The Federal Group recruiting methodology, in the open.

Why we publish our methodology

Most recruiting firms treat their process as a black box. We do the opposite. Federal hiring is high stakes work. A misstated clearance, a candidate who was never really qualified, a key person who walks away after award: each of these carries real cost for a federal program and real risk for a contractor. Clients deserve to know how a firm operates before they hand over a requirement, and candidates deserve to know what happens to their information after they submit it. So we wrote our methodology down and we keep it here in the open.

This is the same process we walk through in a scope conversation. Nothing here is marketing. It is how the work actually runs.

Four steps: source, screen, verify, submit

Source

We start from an active federal network rather than a cold keyword search. The candidates who matter for cleared and credentialed roles are usually working, not applying. We reach them through relationships, referrals, and a candidate community that has been built over more than twenty years in federal recruiting. When a requirement calls for a profile outside the existing network, we run a targeted search against the specific clearance level, agency familiarity, and skill set the role needs, not a generic req blast.

Screen

Screening is measured against the real requirement, not the job description language. We read the statement of work behind the role where one exists, we ask the hiring manager what actually matters, and we separate the true discriminators from the nice to haves. For federal work that means clearance posture, agency and program familiarity, contract vehicle experience, and the specific technical or functional depth the mission needs. A candidate who looks perfect on paper but cannot pass the real bar never reaches the client.

Verify

We verify every clearance claim through approved channels before a candidate is submitted. We never rely on a candidate's word alone, and we never inflate or restate a clearance level to make a submission look stronger. If a clearance cannot be substantiated through proper channels, the candidate is not submitted as cleared. This is the single most important discipline in cleared recruiting and the one where shortcuts do the most damage. For candidates and hiring managers who want the underlying detail, our plain English guide to federal security clearances explains the levels, the investigation timelines, and what clearance reciprocity actually means.

Submit

We submit a short, accountable slate, not a stack of resumes. Each candidate comes with a clear reason they fit the requirement and a straight assessment of any gap. A tight slate respects the hiring manager's time and signals that the screening was real. For most funded, awarded roles where the profile is in our network, the first slate lands within 48 hours. Niche clearances such as TS/SCI with a full scope polygraph, specialized language qualifications, or specific agency familiarity take 5 to 10 business days.

Choosing an engagement model

The right structure depends on the work. We let the work define the engagement, not the other way around. The four models below cover almost every federal hiring situation. If you are unsure which fits, describe the role and we will tell you plainly.

Pre award staffing carries its own risk, because the people you name in a proposal have to still be available when the award lands, sometimes many months later. That is a problem worth understanding early. We cover it in depth in key personnel risk, the federal contract problem nobody discusses early enough.

What we will not do

Our methodology is defined as much by what we decline as by what we deliver. We do not misstate a clearance level. We do not submit candidates we have not screened. We do not sell or share candidate data. We do not take roles that do not need federal specific expertise, because a generalist staffing firm can fill those faster and cheaper. And we do not compete for prime contract awards ourselves, which means we are never staffing against our own clients. Our entire business is filling positions at the firms that win the work, including the defense primes and subcontractors and the small businesses building past cleared talent depth.

How an engagement starts

An engagement starts with a scope conversation, not a contract. Tell us the role, the clearance posture, the contract or proposal it supports, and the timeline. We tell you which engagement model fits, what is realistic, and what is not. If we are not the right firm for a particular requirement, we will say so. That is the point of publishing the methodology: you should be able to judge the work before you commit to it.