaker 1 (01:22:17):
yeah, yeah, so right now we are, they're going
through.
The folks that are um wereselected for that, and so for
those who are not tracking withthe PMP, uh, opportunity was is.
I had a unique opportunity totouch base with tech systems.
They had an employer thatwanted to train people on how to

(01:22:37):
become a PM with no background.
It was excuse me, it was aremote role and it was about 25
people that they were looking tofulfill.
While you go through trainingit's paid training you complete
the training and then you get afull time role full-time role.

(01:23:00):
On top of that, actnow will beproviding you with your PMP
certification voucher so thatyou can be able to take
advantage of your PMP as youwork at the company, and so that
was just something that we kindof worked out.
Grateful that it worked out theway it did.
We had a lot of applicantsapply for it, but a lot of folks
had senior experience and wereinterested in trying to take

(01:23:21):
advantage of it as well.
We told them it was mainly forsomeone that does not have any
experience as a project managerand as a remote role, and so the
pay wasn't like astronomical,so we wanted to make sure that
people adjust their expectations.
I did talk to tech systems andwe talked about having a for
more senior roles, and so thisis just kind of like a test, our

(01:23:47):
initial test, to see how thisworked out.
What areas do we can improve infrom like, how do we get, how
we streamline this process tocreate this other pipeline, and
so now we're developing now thatwhen that's over, we will be
able to develop our pipeline forpeople with more senior roles,
more senior opportunities.
So that's one thing.
The other thing that I have isis anyone in here eligible for

(01:24:12):
SkillBridge?
Put a two in the chat If youare.
We got a few people.
Okay, well, this I should, Ishould, uh, uh, caveat that.
So this is for if you're innova or the northern virginia
area.
The same thing I did with techsystems, I'm doing with amazon,

(01:24:34):
and so I just want to clarifythis because I know I got a lot
of flack about talking aboutthis last week.
Amazon, I know, doesn't havethe best rep for warehouses.
I will not ever suggestsomebody do some work that I
would never do.
Like I said, these opportunitiesare just really to help people
get jobs and help you break intotech or find opportunities, and

(01:24:55):
so the roles that specificallythis is for is for data centers,
which is not warehouse work,and so, for those who keep on
talking about warehouse work,we're not doing that here, we
don't do that but the datacenter roles that they have are
focused on teaching you how tomaintain and manage a data
center.
There are normal day-to-dayroles, there are shift roles,

(01:25:18):
but this is all for the NorthernVirginia area, and the way that
this works is you'll gettrained for your skill bridge.
The cohort starts in August25th I think that's right,
august 27th but you get trainedfor your skill bridge.
Once complete your skill bridge, you will roll into a role with
a senior level well, not seniorlevel pay, but like a mid-level

(01:25:42):
, mid mid-level manager pay andso that opportunity is is going
to change the game for anyonethat's trying to break into tech
and don't have any techexperience, and so it's free you
apply, apply, you work, youlearn skills and then guess what
happens after a year, if youdon't like what you're doing, or
even it's up to you, becausethere's going to be multiple

(01:26:05):
opportunities for data centersto pull you, because you're
going to have experience andyou're working at one of the
largest companies that run datacenters.
So if you're interested in that,let me get this SkillBridge
thing here, but I will give me asecond.
I'll grab the link for that toapply, but you have to be.
And for those who don't knowwhat SkillBridge is, it's for

(01:26:28):
active duty, specifically Folksthat are transitioning out of
the military.
They typically have anywherebetween a few months to a few
weeks or a few months sorry, afew months to transition out,
and this program helps you gofrom military to industry by the
military still paying you, butyou're actually working for an

(01:26:50):
organization or a company andlearning a skill so that when
you transition you have a job.
My goal and my focus for thosewho are not aware is to help a
thousand people get jobs beforeI retire in 2027.
And so I'm not focused onanything that's going to kind of
give you a job or you know,there's going to be likely like
I don't have.
I don't have the energy or thetime to waste on that, and so
the programs that I focus on are, I know for sure, are aligned

(01:27:13):
with giving you a job placement.
You just have to show up, dowhat you need to do and make
that happen.
Okay, did I answer yourquestion?
I have a few people that raisedtheir hand Eric and David.

Speaker 9 (01:27:27):
Oh yeah, we're good, jay.
Thank you so much.
Okay, no worries.

Speaker 1 (01:27:32):
All right, eric, what question?

