Hi there, first there welcome! I applied via the August 2020 Hiring Event. I believe no person's timeline and sometimes steps are always the same. I'll outline what happened for me below

Applied 4/2020
Received email to schedule interview 6/2020
Interview 8/2020
CJO 8/2020 - next day after interview
Drug Test 8/2020
SF-86 eQip - 9/2020
BI Interview 10/2020
CPC (Psych / Poly) 3/2021 (two days back to back)
2nd Drug Test 8/2021
Adjudication / Clear email - 12/2021
3rd Drug Test 12/2021 (second test was inconclusive)
Contact by section chief in CF/1st verbal offer - 1/2022
FJO - TBD

My timeline was extended I'm sure due to COVID, which is crazy because I had a friend who had the same timeline as me up until her CPC appt (hers was 1/2021) and she was adjudicated in 4 days. So there are a lot of variables with it. My advice, exercise patience.

As someone who already had a clearance, here was my timeline:

March/April 2020: Applied
May 2020: Writing assessment/location questionnaire (I was given less than a week to submit)
Aug 2020: Interview and CJO within 24 hrs.
Nov 2020: Drug test
Feb 2021: CPC and was shortly cleared. This would be different for anyone w/o a clearance I assume. I was placed in the hiring pool at this point.

I started to get some calls from potential managers in March/April who were looking to see if I wanted to move OCONUS, which I did not. So they did not put in bids for me in the hiring pool.

April 2021: First FJO extended and I accepted. Tried negotiating with HR and they were terrible. Unfortunately, I've heard similar stories from a lot of my coworkers. Thankfully, once you get past HR, you don't really deal with them anymore. The promotion process internally isn't perfect, but it's improving.

May 2021: Started working

So you have at least a year before really walking into the building. Just so you know, I've seen people in the Analysis Career Field apply with prior work experience (military and non-military), but if it doesn't directly relate to research and analysis or subject matter expertise, they will not count that. If you have a master's degree, they will be more open to having you come in at a higher grade.

Edited by user Sunday, January 23, 2022 12:49:10 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

To my knowledge, a lot of analysts (especially GG 07-10) are placed in the NCR area. A lot of the offices are located there, including HQ, so it makes sense. It all depends on billet availability and what managers want to bid on you.

A special guest appearance from Kali! And he was even able to post.

You know, rebels made a couple comments over the past year or so which made me wonder if he had abandoned The Greatest Intelligence Agency In The World (tm). And now we know.

Only an SF-86C

Not me, but this is very common. I wouldn't worry about it. Just try to relax during your poly, be entirely honest, and do your normal morning routine before showing up to CPC. I have a coworker who had to do a poly three times before he had conclusive results, but he obviously works at the agency now.

This was for a contractor working at DIA. I'm not sure how many years ago it was, but he's 30 and not prior military, so it can't be more than 8 years ago.

Thanks for the reply! And wow, 3 polys?! That’s gotta be nerve racking. Well, it’s good to see that people still get on with the agency successfully even after multiple poly attempts. Seems like going in for a second attempt isn’t a bad sign at all!

I think you have the dates wrong, I believe they said they'd notify you in late February/early March for an interview and what not. the application window closed on Jan. 19 and that would only be 1 or 2 week turn around.

Its all at intelligencecareers.gov now. All external positions can be found there.