Why clearance signaling matters
A current, transferable clearance is worth $10K–$40K in salary premium at the right employer — and near zero at the wrong one. The point of your resume and LinkedIn isn't to advertise what you worked on. It's to help a cleared recruiter find you in 8 seconds.
What to put on your resume
- Top of the resume, under your name: "Active TS/SCI with CI Poly (DoD, adjudicated 2024)" — or the equivalent for your level.
- Never name programs, agencies you supported by codename, or SCI compartments.
- If you're between contracts, say "Active" — do not say "Inactive" unless it truly is. Clearances remain active for 24 months after your last access in most cases.
What to put on LinkedIn
Same header line. Put it in the "About" section too. Recruiters search LinkedIn with boolean strings like "TS/SCI" AND "Full Scope" — if those exact tokens aren't on your profile, you don't exist to them.
Where to actually apply
Cleared job boards (ClearanceJobs, ClearedJobs.Net) index differently than LinkedIn. A résumé that ranks well on LinkedIn often ranks poorly on ClearanceJobs because the keyword weighting is different. Maintain a "cleared" variant of your resume with agency-neutral acronyms spelled out on first use.
The one mistake to avoid
Do not list your clearance in your email signature, your public GitHub bio, or a Twitter/X profile. It's a soft OPSEC violation and some FSOs will flag it.