I got a lead on this job through a headhunter. Started with the usual phone screen. The phone screen went pretty well. The lead engineer seemed pretty competent and made the role sound interesting. I'm still in the process of obtaining my security clearance and both the recruiter and the engineer I talked to assured me I didn't need it yet. Next arrangements were made and did an in person interview. Over all it was pretty casual and informal which I really liked. Unfortunately many people we out on vacation so I didn't get to meet them. Also I didn't get any kind our tour of the facilities. Understood for security reasons one always can't, but she was the only person I spoke to there period. For anyone excepts any kind of engineering position you most certainly need to get a feel of the office culture. All seemed to go well until towards the end of the interview I brought up security clearance to inform her that I definitely wanted it and it would have to be continued. At that point it was "Oh you don't have clearance? That might be a problem with our customer." Huh? I was told I didn't need clearance at the moment for the position. She left things at I will check with the customer when they get back in a week.. I decided to email the recruiter to see if he got any feedback. Turns out he did (another real winner he was). She had told him that he got with their security directory and since I didn't already have clearance I wasn't worth the risk. None of this really made sense. I have nothing in my history that should caused my to be denied clearance. There is virtually no risk, more of a "sure thing" statistically. And how could their security guy do any kind of check on my status when they never took my information to look it up? I didn't appreciate these people wasting my time with this kind of nonsense. After all I am currently working full time and had to schedule in a time to drive out and see her. I can only rationalize she/they just didn't want to hire me and instead of giving me at least the professional courtesy of telling me directly (I don't even need an explanation) they made up these BS excuses. I'm a problem solver so initially I thought okay there is clearly some misunderstanding here and/or someone(s) clearly don't know their own business (about clearance issues et al). I think I was saved a lot of time and grief it didn't go any further than that. If you are offered an interview there, be sure you vet everything else before you make your next move.