Speaker 5 (01:27:34):
did you have?
Hey, jay, thanks for doing this.
I heard you, or I think I heardyou correctly.
Did you say that you no longerhave discount codes or access to
the MAD20 MITRE taxcertifications?

Speaker 1 (01:27:48):
No, yeah, we've given away, like I said.
You look at the recent posts.
I gave away, like the last 10that I had.
When those folks complete theirprocess of going through that
and it's a long process theMITRE certifications are
probably the longestcertification runs we have
because essentially it's eightcourses, five certificates, five

(01:28:10):
certifications.
So it takes them some time togo through that.
When those folks complete itwe'll probably get more after
that, roger that.
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:28:23):
What other questions do you guys have, Jay, hi
everyone.

Speaker 1 (01:28:25):
What's going on, man?

Speaker 4 (01:28:27):
Okay, can you hear me ?
I can hear you.
Okay, good, Thank you foreverything you do.
I appreciate everybody from upnow I'm just going to fade
forward.
You've helped me.
For your information, you'vesaved me up to $1,000.
So I just saw something in thechat which I need to respond to
and pay it forward to everyone.
So listen everyone.

(01:28:47):
If you need anything online andit's requiring something that
is not private email, your Gmailis denied.
Write this down.
Go to mailcom, Sign up for asecondary email address.
It might be your existing IDand if you scroll down through
the TLD levels, you can selectsomething that is not Gmail and

(01:29:11):
when you use the new email youare creating, you can sign up
for anything you want, noquestion asked, and it is free.

Speaker 1 (01:29:21):
Can you type that or have ChatGPT write out
instructions and drop that in?
Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:29:31):
Just go to mailcom, as if you are signing up for
your Gmail address, instead ofselecting the default mailcom.
Scroll down and you can selectanything you want.
Okay, so, for instance, you canselect for instance, I choose a
cyberservicescom.
I use my existing gmail addressid, dave.

(01:29:51):
I use it for dave atcyberservicescom and anywhere I
go online to look for something.
I've attended events thatrequired my website, which I
don't have.
So the point is, if you arehere and you need to do
something online and it requiresyou to have a dedicated email
address, you don't have to paythat.

(01:30:13):
I'm using it for free.
It is zero dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:30:18):
Music to my ears.
It's free.
Yes, yes, all right, for thefolks that are in the NOVA area
that want to take advantage ofthe AWS program, the SkillBridge
, I'm posting the link in here.
It's going to say SkillBridge.
This is only for folks who arecurrently active duty that are
eligible for SkillBridge, thatwant to break into tech and want

(01:30:42):
to learn about working in datacenters, and so here's the link
you can apply there and thenI'll get you situated so that we
can get you on your way tofinding meaningful employment
and making money.
So that we can get you on yourway to finding meaningful
employment and making money, andthen you can hire me when I

(01:31:03):
retire.
That's the goal, right.
So I've helped at least acouple of folks get job
opportunities, and so I hopethat someone returns the favor.
Just joking, I don't do it forthat, all right.
What other questions we got?
Demetrius?

Speaker 5 (01:31:15):
How you doing, jay.
Appreciate you taking the timeto do this again.
I've been tuning in every weeksince I signed up for ACT.
Now, the only question that Ihad last week there was a we
filled out a survey for a resumetool.
I was wondering if that, if wewere selected, would already

(01:31:38):
already have known about it ohthe interview the interview yeah
yeah, yeah, were you notcontacted about that?

Speaker 1 (01:31:45):
no okay, I I will.
I will follow up with that.
I will follow with thatindividual yeah for sure you,
you guys, should be contactedfor that um.
What he's talking about is lastweek we uh working with, like I
said, we work with um, careerflow.
They have a new app thatthey're putting on their
platform that actually screens,does an interview for you, like

(01:32:09):
you put in whatever the topic Iwant to do data science and for
this company and it asks youquestions.
Ai, like you hear the voice andeverything.
I ask you questions related tothe field and then you go
through that process and then itrates you how well you did on
the interview and it tells youthe areas that you need to
improve on, and so that'ssomething that they're rolling

(01:32:29):
out.
So we we had like 50 umopportunities to get people to
go through that and so and alsoto learn the development aspect
of it, and so I will follow upwith you guys.
So probably on the next callI'll have an answer on what
exactly where we're at with that, but they definitely should be
rolling out with them.
Hmm, yeah, they definitelyshould be rolling out with that,

(01:32:52):
because they're looking to getthat kicked off as soon as
possible.
One other thing they're lookingto get that kicked off as soon
as possible, thank you.
One other thing.
So, while I still have everyoneonline, next week the topic will
be how to get a degree in sixmonths.
So if you don't have abachelor's degree, or you're

(01:33:16):
interested in obtaining yourdegree, or you've been having
college credits after collegecredits for so long but you're
really trying to make it out ofit, I will go over how to do
that.
Um, if you're trying to knockout a master's, I can show you
how to do a master's in anywherebetween eight months to a year.
Um, because obviously some ofyour one-year programs.

