Rachel Bozeman 00:53
Well, hello there, amazing listeners. It's Rachel. Thanks so much for hanging out with us today. We've got a super fun episode with some show firsts – spoiler alert out there! But first, let me welcome the one and only Bob Wheeler, our special co-host for today. Bob, how in the heck are you doing, my friend?

Bob Wheeler 01:15
Hey, Rachel, I'm doing terrific. I love getting a chance to be an occasional pop-in guest host, and I'm excited to be here today. Since we're here, who are we talking to? Tell me what's going on today.

Rachel Bozeman 01:26

You're just full of great questions, Bob. Well, let me tell you who we're
talking to today. It is Brett Willie, the director of recruiting at Clarity
Innovations. Brett, it is so great to have you with us today.

Brett Willie 01:36

I really appreciate you guys having me. It's nice to meet both of you.

Rachel Bozeman 01:40

I did a spoiler alert at the beginning, so let me tell you what it is. This is
a first for us on the show, and let me make sure I'm stating this correctly,
Brett, but I understand that you were inspired by a TV show host to major in
kinesiology, and then you went into recruiting. So, how in the world? Tell us
about this career path: TV show, kinesiology, recruiting. Tell us more.

Brett Willie 02:06

As you can tell, there's not a whole lot of overlap between those things
necessarily. I always tell people I think it's important to figure out what you
don't want to do; that way, you know what you do want to do. When I started at
Maryland, I actually went into microbiology, a little bit more advanced, I
guess, than kinesiology. It's a specific school, etc. But I was spending six to
ten hours a week in labs, wearing a white coat, in a stick-to-yourself kind of
environment. As someone who has created a career in sales and recruiting, that
wasn't the environment for me. So, when I started looking for my first
opportunity, I knew that sales was probably going to be the best alignment for
me. I started applying to some of those roles and got my first recruiting job
out of college. Instead of going the account management route, I ended up
staying in recruiting, and it's brought me to where I am today.

Bob Wheeler 03:00

That's a great story, Brett. You've obviously had some growth in your life over
the years, but Clarity is also having some growth. Just last year, you guys
merged with Chameleon Consulting. So, you have three different sectors now and
700 employees. Can you break it down? What are those three sectors, and what's
going on at Clarity?

Brett Willie 03:19

For context, I was about employee 50 when I started at Clarity, so to see us up
to this 700 number has definitely been quite the experience. To your point, we
have three sectors that we traditionally focus on. By and large, our largest
division is our DoD sector, military departments. With the partnership with
Chameleon Consulting, we split that into two different verticals: systems and
data, and cyber dominance. The next is the traditional intel community, the
three-letter agencies in Virginia, up here at Fort Meade. Then there's the more
federal agencies or commercial-oriented division, like the VA, which would be a
great example of a customer that might fall into that. That's where we're at
today, and we're looking to grow those three and see what the next step is.

Bob Wheeler 04:12

You said grow things even more. I know you're trying to get another 300 to push
to the 1,000-employee mark pretty soon. Is that the goal? Is that a short-term
goal, a long-term goal? How does that work out?

Brett Willie 04:23

It's a very lofty goal. When you hear a company of 600 trying to add about half
their workforce in a year, you have to have the infrastructure for that. That
is our goal. We have a strong business development team, a very good recruiting
team, and we're tracking for this goal about halfway through the year now.
We're excited to see how it comes to an end, but we're very hopeful that 300
will be that number.

Rachel Bozeman 04:48

That's awesome. I love a good recruiting story there. With a good recruiting
story come the roles you're trying to recruit for. Tell us a little bit more
about what kind of security-cleared positions you're currently hiring for, and
are there particular skill sets you're generally seeking?

Brett Willie 05:04

For us, it falls into a couple of key categories that encompass a lot of
different skill sets. When you break it down, you can look at something like
software engineering, but we do everything from embedded to cloud development,
so hardware to AWS services. Security engineering obviously encompasses a lot
of different skill sets in the ISSO, ISM roles. We do DevSecOps, data
engineering, cyber operations, solutions architecture, platform engineering,
product and program management, and then design thinking, more UI/UX-oriented
roles.

Rachel Bozeman 05:43

So, some pretty incredible opportunities. We've got a lot of great listeners
out there, but what they want to know, Brett, is where are the positions
located?

