One of requirements is that I need to have a full FBI background check. It is slightly disconcerting for me and I would like to know:
Has anyone been through this process.
Does anyone have any feedback about going through the process.
The folks there told me to be completely honest on the check. To hold nothing back. I have nothing to hide, but this is the first time I have had such an extensive background check and I need to see what folks have to say…
It’s really not that big of a deal unless you are trying to hide something from your past. It’s basically just a criminal background check, if you’ve never been arrested for a felony, you have nothing to worry about.
For my background check I had to basically give a rundown of my addresses for the past several years, as well as contacts who could confirm that I lived there and what I was doing there.
Names of relatives.
Various other contacts (friends, etc.).
Questions detailing my financial history.
They wanted to know if I had ever had any drinking problems, how much I drank, how often, etc. Drug use was also questioned.
They will ask your references about your history with these things as well, so be honest.
All in all, it’s no biggie. Just let everybody whose name you put down know that the FBI is going to be contacting them.
Don’t lie, even if you think you can get away with it.
I had an FBI background check when I worked for the Commerce Department and was questioned about some “yes” answers I gave to drug use-related questions. I told them of my history of drug-use in college and they seemed satisfied with my answers.
Just remember, the FBI is in the business of knowing things. If they want to find out the truth about you, they’ll find it out.
And as has been pointed out, give people the heads-up that the FBI may come calling.
If the applicant ever tried ‘hard’ drugs such as cocaine, heroin, or crystal meth, would this really be such a good idea? I understand your history would risk being uncovered in the poly or through interviews, but if you had a bad enough drug history I would think that the difference between lying/fibbing and telling the truth might be “some” chance at the job vs. “no” chance at the job.
If you’ve spent any significant amount of time outside the U.S., try to give them contacts to interview who are based in the U.S. (and preferably U.S. citizens). This is particularly true if your time outside the U.S. has been anything more suspicious than a vacation trip. I’d had a stint in Spain, which nobody cared about, and one in the Soviet Union, which became a huge headache (even though it was on a government-funded study program); in the end I had to sign some goofy statement that if any Soviet acquaintances tried to have me do anything which threatened national security, I would inform the State Department immediately. But the clearance took 3x longer to complete than anyone else’s had.
Try to give more than one contact for each chunk of time you need to cover, and try to provide current contact information for all people you list as references. It will save them time trying to track down the people you list.
If you list that you’ve never used recreational drugs (true in my case, I swear!), prepare for them not to believe you. This was in 1991, so they didn’t do routine urinalysis then, but it was still annoying. I was about to offer to have them do voluntary urinalysis just to get them to leave me alone.
It depends on how badly you want the job and how badly you want to keep it. The problem that arises with this sort of thing is that (depending on who you’re working for) if a foreign agent or someone engaged in industrial espionage finds out about your past drug use, they can use it to blackmail you if you haven’t informed your employer. If the chance of that is small, you may get away with it.
They may also ask you questions about your marriage (if you’re married) and if you’ve ever cheated.
Having been the ‘other woman’ very briefly, I was on a list to be asked about the cheating. He pulled his application before my interrogation, so I didn’t actually get asked anything.