So many Jack Ryan wannabees in here. LOL.

I wouldn't take this polygraph for two reasons:
1. The job sounds shady. You could be getting yourself into a risky situation, and you will have given them enough info to keep you from leaving.

2. Your past affairs do make you a security risk. I'm not shaming, but your behavior did cross the boundary between typical and problematic. It's the equivalent of someone who regularly did drugs in a meth house versus someone who smoked pot a few times in high school.

Most jobs don't require a polygraph. Find one of those.

Anyone else ever notice that that polygraph examiners are disproportionately minorities?

OP, good luck. This has been entertaining to read. It's clear you are not simple, by a stretch! You sound like a baller. I mean as a compliment -- I bet you're an asset. I hope this works out for you, one way or another.

The fact that you’re asking this makes me think you have something to hide. I’ve taken several for my job and just went in knowing I am 100% clear of conscious and answered honestly.

OP, I am fascinated by this thread and your description of the potential job.
Is this for a foreign government?
The only other guess I have is in private security.
But I would think long and hard about this polygraph. Sounds like a deal breaker (for you).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you sit for it, you could still decline to answer questions. If they ask if you’ve had affairs, you could say “I don’t think that’s relevant and I decline to answer.” Or you could say “I’m not currently having an affair.” I assume this would be about your vulnerability to extortion? Tbh I think they should be more worried that you’re willing to sit for a polygraph to get a job. That seems like way too much faith in authority.

+100, I get if it was for an intelligence agency or top-secret military work, but a regular ol' private sector job? No way

It’s not really a regular 9-5 type job. It’s sort of an executive assistantship, except it sounds like a “My Man Friday” type job, where there’s all sorts of additional duties/responsibilities. Lots of travel coordination involved, access to financial material/resources, and almost certainly proprietary business information, and probably a pretty all encompassing NDA. So I “get” why they want someone who’s absolutely trustworthy. My H joked that it sounds like a Valet worthy of a Bond villain. I guess that’s sort of accurate in some regards.

You would be a fool to take a poly for this job. Sounds shady AF.

I would laugh if any employer told me I had to take a pre-employment polygraph.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you sit for it, you could still decline to answer questions. If they ask if you’ve had affairs, you could say “I don’t think that’s relevant and I decline to answer.” Or you could say “I’m not currently having an affair.” I assume this would be about your vulnerability to extortion? Tbh I think they should be more worried that you’re willing to sit for a polygraph to get a job. That seems like way too much faith in authority.

+100, I get if it was for an intelligence agency or top-secret military work, but a regular ol' private sector job? No way

It’s not really a regular 9-5 type job. It’s sort of an executive assistantship, except it sounds like a “My Man Friday” type job, where there’s all sorts of additional duties/responsibilities. Lots of travel coordination involved, access to financial material/resources, and almost certainly proprietary business information, and probably a pretty all encompassing NDA. So I “get” why they want someone who’s absolutely trustworthy. My H joked that it sounds like a Valet worthy of a Bond villain. I guess that’s sort of accurate in some regards.

This is so crazy and illogical. You, by your own admission, had multiple affairs while married. This means you are not trustworthy. Yet, you've convinced yourself that this employer will see you as absolutely trustworthy even though you plan to tell them about these affairs during the polygraph. So you believe this employer will be like "as long as you admit you're cool with lying and scheming and covering up evidence, I'll deem you trustworthy enough to hire you." And that sounds like a good employer to you. My brain is spinning.

Anonymous wrote:I know I may be in the very small minority on this, but I do not see how a man-made machine can theoretically tell if someone is actually telling a lie or not.

I believe only God can know if one is lying.

A machine just detects the heart rate, palpitations, etc. right??

But I admit I am not current on the state of our modern technology these days….

I won't get into the God point of view here, but you aren't in the minority. That's why a polygraph is not admissible as evidence in court.

IMO, polygraphs are a mind game. I won't repeat some out the outlandish things that have been said/done to myself and my colleagues in an effort to get "something" out of you, but it's my firm belief that the machine is a means to an end, which is to manipulate you into thinking the examiner CAN tell if you're lying.

I don't know that I would submit to one outside of getting a security clearance and certainly not without having full knowledge of where the information from the exam is going to go/going to be held. They are hokum and should be used less, not more.

Is this a standard practice in the industry you are going into?

Anonymous wrote:I took for a job.
After I cleared HR and business interview
Polygraph
Physical
Drug test
One hour Psch exam where I laid on couch and had to spill secrets. You failed if said nothing but failed of too much
Then a credit check
Then criminal check
Then background check.

I fully expected a finger in my
Ass and I got it during physical

Yes, they’ve already done a criminal background check and scanned fingerprints, they did a credit check, they called and spoke with two of the references I provided in my second interview. This whole process has been going since the week after thanksgiving. I guess it would’ve been faster were it not for the holidays. And no mention of medical exam, haha.

The polygraph is on Wednesday. BTW, is it normal to have to go to the testing center for that? I thought those things were in little briefcases and they came to you?

I’ll report back when it’s over.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 know one person who was asked to name all affair partners.

Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. I didn’t even know the names of some of the guys I hooked up with. Affair Partner is a generic term in my case, because quite a few of them were totally anonymous NSA type trysts. In the interest of clarity and context, I had some issues I was dealing with at the time with body image after my first pregnancy, and that kind of fed into a sex addictive pattern of behavior, where I guess I felt I had to prove to myself I was still desirable and attractive. So I went down a path of casual hook ups and anonymous encounters. I saw a few guys on the side regularly, but a lot more ONS’s and other stuff. It was the early 2000’s, I was getting with guys on Craigslist. The kind of stuff that my H, or any man frankly, just wouldn’t be able to get past. It would be the end of us, period. So naming people would literally be impossible.

