looking for a federal language job, but most seem to require a clearance. any advice on where to start?
One thing you can do is look for a job that doesn’t require a clearance at a company that does cleared work, like SAIC, RTX, etc. Once you’re internal you can aggressively pursue opportunities that could sponsor you, and they’ll be more amenable to that because you won’t be sitting on a bench costing them money for nothing.