Brett Willie 05:53

Clarity itself is probably defined as a remote-first company. We love to open
those opportunities to our employees, but as anyone listening knows, a lot of
where those positions are located is predicated on the customer and where that
contract is. I can say we have employees across the United States and even
OCONUS in Germany, South Korea, etc. From a central hub perspective, I would
say we primarily operate out of the Virginia-Maryland area, and we have another
significant portion of our contract base in Tampa, Florida.

Bob Wheeler 06:32

You mentioned you do a little bit of everything with different sectors. You
also do a lot of everything as far as clearances go. This is a ClearedJobs.Net
podcast, so we're going to talk about clearances. A lot of companies tend to
pigeonhole themselves into low-level or high-level clearances, but you guys do
everything from clearable all the way up to polygraph. Is that right? You have
a pretty broad scope for your clearance levels.

Brett Willie 06:53

That's very intentional. COVID really changed the game for the DoD sector. A
lot of people got that taste of remote work-life balance. When we looked at
that, we said we want to have that culture embedded in this company. There’s
sometimes burnout when you have to go on-site every day, put your phone down,
and can’t talk to anyone. It’s a different type of role. So, we set it up where
you could have no clearance all the way up to a full-scope polygraph and
everything in between, depending on which contract you want to support. The
infrastructure gives our employee base the ability to move internally without
having to go externally for other opportunities that might offer those things.

Rachel Bozeman 07:43

Very cool. Sorry, it’s the recruiter in me; I can’t let it go quite yet, Brett.
If you don’t mind answering one more question for me about these 300 folks
you’re looking to add to your organization. Of those roles, you shared the span
of different titles, but what are those top hiring priorities, and have they
changed as you’re pivoting and continuing to add to your workforce?

Brett Willie 08:07

It’s more of the same in the DoD space: software engineering, data science,
cybersecurity. I don’t think that will ever go out of style in a sector based
on technology, protection, and everything else. I had this conversation earlier
this year with some of our engineers. One of the new buzzwords for 2025 is
platform engineer. It’s not new, but what it encompasses is relatively new. It
seems to be the new code word for DevOps. It’s software, DevOps, security,
networking, systems, and we’re finding that the government is using that labor
category to encompass a lot of different opportunities. So, keep an eye out for
that one; it’s a good place to be right now.

Rachel Bozeman 08:55

You heard it here first, friends!

Bob Wheeler 08:57

Here we go. We’ve talked about jobs, clearances, and things like that. As a
recruiter, Brett, you want people who get hired to come to a company and stay
because they like it. You’ve got a culture at Clarity, and it sounds like it’s
a fairly intentional way of putting it together. You want givers, not takers.
What does that mean at Clarity?

Brett Willie 09:16

It means we want people who naturally think about how they can contribute to
the success of those around them, not just themselves. We live in a pretty
transactional community where there are labor categories, and things have to
fit. It’s a little individualistic. You can’t go in and talk about what you’re
doing with your colleagues because maybe they don’t have the same clearance as
you. We look to change the narrative around that and provide a culture of
people who are collaborative and passionate about the same things. We’re
intentional about building a culture where people help each other win, and by
proxy, the company is winning as well.

Rachel Bozeman 09:59

I want to dig a little deeper into culture because it’s a favorite topic here.
What’s something you’re super proud of about the culture at Clarity, or
something that stands out that differentiates Clarity?

Brett Willie 10:09

We have a large level of transparency, and that starts from what I would say is
top-down, although that’s not really how we view leadership at the company.
Transparency to a fault. We still have a small company feel with more of a
large business infrastructure. That was really important to our employees and
ownership, that we try to maintain that as much as possible because no one
likes to feel like a cog in a wheel, and small businesses have a history of not
making it that way.

Rachel Bozeman 10:42

Absolutely, nobody wants to be a number. Something else I know you all do
incredibly well, adding to the culture and the goodness that is Clarity, is
that you offer SkillBridge opportunities for transitioning military. Has it
been as successful as I believe it to be there at Clarity?

Brett Willie 11:00

Absolutely, it’s been a large part of our culture for quite some time. A lot of
the leadership and ownership at Clarity is former military. It’s embedded in
everything we do, and that’s another reason why we set up our sectors, because
we viewed it as the whole lifecycle of military, not just active but off-duty
as well. SkillBridge is a massive part of that. We’ve been doing it
successfully for years. We’re very in tune with the changes and expectations
that program has developed, and we’re still seeing a large quantity of success
there. With our expansion, we’re excited to grow that division as well.