(01:33:37):
But, um, depending on what yourbackground is, I could probably
show you how to get done faster.
Uh, all legit, no chat gpt, youneed it just just to work.
But aspects on how you canactually use knowledge, use your
time efficiently to knock out adegree and, like I said, some
of these opportunities, all theyneed is a piece of paper saying

(01:33:57):
that you've attended someschool and they don't really
care too much about that.
They just need that as agateway to say this is the
reason why you should hire ourcompany, because we have, you
know, 40 people with theirmaster's degrees.
70 of our workforce has theirdegrees in this field or these
fields, and they're certified inthis specific background.

(01:34:19):
This is the reason why youshould hire us for your company.
So that's one thing there.
One last thing before I drop orask questions I mean people ask
questions is if you've landed ajob through ACNA Education or
through me in some of ourendeavors, please let us know.
I put the link in the chatright now.

(01:34:41):
It's put, if you landed a job.
That way we can track this.
Like I said, I'm at my goal ofgetting 1,000.
I'm already at 246.
And so I'm trying to get to athousand before 2027 September,
and so if you are someone thatgot a job through us, which I

(01:35:03):
think four people did last week,let me know.
Oh and Annabelle, can you dropin the the review?
Write a review, if you guys canplease write a review we don't
ask for much.
This is what we do.
We just give our time to ourcommunity and hope that you guys

(01:35:23):
are able to take thisinformation, utilize it and
really make an impact and changein your life.
That's what it's really about.
It's not about trying to sellyou something.
It's not about trying to, youknow, trick you into doing
something.
We really are here for themilitary community.
I can't say that about otherorganizations, but I can say
that about ours, because we area community-based organization.
Everyone on my team to my board, cares about making an impact

(01:35:46):
and and supporting the communityin ways that, um, I feel is not
often felt around the community, and we are very um open to
being able to build this outwith, with our community, and so
that's what we go, that's whatour goal is, that's what we're
trying to do and that's what wewe plan and intend to do.

Speaker 2 (01:36:09):
All right, so we have yeah, I dropped for a second
here.
I didn't know if you answeredthat.
There's some questions aboutthe pmp, the pmp cohort I just
said, the pmp core.

Speaker 1 (01:36:20):
We're gonna push that off to the right um because we
have a lot of things that we'retrying to plan right now and
this would not be a good time torun that um and trying to spin
up everything and then just fora couple people who are asking
about, like you know, the if youso for corsair I shared from
time to time maybe maybe youtook care of that.

Speaker 2 (01:36:41):
But again, on Coursera, he mentions
certificates, certificates ofcompletion, for these courses.
It does not mean it's acertification like if you so.
Like somebody was asking, do weget, do we need to contact you
for certification?
No, if you have access toCoursera, what you get access to

(01:37:06):
is the actual learning platform.
For that, if you're looking forSecPlus, for example, you'll
have to find a different way tofund it, either through us you
know ActNow, when we run some ofthese certification giveaways
or voucher giveaways from timeto time, or other organizations
out there.
Okay.
So again, like I don't knowglenn or whoever else before
that asked about it, that meanyou know, feel free to learn

(01:37:28):
from it.
But then, as far as the voucherfor the for taking the exam,
you'll have to figure out a wayto do it.
Either you know wgu, westerngovernance university, or you
know peter klein, when they runtheir scholarship monthly.
Or vets in tech, for example.
You know they have theirsecurity plus course.

(01:37:48):
Or act now, when you run someof these voucher giveaways.

