[Are you applying for a job that requires you to be successfully granted a high-level security clearance by the U.S. Government?]

     With our Country increasingly involved in conducting the War on Terrorism, as well as with other major military missions throughout the world, a great increase and growth of Defense Department associated industries, along with a rapid increase in U.S. Government and contractor employees, is taking place and can be expected to continue in the future for some time. Unfortunately, a great many of these employee assignments require the holding of high-level security clearances, and due to the sudden employment growth, the time required to be fully processed, adjudicated and eventually be granted (or non-granted) the necessary clearances has significantly increased. Even the more optimistic U.S. Governmental news releases describe a typical time-frame for the adjudication process to be somewhere between six months and 18 months. If this is what the Government says, then it is most likely that the actual or true time-frame is even longer; some have realistically suggested that in some cases, the time-frame could extend to as much as 30 months before a final decision (by the Government) is made to grant or non-grant a security clearance.

[Could you realistically wait for a couple of years to pass while only temporarily employed in a ‘make work’ position, the continuance dependent upon being successfully granted a clearance?]

     What the above situation implies is that contractors will hire an individual to fill a position that absolutely requires the hired individual to be soon granted a security clearance. The usual arrangement in such hiring is that if the individual is unsuccessful in being eventually granted the required clearance(s), then release from employment will soon follow. Both, the contractor organizations as well as the involved employees, hate and detest such an arrangement. When this happens, the contractor organization has ‘wasted’ a good deal of money in having an employee who is not allowed to actually be ‘on the job’ and during this waiting period is usually given some ‘busy work’ to do, at a salary level well beyond the level that should be associated with the work. If the needed security clearance(s) are not forthcoming, then the contractor organization essentially usually terminates the temporary employment arrangement. The costs to the involved employee can be great in the financial sphere but usually is extremely severe in the psychological realm. To be told that one is rejected regarding an obtaining of a security clearance frequently is devastating to one’s self-regard and self-esteem.

     Also, it is not widely known that contractor organizations are also required to pay the U.S. Government, for each of their employees, who are being processed and adjudicated for possible security clearance granting, the costs associated with the whole clearance processing/adjudication process.  This process, not surprisingly, can amount to many thousands of dollars.

[Could you really wait for a couple of years to pass before being offered a U.S. Government job which requires you to be successfully granted a security clearance?]

     In the case of U/S. Governmental employment seeking, for positions that require the holding of security clearance(s), an applicant will not normally be actually given a job offer until he/she has been successfully investigated and adjudicated for the required clearances. Again, as with the contractor employee situation, this investigation and adjudication period, in some cases, can be very lengthy, up to a couple of years or perhaps even longer. Normally, for a great number of high-level security clearances, this period of time very frequently is over a year or so. Again, if the applicant for the governmental employment situation is rejected regarding being granted the necessary clearances, this rejection can prove to be very psychologically painful to the individual involved.

     It can also be very costly in terms of monetary matters. While waiting for the clearance adjudication decision, again which can take a couple of year’s time, what is the potential government employee to do. Many wait for the clearance adjudication decision while in some type of ‘temporary’ employment that is not commensurate with the individual’s ability/skills level or remain unemployed during this waiting period of time.  Many other costly type situations come to mind for this kinds of temporary employment arrangement.

[Is there some way that an individual can obtain an accurate prediction of whether the security clearance’s investigation/adjudication will end up granting or denying the needed security clearance?]

     Yes - there is a psychometric biodata inventory which has been named as the Personnel Security Standards Psychological Questionnaire (PSSPQ); it was developed and validated using traditional, scientifically-based, test-construction standards by a psychologist possessing the highest professional credentials, and who (at the time of the construction of the PSSPQ) was the Chief Research Psychologist in one of our Nation’s largest intelligence agencies. The PSSPQ is the ONLY instrument or procedure that has been developed to accurately and validly predict whether an individual, at the very beginning of the investigation process, will eventually experience success or failure with respect to being granted a needed and required security clearance. It is important to be aware that the PSSPQ has no competitors!

[What must I do in order to ‘take’ the PSSPQ and to obtain the prediction information regarding whether I will or will not be successful in obtaining the security clearance that I need?]

