<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>I have been on the fence about engineering for the past year or so, but applied for an engineering coop with a government agency, and was given a conditional job offer. I was then brought in to undergo security processing, where I finally came to the decision that I was not interested in the position. I told my recruiter, who was on site at the time, that I did not think that the engineering position being offered fit what I really wanted to do with my career path(also available at said agency, but for which I had not applied), and was told by one of the staff who saw me out that the majors I was instead considering had other possible opportunities at said agency. </p>
<p>I was feeling pretty good about my decision until I met a man outside who had seen me talking to the front desk people about withdrawing from the program. He said that now I have essentially burned my bridges with most government agencies by not deciding to finish the clearance process. Is this true? I appologized to my recruiter and the other people involved with my processing, and everything seemed okay. Does this really put a black mark on my possible future dealings with government agencies?</p>
<p>Thanks for your input.</p>
<p>No, you have not burned bridges with “most government agencies.” That said, is there a reason you didn’t stick with the program you were offered a spot in and discuss the possibility of switching to a different career track? How far along are you in school, since it sounds like you are considering switching majors, I assume you are only a freshman or soph?</p>
<p>I don’t know what level your clearance was going to be, but the high level clearances are like gold in certain sectors of the defense/intelligence world (both government and contractor). They are very difficult to obtain because of the number of people that apply to government jobs that will grant them (example: the CIA gets like 10000 applications a month), and because many contractors won’t consider your resume without the appropriate clearance already completed. Something to consider in the future.</p>
<p>Did some guy in a suit just randomly stop you on your way out to tell you that you burned all your bridges?</p>
<p>IMO you should keep in contact with that recruiter if you think you want to work at the same agency in a different career path.</p>
<p>That makes me feel a bit better, and I have talked to my recruiter, just not about what my future plans are. Will probably do that at some point, more likely when I am set on a major. I am a sophomore, so have a way to go before graduating, and many of the other programs that I was interested in required you to be a junior/senior, so maybe will pursue those. Maybe the guy I talked to was just screwing with me. Thanks for your reply.</p>