Speaker 1 (01:37:52):
All right, yeah, and for those who, um are part of
the 50 or 50, those who are partof the giveaways that we
announced, I will be contactingyou guys to coordinate.
I am jet lag, I just just flewover overseas and so, like I am,
I'm trying to get oriented andI'm about to go right back out

(01:38:13):
in two weeks, so I will try tocontact you before uh next week
is up, and so just expect uh meeither hitting you up on
linkedin or contacting youdirectly via phone, um so that I
can make sure that you get whatyou need um.
So so everyone's tracking onthat one other thing.

Speaker 2 (01:38:31):
One other thing it's a call out for everybody.
And then if you, for thosepeople who are not here, please
let them know as well If youearned or you saw your name on a
certification giveaway andJay's showing the contacts to
you either through an email orthrough LinkedIn or something
like that.
We expect two things from youguys professionally speaking

(01:38:51):
professional to professional,veteran to veteran or anything
like this Take it as you will.
If you call, call, just respondappropriately on time.
Hey, you know and and take.
And if you take that, thatvoucher and you take the exam
and you pass the exam, pleasefeel free to post about it on

(01:39:12):
your professional linkedin orsomewhere.
And maybe tag act now.
Okay, if a tree falls in theforest and there's no one to
hear it, did it really fall?
So did you really pass your sec?
Plus, if no one knows about it,for your network to, maybe, if
they heard of a job and you'relooking for a job and they might
say, hey, my buddy john ishiring for this guy.

(01:39:35):
And then brandon, I just knowBrandon just passed his SEC+,
I'm going to just push Okay.
So again, advertise, but alsobe cognizant to tag act now or
whichever other organizationpushed it to you.
Don't just do the drive-byshooting.
You took the voucher and wedon't hear from you.
You ghost everyone, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:39:58):
Oh, and thank you for that one one thing I I, if
you've reached out to me, I amnot intentionally ghosting you.
Just know that I am notintentionally ghosting you.
I just don't have a way toreply to a lot of people.
Um, it's just not somethingthat I have the the luxury to
sit down and sit behind thecomputer and do.
If I actively reach out to you,then it's for a reason.
But in terms of like, I have somany messages that I I just

(01:40:23):
need to clone myself orsomething.
I was trying to figure it out.
I was trying to take leaveactually to to actually lock out
some of these messages.
There's no way.
It's just this is I.
I get messaged a lot and sojust know I'm not trying to
ghost you.
I will eventually, eventuallythat's one of my goals
eventually respond to you, butit's just not going to be
probably right away and it's notintentional, sim.

Speaker 6 (01:40:51):
Hey, good afternoon.
I'm sorry.
I know that you said that thePMP course is going to be pushed
back, but I just want toclarify is that only accessible
to SkillBridge people or is italso for those that are
transitioning?
Because I'm in the Guard so I'mnot necessarily active duty,
but I was really interested inthat program.

Speaker 1 (01:41:09):
So we might be talking about two different
things.
Are you talking about the PMPprogram, where we provided you
the PM cert and you actually gotthe job and you're getting paid
to train?
Yes, that one is for.
It was for anybody that applied.
I think it was for veterans andit wasn't for.
I'm sorry, it wasn't foreverybody.
It was for veterans, reservistsand national guard.

(01:41:30):
It wasn't for anybody else.
Those are the groups that itwas for.

Speaker 6 (01:41:34):
Perfect, that's what I was looking for, and and then.
So you're just postponing it,so you guys will do it later in
the summer.

Speaker 1 (01:41:39):
no, no no, no, no.
So that program wasspecifically related to actual
job right and so that thatprogram is is already underway.
Like that program starts nextweek, the I thought I'd see one
for july.
I'm sorry oh yeah, so that isjust the PM program.
The IRC intensive um.
Was it readiness review or not,was it?

(01:42:01):
What does IRC stand for?
Intensive?

Speaker 2 (01:42:04):
Yeah, intensive review course.

Speaker 1 (01:42:06):
Intensive review course that's done by Chris
McPhee, which is the trainingthat we're going to provide, and
then that's, that's just adifferent format, and so we
provide that training to giveeveryone um that wants to take
their pmp the shot of learning,and then from that we will take,
uh, a percentage of the groupthat score well on exam and give

(01:42:28):
them their pmp.
And so, like last time we had,I think, 100 and 100, we had 46,
that's 46.
I remember we had 40 something,maybe 40 or 30 something.
Take the exam.
I mean, sorry, go through thecourse.
And we have some touch pointslike you have to make sure you
attend the classes, do the work,do the homework, take the exam.