You are first suggested to take a look at the following listed Web Site pages:

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspq.html

http;//www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/hrandsecdirectors.html

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/securityclearances.html

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/individualsales.html

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspqfaq.html

     If you have inspected these five above-shown  web-pages, and wish to ‘take’ the PSSPQ, you are advised to send to Dr. LeRoy A. Stone (P.O. Box 395, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425-0395) your request to be administered the PSSPQ instrument along with a U. S. Postal money order or a certified bank check for $125.00 (please no personal checks or credit cards). Dr. Stone, upon receipt of your request and prepayment will then send you a copy of the PSSPQ, an answer sheet, testing instructions, and a stamped/addressed return envelope. When these materials are returned to Dr. Stone, he then will immediately score your responses and will send the obtained results to you. These results are your standard scores for the PSSPQ’s eleven adjudication-area subscales. Also provided is your standard score on the LIE Scale (i.e.,  attempted deception or dissimulation subscale). Finally, your score on the discriminant function scale is given (i.e., high score = success; low score = failure). All of the numerical scorings are additionally given verbal or narrative interpretations. Normally, after Dr. Stone initially receives the request for testing along with the required prepayment, the time involved until the involved individual receives his/her scores and interpretative information, is usually no more than about a week’s time.

     Again it should be noted that the prediction focus, provided by the PSSPQ, is simply not available using any other instrument or procedure. The PSSPQ remains the only way to obtain success/failure predictions regarding the eventual grantings of high-level security clearances.

     Qute recently, a request was made by one who had recently been administered the PSSPQ and had discovered that he had 'passed' with a resultant PSSPQ score that rather strongly predicted that the obtainer of the score would be finally expected to be successfully adjudicated regarding the high-level security clearance for which  he was being processed, that a certificate type document that would communicate  such 'good' news be made available by Dr. Stone.  This suggestion was followed and now such a certificate is available, without any extra cost, upon request made to Dr. Dr. Stone.  This certificate is ONLY available to those whose 'passing' PSSPQ score is sufficiently high that would indicate the the obtainer of such a score is highly likely, in the future, to actually be granted the high-level clearance.  Borderline 'pass' level scorers are requested not to request this certificate as the confidence levels associated with so-called borderline-pass scores are not overly high.

Since the previous paragraphs were created to comprise
this web-page section, some new web-pages, pertaining to
the PSSPQ have been additionally developed.  These newer pages (some redundency can be seen) are as follows:

  For anyone truly interested in the subject material presented in this Web Page,
the reader is strongly encouraged to also take a look at the additional following Web
Pages, which also describe important aspects and matters associated with use of the
PSSPQ.  There may be some duplication, but not necessarily so, between the below
given links and some of the links given in some of the above paragraphs.

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspq.html
(This can be considered to be the PSSPQ index/home page)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspqfaq.html
(This is the "frequently asked questions" that pertain to the PSSPQ)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/atyourservicepsspq.html
(More valuable information about use of PSSPQ obtained information)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/howtotakepsspq.html
(This one is especially important as it describes, in detail, the procedure one
must go through in order to purchase an administration [i.e., to ‘take’],
obtain results and interpretation of the PSSPQ)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/hrandsecdirectors.html
(Describes how the PSSPQ can be used by directors of offices of
human resources and/or security)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/increasesuccesschances.html
(Describes how a job applicant/candidate can improve his employment
chances with PSSPQ obtained information)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/individualsales.html
(Describes use/value of the PSSPQ for individuals)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/onlyonepsspq.html
(Describes how the PSSPQ is the only such prediction instrument in
existence)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspqreliabilityvalidity.html
(Describes the technical psychometric reliability and validity information
regarding the PSSPQ)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/securityclearancewaiting.html
(Being administered the PSSPQ and learning its results can be expected
to be a very smart job-hunting decision that can easily lead to increased
chances for job-obtaining success.  To decide to 'take' the PSSPQ can
prove to be a very wise decision indeed!)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/britishcommonwealth.html
(Describes that the PSSPQ logically, and based upon empirical data
results, can accurately predict success/failure for being granted
high-level security clearance status by some of the more major
British Commonwealth countries)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/natocountries.html
(Describes that the PSSPQ logically, and based upon some limited
empirical data results, can accurately predict success/failure for being
granted high-level security clearance status by some of the more major
NATO Countries)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/governmentdisliketest.html
(This presentation desccribes the very interesting history of the
development of the PSSPQ, especially involving the description of how
various U.S. Government agencies [including some military services],
back in the late 1980s, attempted to sabotage or stop any further
development of this testing instrument.  Dr. Stone was issued 'cease
and desist' instructions by his ten employing intelligence agency
regarding any further development of his PSSPQ.)

Thanks for Your Interest and Good Luck!