Have you ever taken a polygraph? Lots of questions for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine any job where your level of fidelity would come into question. It has nothing to do with any job you might perform, so why would they ask such a specific question?

I've never taken a polygraph, but I would assume questions would be more like "have you ever taken anything from the office that does not belong to you" "have you ever lied for your boss" "did you earn a degree from XYZ University" "do you currently use illegal drugs"

Whatever you do OP, just be honest.

I just assumed they’d ask something embarrassing that most people would be inclined to lie about. So they could “catch” you lying about something. I have no idea. My entire knowledge of polygraph tests was gleaned from movies and TV, so that shows you how detached from reality from it I am

NP. Fidelity can be related because if it is secret then there is potential for black mail. At least when it comes to security clearances part of what they are looking for is for information that other parties could potentially black mail you on.

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure they are just used to not hire someone they don't want but have no documentation to do a genuine no-hire. You can just say "welp, we got this reading on the drugs question, sorry" and tell them have a nice day.

[Anonymous]

OP: any updates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a full scope lifestyle poly. The first rule is not to talk about it. You can lose your clearance.

This isn’t for a clearance. It’s private sector. And I’ll take the test, but I will refuse to sign an NDA about the test if that comes up.

Op. You aren’t making sense. Tens of thousands of “private” sector employees take a poly to get a clearance.

If not for a clearance, what kind of job requires this poly? Very curious

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a full scope lifestyle poly. The first rule is not to talk about it. You can lose your clearance.

This isn’t for a clearance. It’s private sector. And I’ll take the test, but I will refuse to sign an NDA about the test if that comes up.

You sound just like the type of person I would hire…not

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP: any updates?

I’m OP

Took the test yesterday. It was not anything like I expected. Resolved that I would answer every question truthfully and did so. Took about 40 minutes from sitting down and having the tester hook up several wires on my left arm and a thing that looked like a coiled phone cord that went around my torso. It did not look like the machine you see in movies, with a paper roll and moving needles. It was a black box about the size of a lunchbox and connected to a laptop. I couldn’t see the screen from where I was sitting.

He asked if my name was _____, am I currently _____ years old, is my address ______, and a few other questions that were obviously for calibration of some kind of baseline. All questions were yes/no only, and was instructed to only answer yes or no with no further elaboration.

Lots of questions about if I’ve ever stolen anything, repeated for different values. Have you ever stolen anything worth more than _____? Same question again with a lower number, all the way down to things like “have you ever skipped out on a meal or bar tab without paying?”

Have I ever been arrested, ever been detained by police, ever fled from police, ever had a warrant for my arrest, etc.

Lots and lots of questions about driving. Do I regularly speed, with similar graduations of degree like 10 over, 20 over, 30 over. Ever driven drunk, ever had an accident, ever left the scene of an accident, ever damaged another car while parking, etc.

Taxes and financial stuff. Ever taken knowingly fraudulent deductions? Do I have undeclared income or bank accounts?

A lot of it was repetitive sounding, and it was very monotonous and dry and boring.

No questions at all about past drug use or relationships or affairs. The things I was worried most about weren’t even brought up lol.


I answered honestly for every question. I did not ask if I “passed” or not and he gave me no indication when it was over. I would assume I passed because I was truthful on every question.




So that’s it. That’s all there was. Kind of anticlimactic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a full scope lifestyle poly. The first rule is not to talk about it. You can lose your clearance.

This isn’t for a clearance. It’s private sector. And I’ll take the test, but I will refuse to sign an NDA about the test if that comes up.

You sound just like the type of person I would hire…not

I probably wouldn’t work for you anyway, so we’re a good fit like that.

F O