(01:42:50):
I mean you take the prep examand then from there we'll decide
how many vouchers we give outfrom that.
So if you're interested in that, that's been pushed to the
right and I'll provide an updatefor that.
Thank you so much.
Okay, awesome, carolyn.

Speaker 3 (01:43:13):
Oh my goodness, I was trying to wait and I forgot
what my question was, but Iremember it was something about
the Skill Bridge in NorthernVirginia with the data
warehousing.

Speaker 1 (01:43:31):
The data center.
The data center Amazon.
Are you a Skill Bridge?

Speaker 3 (01:43:37):
Amazon.
Are you a Skillbridge?
When you said the specificthings transitioning out the
military, no, I'm a veteran.

Speaker 1 (01:43:45):
Yeah, it's only for folks who are transitioning out
of the military.
Okay, but please understand,like, when we're working these
programs, I'm just seeing whichones align and and know that if
it works out well, then we willcontinue to expand it out and
I'm trying to just tap it intoresources and organizations that

(01:44:08):
can kind of get you along thecareer path.
We've gotten a lot of peoplethat just hit us back and said I
want a career in tech and Idon't know where to start and so
those two programs that we'vestarted is supposed to help with
that.

Speaker 11 (01:44:22):
But yeah, brandon, hey man, how's it going?
First off, thank you fordevoting your time.
Still being active duty moment,man.
This is a major for the veterancommunity, including yourself,
man.
Definitely appreciate it.
Real quick question, Like I'mthe last person before you can
get some sleep from being jetlag.
But my question is once youcreate the profile I'm assuming

(01:44:43):
that's when you're able to applyfor the vouchers and things
like that correct?

Speaker 1 (01:44:51):
Yes, once you create your profile, we'll be talking
about, like, what programs areout there and you can apply for
those, and they'll all be onthat platform.
However, the next big cert dropwill be related to the event
that we're going to be doinglater in June, so I'm probably
going to save all my certs forthat, because I'm just going to

(01:45:14):
go ham on it.
It's going to be crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:45:17):
I just want to give you a small detail for him.

Speaker 2 (01:45:21):
So, once you get access to that career flow or IE
career compass, as he showedyou, it's not just for vouchers.
There's other resources outthere you can apply for.
There's a tab there for otherorganizations that provides
vouchers and whatnot.

(01:45:42):
Okay, you can use it forcreating your resume and so on
and so forth.
Okay, so the search drop isoccasional, is seasonal.
You can take advantage of allthe other resources available in
there links and so on and soforth.
Okay, just wanted to add that.
Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (01:46:04):
Awesome.
Any other questions?

Speaker 7 (01:46:06):
I have a question, please.
So there's a lot of acronymsthat got me really lost and I'm
not sure like which one is goingto help me to get my security
plus.

Speaker 1 (01:46:19):
Um, that's what I'm looking for right now and
looking for classes and the testhelp yeah, so for that, once
you get access to career compass, you go to the resource section
and you go to where it says ITand cyber security
certifications.
Under that tab there are about20, 20 plus organizations.

(01:46:39):
You can click on empower.
You can click on o2o.
You can click, you can click onum per scholars excuse me, you
can click on scholars.
All of those have no, no, sorry, per scholars does not have
SecPlus.
But Empower, o2o, vets in Tech.

(01:47:02):
All these organizations have it.
You can actually just gothrough them.
I'm telling you the ones.
But you can actually go tothose sites now and then apply
and get your SecPlus in thetraining with those.
But the reason we put it all onthe site is so that people can
find that information relativelyeasy.
That way it's easy for you tobe able to type.

Speaker 7 (01:47:21):
Would you be just like type one or two of them
please?
I'm not going to remember.

Speaker 1 (01:47:27):
Can somebody else do that yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:47:36):
My question was Jay, um the career uh, airflow is it?
Career compass, the careercompass.
Is it free to do the resumething or?

Speaker 1 (01:47:47):
you have to be premium to do no, no, yeah, so
everyone gets one resume forfree, and so the the hack is if
you are trying to tailor yourresume to um a specific job, you
tailor that resume that way andthen, once you add another job,
you go back to that same resumeand then change it and tailor
it to the next role.