This is exactly the dirt they are looking for. If you’re hiding something from your husband and someone else finds that out (which in your case is very possible because there are a lot of someone elses), they could use that information to blackmail you. That makes you a security risk.

Yes, that is what they believe. But that is a huge stretch. Same thing goes for people who aren't financially stable. Hell, if that is the theory, then half of gov employees should have been fired in 2009 when the housing market crashed. The idea that you are going to sell out your country because you're in debt or because you did something you aren't proud of is a bit over the top. The problem is that people in this line of work (poly, personnel security, adjudications) tend to be rule follower types and really have difficulty thinking critically. They will always justify what they are doing, doesn't matter what it is.

Exactly. They have no ability to think independently. They’re dim witted and yet think they’re so special because they work for the IC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 know one person who was asked to name all affair partners.

Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. I didn’t even know the names of some of the guys I hooked up with. Affair Partner is a generic term in my case, because quite a few of them were totally anonymous NSA type trysts. In the interest of clarity and context, I had some issues I was dealing with at the time with body image after my first pregnancy, and that kind of fed into a sex addictive pattern of behavior, where I guess I felt I had to prove to myself I was still desirable and attractive. So I went down a path of casual hook ups and anonymous encounters. I saw a few guys on the side regularly, but a lot more ONS’s and other stuff. It was the early 2000’s, I was getting with guys on Craigslist. The kind of stuff that my H, or any man frankly, just wouldn’t be able to get past. It would be the end of us, period. So naming people would literally be impossible.

This is exactly the dirt they are looking for. If you’re hiding something from your husband and someone else finds that out (which in your case is very possible because there are a lot of someone elses), they could use that information to blackmail you. That makes you a security risk.

Yes, that is what they believe. But that is a huge stretch. Same thing goes for people who aren't financially stable. Hell, if that is the theory, then half of gov employees should have been fired in 2009 when the housing market crashed. The idea that you are going to sell out your country because you're in debt or because you did something you aren't proud of is a bit over the top. The problem is that people in this line of work (poly, personnel security, adjudications) tend to be rule follower types and really have difficulty thinking critically. They will always justify what they are doing, doesn't matter what it is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you sit for it, you could still decline to answer questions. If they ask if you’ve had affairs, you could say “I don’t think that’s relevant and I decline to answer.” Or you could say “I’m not currently having an affair.” I assume this would be about your vulnerability to extortion? Tbh I think they should be more worried that you’re willing to sit for a polygraph to get a job. That seems like way too much faith in authority.

+100, I get if it was for an intelligence agency or top-secret military work, but a regular ol' private sector job? No way

It’s not really a regular 9-5 type job. It’s sort of an executive assistantship, except it sounds like a “My Man Friday” type job, where there’s all sorts of additional duties/responsibilities. Lots of travel coordination involved, access to financial material/resources, and almost certainly proprietary business information, and probably a pretty all encompassing NDA. So I “get” why they want someone who’s absolutely trustworthy. My H joked that it sounds like a Valet worthy of a Bond villain. I guess that’s sort of accurate in some regards.

With this information - no. Don’t do it. There’s no clearance involved and it actually sounds like you will be involved with controversial and/or illegal activity.

I can't think of any job I'd want enough that I'd be willing to let my potential employer know that my wife and I had a threesome with our friend, or some other intimate detail of our lives. Certainly, not for a private sector job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you sit for it, you could still decline to answer questions. If they ask if you’ve had affairs, you could say “I don’t think that’s relevant and I decline to answer.” Or you could say “I’m not currently having an affair.” I assume this would be about your vulnerability to extortion? Tbh I think they should be more worried that you’re willing to sit for a polygraph to get a job. That seems like way too much faith in authority.

+100, I get if it was for an intelligence agency or top-secret military work, but a regular ol' private sector job? No way

It’s not really a regular 9-5 type job. It’s sort of an executive assistantship, except it sounds like a “My Man Friday” type job, where there’s all sorts of additional duties/responsibilities. Lots of travel coordination involved, access to financial material/resources, and almost certainly proprietary business information, and probably a pretty all encompassing NDA. So I “get” why they want someone who’s absolutely trustworthy. My H joked that it sounds like a Valet worthy of a Bond villain. I guess that’s sort of accurate in some regards.

Ok, with this detail I am concerned for you OP. A 1:1 employer relationship requires a lot of humanity on both sides, and demanding a polygraph does not suggest the boss has this. At the very least, it shows s/he has terrible boundaries and does not respect employees as humans and professionals.

The upsides of the job sound good, but give equal thought to the worst case scenario. Could this person hurt your future prospects in this industry? Could you afford to quit if they are unbearable, and will this experience make you eligible for other jobs or is it a dead end that could trap you?

Is the company NXIUM? I can’t imagine taking a polygraph for a private sector admin assistant job. This sounds crazy and does not bode well for the job culture.

It’s crazy and possibly illegal. These are the only private sector jobs that can require a polygraph:

The Act also includes limited exemptions where polygraph tests (but no other lie detector tests) may be administered in the private sector, subject to certain restrictions:

To employees who are reasonably suspected of involvement in a workplace incident that results in economic loss to the employer and who had access to the property that is the subject of an investigation; and
To prospective employees of armored car, security alarm, and security guard firms who protect facilities, materials or operations affecting health or safety, national security, or currency and other like instruments; and
To prospective employees of pharmaceutical and other firms authorized to manufacture, distribute, or dispense controlled substances who will have direct access to such controlled substances, as well as current employee who had access to persons or property that are the subject of an ongoing investigation.

Booking travel for your cult leader doesn’t seem to fit here.