I think maybe that was a joke.
Well you cant just go and get a top secret clearance. You have to have a job that requires you to have one. Then the employer will use the appropriate agency to do the investigation. The clearance is worth approx. 40k but you do not pay this the employer does. There are actually quite a few levels of security clearances and even a few different levels of the TS clearance. Even once you receive a clearance this does not necessarily mean you can see classified/sensitive material, you must have “a need to know”. Hope this helps.
And it appears that he was wrong on this score. I’ve done some Googling on the topic, and can’t find anything about an individual being able to get a clearance on his/her own.
In fact, I found several references that explicity said that you can’t.
So, I withdraw my earlier statement with apologies. :o
Click one of the Google links below to get a job requiring a clearance. See, wasn’t that easy?
Well, it’s always a leg up in a tough job market, since as you said it costs an employer a fortune to do a clearance. So having one already definitely moves you to the front of the list Ahh, the great Catch-22…can’t get a clearance without a job, can’t get a job without the clearance 
Yeah, I am a victim – er, veteran of the ol’ SF-86 myself, and the idea that a person could pay lots of money to go out and get a clearance without a “need to know” is contrary to everything I have ever learned about the process. I’d be floored if this were actually the case, which is why I had to ask.
To those of you with more knowledge/ experience of this - is it common or a good strategy to get a job that requires a clearance but doesn’t use your skills to full capacity so that you are later more marketable for a job that does use your skills and your clearance? For example, take a job doing database administration when what you eventually plan to do is database design?
I don’t think so. I don’t that clearances are transferred with you when you go from one employer to another. That is, you have a job requiring the clearance. When you leave that job the clearance ends. It always helps in getting a job requiring a security clearance if you had one at your past job, but I think the clearance has to be renewed when you move. So it seems to me that you should just go for the job you want rather than trying to work up to it via the security clearance work.
I believe that Top Secret clearances are reviewed at intervals to see if your job still requires one. If it doesn’t the TS clearance goes away.
I can’t believe that nobody has used the term NEED TO KNOW. Even with a clearance you can’t just go looking up secrets. If Cheney wants to know something just for the hell of it, he shouldn’t see it. I believe that the CIA director told President Carter he didn’t need to know about UFO’s. Even if not true it illustrates the principle that you have to have a need to know.
Those colorful words have been used three times in this thread before your post.
That’s not what I’ve understood or what the FAQ at ClearanceJobs.com (PDF) says (fourth question). Clearances are easily transferred between companies and expire two years after you leave your clearance job.
OK, that settles that. And that’s why I had to get a new clearance when I went back over two years after my first retirement. (I’m an experienced retirer.)
Cite? I find this hard to believe. I’d think that the POTUS (and maybe VP) can see whatever they want. Ultimately the buck stops there, so the POTUS is entitled to peg the value of any information and not have any underling decide for them. Now, I realize that in realpolitik, it probably happens all the time. I’m just referring to the formal barriers.