Security Clearance Careers Podcast

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What does it take to build a career spanning nearly four decades inside the CIA? And what can today’s cleared professionals learn from someone who has experienced the intelligence mission from just about every angle? On this episode of the Security Clearance Careers Podcast, we sit down with retired CIA officer Susan Miller to talk about the people, skills, and career paths behind the Intelligence Community.

Miller spent nearly 40 years at the CIA, building a career that included HUMINT, counterintelligence, overseas assignments, leadership positions, and serving as a Chief of Station. But like many intelligence professionals, her path into the field may not look exactly like what aspiring IC employees expect.

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When we talk about leaving the military, we tend to talk about the checklist.

Build a resume. Translate your MOS. Start networking. Apply for jobs. Figure out SkillBridge. Prepare for interviews. And, if you’re part of the cleared community, try not to let that security clearance collect dust while you figure out what comes next.

Those things matter. But they’re also only one piece, because landing a civilian job and successfully transitioning into civilian life are not necessarily the same thing.

On a recent episode of the Security Clearance Careers Podcast, I sat down with Emily King Grandinetta, a behavioral scientist, Master Certified Coach, organizational consultant, military transition expert, and author of At Ease: The Guide to a Smooth & Successful Military Transition, to talk about what happens beyond the resume and job offer.

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Trusted Workforce 2.0 has changed how the government vets its people. The old model of periodic reinvestigation, which was basically "set it and forget it," has given way to continuous vetting. Adjudicators now have to reassess risk as each new alert comes in. The policy is in place, but agencies are still working out how to carry it out day to day.

In this episode of ClearedCast, Lindy Kyzer talks with Aarti Smith, CEO of Chainbridge Solutions, about the "continuous vetting gap," the space between getting a Continuous Vetting Action Report (CVAR) and managing it well at scale. They cover:

• Why a single CVAR rarely tells the full story, and why the whole-person concept still matters
• How DCSA's move toward DISS as a shared services hub helps, and why API integrations are the next step
• The manual work that still slows agencies down: roster management, enrollment, and alerts for people affiliated with more than one agency
• What happens when public trust and suitability populations are added under Trusted Workforce 2.0
• What a modern personnel security system needs: automated triage, risk weighting, dashboards, and integrations with HR, identity management, and insider threat systems
• What applied AI can and can't do in adjudication (it supports the decision-maker but doesn't replace them)
• Why the applicant experience matters as much as the security team's, and how applicant portals help

If you work in personnel security, adjudication, or federal HR, this episode is a practical look at where continuous vetting stands now and what agencies should tackle first.

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Lindy Kyzer talks with The Cipher Brief COO Brad Christian ahead of the organization's 10th annual Threat Conference in Sea Island, Georgia. Christian breaks down why the past year has been the most complicated yet — from AI's expanding role in intelligence and autonomous weapons, to a new national cybersecurity strategy, the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Iran, and the rise of "gray warfare" targeting the U.S. homeland. He also shares what makes the invite-only conference unique: 250 attendees spanning government, industry, and academia, all working to close the gap between public-sector mission and private-sector innovation.

Apply to register here: https://www.tcbconference.com/

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What began in 2021 as a first-of-its-kind gathering for recruiters in the national security space has quickly become a fixture on the cleared-talent calendar. The inaugural ClearanceJobs Connect brought government and industry leaders together to discuss candidate scarcity, employer branding, recruiter burnout and the emerging Trusted Workforce 2.0 framework. By 2022, attendance had nearly tripled to more than 200 people, and the event had added distinct afternoon tracks for recruiting and security professionals.

That history sets the stage for ClearanceJobs Connect 2026, scheduled for October 15–16 at the Carahsoft office in Reston, Virginia. The two-day agenda combines cleared recruiting strategy, security-policy updates, leadership lessons, emerging technology and practical training. For talent acquisition professionals supporting the national security community, the result is a concentrated look at both the pressures shaping today’s market and the practices likely to define what comes next.

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Every year, the ClearanceJobs Cleared Recruiting Survey provides a snapshot of what’s really happening inside the cleared hiring market. But behind every chart and percentage are recruiters navigating an increasingly complex mix of technology, compensation pressures, hard-to-fill roles, and changing candidate expectations.

In a recent podcast conversation, we sat down with Jill Hamilton, who manages the Cleared Recruiting Survey, to go behind the numbers and discuss what stood out in the 2026 results.

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Recruiters have more technology than ever—sourcing platforms, applicant tracking systems, automation and AI. So why do they still spend so much time on administrative work?

It’s an interesting question for someone who has experienced recruiting technology from both sides: first as a talent acquisition leader and now as someone helping organizations rethink that experience with AgileATS.

The bigger question is simple: Are we building technology around the way recruiters actually work—or asking recruiters to work around their technology?

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