I am an independent consultant now for the past few years. I have been able to do independent consulting for the past 14 years out of 20 years and make more than when I was a salary employee.

I took my last base salary, and let say that was 135k with no high level clearances.

I did my research on glassdoor for salaries and look at cost of living in Richmond.

I said to myself that I should anticipate a 20% pay cut from NOVA. That gets me to 108k. I am hoping a 15% cut, so I want to go to 115k.

The 108k to 115k after reviewing my resume was in line with the caveat I would move into management where bonuses in the commercial world would take the salary up and he told me what typically bonuses look like.

I can deal with that base, and if a bonus came, that is gravy. The bonus numbers were a pleasant surprise.

These are false numbers, but my point is that my original salary is not inflated by having a high security clearance (i.e. polygraph, SBI etc.). Without the inflated security clearance salary, I am more likely to meet salary expectations in Richmond.

I am an integrator with a Computer Science degree, so I thinking of getting the AWS certification which will make me more marketable in Capital One and stop me from going into management.