Foot in the door -- First SC?

[malvolio]

I disagree with the other posters.
I have had SC 3 times, and all granted as an external contractor.
If the client wants you then they'll sponsor you.
Sometimes they'll sponsor you and not use you (my 1st time).
I've never had a transfer done, and every time I've had SC it has expired. At the end of the day the agents are mostly bothered that you CAN GET clearance, as if you can't they make less money. So if you've had it once agenmts will almost always take that.
Also note that most agents don't know it expires 12 months after you've left, so all I've ever done is show them a copy of the confirmation with an end date, and that has always been acceptable.

Other peoples experience may differ so don't @ me. This is what I've found over the last 15 years.

Nobody said that - I've been cleared five times over my near 30 year contracting career. That's not what this is about, the problem is persuading people to sponsor you in the face of other contractors who claim to have clearance in place. There are also a lot of jobs through outside the wire consultancies whose managers refuse to pay for escorting and supervision for uncleared staff (even though it will have been included as a cost item in the tender for the work...) and getting past agents that simply refuse to consider uncleared people out of fear of Armageddon or something (usually claiming that the client will only consider cleared people which, for any government agency at least, is a nonsense).

There are always exceptions. It depends, inter alia, on who you are engaged by and how you get to them and what your history is like.

And as an aside I've seen the "I have had clearance for the last three years" line tried and it has never worked. It's also illegal under the OSA to claim clearance when you don't have it.