(01:48:07):
Um, that way it's no cost to.
Now, if you want multipleresumes, you can do that.
I think it's it's about eightdollars.
If you want to do it for theyear I forgot how much it is,
but it's not.
It's not extremely expensive.
So I don't want to do it forthe year.
I forgot how much it is, butit's not extremely expensive.
So I don't want to make it seemlike they're trying to hit you
in the head.
We made sure that it's not that.
But if you're just trying to usea resource, you can use that

(01:48:28):
resource to be able to leveragethat.
On top of that, it's not theonly resume resource in there.
So if you go down to theresource sections and you go to
where it says resume, you havebest military resume in there.
You have at least seven toeight different resumes
resources that will help youeither generate a resume, create
a resume, and they're all forfree, so you can use those as

(01:48:49):
well to leverage to be able tocreate a resume.
The thing that we wanted to dois, if someone is unemployed or
underemployed, I wouldn't wantto have you to have you worry
about paying for something whenyou're trying to just, you need
a break, right.
So that's the reason whyeverything that we do there's no
cost to it, there's no costassociated with it, but I can

(01:49:10):
tell you, though, if you do payfor it, you will get your return
in investment right.
You just got to use a platform,though, but, for the most part,
just understand that, yeah, youdon't have to necessarily come
out of pocket to use that onesingle resume, and then there's
other resume resources on theplatform.

Speaker 8 (01:49:31):
Jay, yes, the copy on the career compass does not
work, that you have to pay forit.
I'm sorry, you have to pay forit.
However, there is kind of ahack where you can get around to
get multiple copies of your ownresume, and so you start off
with like a template of yourstandard and then you turn

(01:49:51):
around and you can copy itthrough a method I figured out
and I can't tell you right now,sorry, uh, but you can actually
reproduce and have multipleresumes there in career compass.
It's just you have to follow adifferent stream to get to it.
There's a button that saysduplicate and you have to go and
pay for it.
But if you follow the the otherstream which next time I do it

(01:50:13):
I'll write the notes down andsend it to you so yeah, so I
know, like in terms of that.

Speaker 1 (01:50:18):
So you can either do, um, so one thing that you could
do, right, when you make a cop,not make a copy, but when you
create your resume, if you printyour resume out and then you go
back to career flow and thenimport that resume, it acts as
if it's uh, you already had thatresume created and you're
importing it, and so it allowsyou to kind of like do that as

(01:50:41):
well.
So that's another way to kindof like get around it if you
want to.

Speaker 2 (01:50:47):
And one thing I'd like to share.
I always mention that from timeto time.
Free does not mean cheap.
If you take advantage of any ofthese resources let's say, for
example, this career compassthat is provided to the veteran
community for Act Now, here forfree, and you land a job, go

(01:51:13):
back in there.
Everybody just takes the lazyroute on LinkedIn and using that
cupcake and say I just starteda job at XYZ company.
You can take advantage and alsoplug in you know, tag
CareerFlow, for example, orActNow or something like this,
especially CareerFlow, which isa company that makes money for

(01:51:34):
their own software and providesthese type of things.
You know, yeah, publiccorporate social responsibility,
esg, whitewashing, greenwashing, whatever you want to call it.
But again, it's kind of likefeedback to them to drive
traffic to their company becausethey provided it to you for
free.

Speaker 4 (01:51:51):
Appreciate it, mm-hmm yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:51:56):
Someone messaged me about laptops, so I won't be
doing another laptop giveawayuntil next week I'm sorry, not
next week, next month and so Istill have to make sure the
laptops that we are sending outgets out.
And, like I said, there's a lotthat goes on.
And, for those who don't know,obviously the reason why I'm
changing the schedule is becauseI have to obviously travel and

(01:52:16):
so I'm going right back ontravel and that's going to to to
be majority of the month.
So I have to figure out just acoordination piece of that.
But once I get back I'll be good, but I'll do everything from
overseas, most likely, all right.
What other question do you guyshave?
Oh, there it goes like um,that's to put in the actual

(01:52:38):
payment breakdown.
So, yeah, nine dollars a week,so you can do nine dollars,
create five resumes and thenshut it down, and so there you
go.

Speaker 11 (01:52:49):
But um, yeah, hey, man, go get some rest.
Man, thank you for all yourtime and devotion.
Man, I know you jet lagging, Isee it in your eyes.

Speaker 1 (01:53:01):
That was a long, long long.
My act, now sermon.
I appreciate you guys for allattending.
We appreciate you, buddy, goget some rest.
Yeah, yeah, Thank you all.
Please let other people knowwhat we do.
Look forward to sharing moreinformation and resources with
you guys.
Have a good one.

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