Bob Wheeler 11:40

Those are great tips and stories, Brett. You talk about helping other people
win, and with the military thing with the veterans—I was a veteran myself—we
always have a history of trying to help people succeed as well. Looking at the
big picture, you’ve been a recruiter for a while. Do you have any general tips
for job seekers with a security clearance? Have you seen things that folks
could be doing a little better or some good things that can help them be a good
job seeker in general, regardless of their skill set?

Brett Willie 12:07

One term I like to use is unapologetic transparency with your recruiter. It’s
an interesting phrase, but what it means is we want to hire the best talent at
Clarity, and I have a feeling other companies are aligned with that mentality.
What happens is candidates sometimes play things close to the chest because
they don’t want to give up their pieces in fear that a company will take
advantage of that. In our space, information is power, and in some cases, it’s
helping you not be double-submitted to an opportunity where you’re then
disqualified for it. There are other things at the government level that can
happen that really need that transparency. The unapologetic portion is you’re a
human being, and you have to do what’s right for you and your family. You
should never feel bad about exploring your options. We’re going to do right by
our candidates as part of our culture, but our preference would be that they do
right by us as well. It’s a two-way street.

Rachel Bozeman 13:16

Those are great tips. I love that phrase, unapologetically transparent. That’s
fantastic. A lot of our listeners are out there exploring better opportunities
for themselves. We give a lot of advice on things to do in the interview or
selection process, but something we don’t focus on is how it might feel from
the recruiter’s perspective and things candidates can do that might make the
recruiter a little uncomfortable. I understand you might have some tips on
things that can be avoided so your recruiter feels good about the interaction
and doesn’t walk away thinking, “Well, that was strange.”

Brett Willie 13:57

What’s important for everyone to remember is that behind every job is a human
element. Recruiting is no different. The treatment of your recruiter is a
testament to how you’re going to be as an employee when you come in. We’re not
a butts-in-seats company, so we do a lot of hiring after the first
conversations. If you can’t be transparent, or you’re making things extremely
difficult, lack communication, or are disrespectful, we might not be as tempted
to reach back and revisit that hiring process after something like that.
Especially in a world that’s digital, where most calls and meetings are remote,
remember there’s a human being on the other side, and they want what’s best for
you.

Bob Wheeler 14:48

Great tip. Brett, you’re that human being on the other side a lot of times.
You’re a great recruiter; otherwise, we wouldn’t be talking to you today, to be
quite honest. Let’s put you on the spot and let you brag a little bit. Has
there been anything recently where you thought, “That was really good; I’m
really happy we placed this person”? Do you have a success story that makes you
feel good about your job or what you’re doing?

Brett Willie 15:12

With this integration, I’ve been a lot more on the operation side, strategy,
and building out processes as we move forward. Anyone who’s been through an
integration can tell you that can be pretty scary, especially for two teams
combining to bring one large recruiting team. There’s a difference in tactics,
approach, etc. It’s cliché, but every hire we’ve had since January this year
feels like a massive win because it’s a testament that we’ve made the right
decisions to get our processes and culture correct and aligned, and that we
have the right people in place to make a difference at Clarity.

Rachel Bozeman 15:55

Now that we’ve got the listeners very excited and they want to know more about
the organization, how can they get in touch with you and your team?

Brett Willie 16:05

Hopefully, if we have any contact information from me from this, feel free to
reach out to me directly via email. We also have the Clarity Innovations
webpage where our careers and opportunities are posted. We have a staffing
distro, and I can provide that information to you all as well. Those three
places are a great way to start. LinkedIn also works, as we are very active
there.

Rachel Bozeman 16:31

Brett, it was an absolute pleasure. Thanks so much for spending a little time
with us and sharing more about Clarity with our listeners. Thanks so much. Till
next time!

Brett Willie 16:42

I appreciate you guys having me. Thank you so much.

Rachel Bozeman 16:46

Well, that was fun, and it was so great to learn from Brett and all of his
refreshing insights. I really enjoyed his phrase, unapologetic transparency. I
think it’s something that gets so lost in recruiting nowadays. It’s about
making sure that, at all costs, it’s about being transparent, being clear, and
ensuring that really leads the conversation. What about you, Bob? What did you
find interesting about the conversation today?

Bob Wheeler 17:12

I loved that he started there early. He said he was the 50th employee, and now
they’re growing. They’re at 700, they want to add 300 more, and they do all
these different clearances. That means they’re hiring and ready to talk to the
right people. If you’re a good fit, I think Brett’s the kind of guy you’re
going to want to get in touch with.

Rachel Bozeman 17:31

You made it to the beautiful end, called Star. For all of you, be sure to tap
that follow button, and we’ll see you back next week. Till then, bye-bye.