OARM and DOJ Suitability Forum

[Anonymous User]

I recently accepted a job with a DOJ component. I’ve got a question about prior drug use for the suitability determination. The DOJ website says once you’ve got an offer, you can contact OARM with questions. Does anyone have any experience contacting OARM under these circumstances? Can you do it anonymously? My interviewers told me my pariticular situation probably would be fine, but also made sure to tell me that OARM, and not them, make the final call. Also, if this can’t be done anonymously, might I bring unwanted attention to my application’s suitability review if I go and start asking questions?

[Anonymous User]

Bumping up OP’s question.

Does anyone have any experience contacting OARM under these circumstances? Can you do it anonymously?

[Anonymous User]

The honors program website states that once you receive an offer, you can consult OARM about the suitability determination, and there's a guide to government employment on Yale's website that says you can ask anonymously. (That is also my understanding, but I didn't need to ask so can't confirm from personal experience).

Also, I don't think asking questions is going to draw unwanted attention to your suitability review. All reviews get closely scrutinized, and virtually anything you might need guidance about is going to be something that they ask about directly and pay close attention to. It's not like if you ask them about the impact of, say, doing cocaine your 1L summer, it's going to lead them to discover that you did cocaine your 1L summer, but if you didn't ask them about it, they'd never know; the form flat out asks you about illegal drug use so you'd have to disclose it and they're not going to miss it.

Similarly, say a question is ambiguous, and it turns out that there's some negative thing in your past that you don't know if you don't need to disclose. Yes, if you call them up and ask, "does weird minor motor vehicle infraction X need to be reported," and they tell you no, they will nonetheless now know that you have that weird minor motor vehicle infraction. But the whole point is that they only require you to disclose what they believe is material to the suitability determination. If they don't ask for certain information, they don't consider it material and so it can't affect your determination.

Really I think a big point of being able to call OARM is that if you do, and you find out you have some kind of dealbreaker, you can pull the plug on your application before you fail the suitability review. Because once you go through the suitability review, if you fail, it's in your record forever and probably makes you unhireable (by the feds at least) in future. Conversely, if you withdraw before the suitability review goes through, there's no failure and you live to fight again another day.

[Anonymous User]

Really I think a big point of being able to call OARM is that if you do, and you find out you have some kind of dealbreaker, you can pull the plug on your application before you fail the suitability review. Because once you go through the suitability review, if you fail, it's in your record forever and probably makes you unhireable (by the feds at least) in future. Conversely, if you withdraw before the suitability review goes through, there's no failure and you live to fight again another day.

If you call OARM and ask about some dealbreaker, is that also in your record forever, making you unhireable?

[Anonymous User]

Really I think a big point of being able to call OARM is that if you do, and you find out you have some kind of dealbreaker, you can pull the plug on your application before you fail the suitability review. Because once you go through the suitability review, if you fail, it's in your record forever and probably makes you unhireable (by the feds at least) in future. Conversely, if you withdraw before the suitability review goes through, there's no failure and you live to fight again another day.

If you call OARM and ask about some dealbreaker, is that also in your record forever, making you unhireable?

If you're anonymous they can't put it in your record.

[Anonymous User]

Really I think a big point of being able to call OARM is that if you do, and you find out you have some kind of dealbreaker, you can pull the plug on your application before you fail the suitability review. Because once you go through the suitability review, if you fail, it's in your record forever and probably makes you unhireable (by the feds at least) in future. Conversely, if you withdraw before the suitability review goes through, there's no failure and you live to fight again another day.

If you call OARM and ask about some dealbreaker, is that also in your record forever, making you unhireable?

If you're anonymous they can't put it in your record.

A denial is not on your record if you pull the plug early, which is why reaching out to OARM is suggested (even if you give them your name). A denial will be on your record if you go through the entire process and are denied for suitability. This bars you from government work for a certain number of years.

[andythefir]

Bad news: USAO peeps get the same depth of scrutiny as top secret security clearance holders. It’s called a tier 5 investigation, but they don’t actually get clearances, which means you can’t take it to private industry. The idea is if you need a clearance they can adjudicate a proper clearance in days/weeks instead of months. Good news: because the investigation is the same as the one other folks get for a top secret, there’s published ALJ decisions on point. There’s also a super helpful subreddit.

[Anonymous User]

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