This morning I was out conducting my usual on-line job hunt, when I decided it was about time I hit up FBI jobs. While I was filling out the on-line application, I came to this question: Where were you born? Two pages later, they asked about my citizenship. For the record, I was born in England, but moved to the US when I was 2 1/2 years old. In other words, I’ve spent more than 90% of my life in the States, and that’s counting the year I spent studying in Japan as outside of the States. Maybe I’m sounding paranoid, but in the infamous “all other thing being equal” scenario, I can see this counting against me. Besides, I still have memories of applying for Federal jobs with my newly minted degree in Japanese and getting turned down immediately because I wasn’t a US citizen, even though I was in the process of becoming one at the time! I’ll also admit to having spent a bit too much time over in the WN threads over in Great Debates.
Look, I didn’t ask to get born in England or to have my family move here when I was only a toddler. I do love America, and I’ve even been known to vote Republican, especially while I was living in Hawaii. Being an immigrant cost me a scholarship I qualified for on all other grounds and could have used (the National Merit Scholarship, to be precise), and it may have cost me some jobs when I was young and impressionable. I can’t think of any advantages it’s given me, other than a rather useful half-British accent.
All I want is a job. I want to get up in the morning, work hard and skillfully, and come home in the evening. Fellow Americans, if I can get this government of ours to give me a job, I’ll earn every penny of the tax money you pay me. Just don’t let an accident of birth get in the way.
So are you a citizen now? And be glad the situation isn’t reversed and you are an American citizen in the EU. They have really tough foreign worker requirements…and it’s not just for gubmint jobs, either.
So do you have your citizenship now? If so, then you probably don’t have a problem. Unless you are applying for something really sensitive.
You’re imagining things. I was born outside the United States and moved to this land when I was 2 years old. My birth in a foreign land was no bar to me receiving a Top Secret clearance when I was in the military. One could suppose that such a clearance was predicated on a need for access to “something really sensitive.”
CJ, you’re aware that the FBI doesn’t really hire people based on those on-line applications? Seriously. That form is just there to distract the Twinkies who have received a message from the space aliens that they are needed at the FBI, and all the Gunnies who wanna go shoot them some serial killers just like Clarice Starling, keep the country safe.
If you really want a job with the FBI, or indeed any other government agency (including the Post Office–you take the test, put in your application, and wait a year or so for them to call you, but it’s important to take that test and get that application in), anyway, there are innumerable books on “how to get a job with the Feds” at the library in the boring-as-heck reference section. Ask the Reference Librarian.
Thanks folks. I’ve been a naturalized citizen for over 15 years now, with all rights and privileges accrued thereby. I’m now officially too old to be a Special Agent (so much for that fantasy!), and I got the website from a recruiter for the FBI at a job fair last week. I’ll talk to my local library’s Career Center for their advice tomorrow. I don’t think being a naturalized citizen will bar me from getting any clearance needed. I’m just frustrated because I’m having a hard time getting a foot in the door anywhere, government or civilian.
I’m not quitting, just blowing off steam.
A beseiged CJ
Mr. C: Doesn’t matter. As long as one’s a US citizen, one may be eligible for the security clearances. Other factors for denial come into play, of course: prior convictions, extremely bad credit habits, immediate family members who are members of the communist party, etc.
It’s a form (a standard form no less), directly linked from the Navy and Marine Reserve Center San Diego, that one must fill out when applying for Top Secret security clearance. Perhaps you have seen it.
The form, in essence, corroborates what you have said. That is all. It relates to your post in that it BACKS YOU UP.
I cannot believe that you asked such a stupid question.
With regard to the jobs I am currently applying for, a non-U.S. citizen who is slightly less qualified than me would get the job over me. It’s starting to piss me off.
A relative of mine was born in one of the ‘Axis of Evil’ countries and not naturalized until he was 22 years old. He’s now in a position where he has the highest degree of security clearance in his Department.
That’s hard to believe. Companies prefer citizens (and permanent residents) as they don’t have to sponsor their visas and I don’t think affirmative action extends to Chinese graduate students looking for work.
Hiring people based on their citizenship seems to be the norm for international work. Some organizations use quota systems; the ones I’m applying to use a more informal affirmative action-type system. The jobs are so competitive that I basically have zero chance of getting one. That’s why I started a GQ thread on discriminating against US citizens.
Umm… if citizenship in a foreign country is an advantage in doing the work, wouldn’t that mean they were more qualified than you? It ain’t all what you study in school, kid.
