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Yes. Polygraph. Drug tests. Alcohol test. STD test. Unicorn test
Clearance levels that require poly have that in the name, eg "TS/SCI with full scope poly". There's counterintelligence (basics), lifestyle (drugs, mental, family stuff), or full scope (both)
Also a Cinnamon screening
Thank the Lord I'm in commercial and don't have to deal with any of that nonsense.
I had to do some of that crap for clearances in the military. Don't miss people combing my life story at all. Never again.
Well that's a different question. You will definitely be asked about your history of drug use (7 years back for secret, 10 for top secret). You can tell the truth and take your chances that they will be ok with it (longer time ago, infrequent, might be ok but who knows). Or you can lie, but then that's a felony charge if they catch you. They'll ask these same questions about you to those who know you and potentially your neighbors. It's not the most logical process because you are the one who provides them with these character references, but again it's a felony for those people to lie too, so... Anyway my recommendation is to just not pursue this kind of work if you're going to feel compelled to lie because it's just not worth all that.
But there's really no where I else i feel I could ask this honestly, so again thank you K1
Oh FFS don't lie about it. Others gave you good reasons not to but you should also know that investigators often ask the contacts you provided for additional people you know and reach out to them to ask about you, so you can't necessarily control who they talk to.
Plus if you ever do need a poly they're going to compare your answers to all previous SF86s and like everyone said, lying is the absolute deal breaker.
Whether or not they will accept someone with a history of using harder drugs depends on the agency, the adjudicator, and how much your skill set is valued. The FBI for example takes a much harder line on drug use, but if you're a hacker and they need you...they're more likely to let some things slide.
So if getting just secret or top secret there's no poly
KPMG1 is correct. Basic Secret, Top Secret, or TS-SCI don't include a polygraph. Any clearance that requires a poly will have the word polygraph in the name of the clearance (or acronyms like FSP, CTP etc.)
No
Thank you all! I've partaken in a few more drugs than I imagine the gov would be chill with but don't imagine it's something I actually need to bring up considering I don't still.
Deep cavity search too
I'm in commercial which is fine and well but if/when I leave I feel like it would be good to have clearance considering everything in DC is either gov or secondary/tertiary gov. So maybe the better question is how poorly do they look down upon previous use or acid/coke/MDMA? I would have no problem telling the truth I just don't want it to preclude me from these jobs when it's in the past but hey.
The GPS is enormous I guess I just can't imagine everyone here is straight as an arrow
I think the reason they ask about drugs is to make sure it can't become an abuse thing. Their goal is to be sure you won't end up betraying the trust (eg lying is bad because you then can be blackmailed by someone who knows the truth, drug/alcohol abuse is bad because you may become an addict and then agree to sell secrets because you are ashamed the truth will come out or you just need the money for drugs/alcohol). So they will be doing an assessment to determine if you're a risk to get to that point. I know they can accept infrequent pot use (but no guarantees even on that), but honestly not sure what happens if you were to admit to the harder stuff. It'll be a gamble.
Personally I loved DC for the city itself and found a job where I didn't need clearance because I just don't want to be working for the fed space. Not really because of the clearance issues but because I hated working with fed staff. Be sure you really want to do that before you sign up for all the clearance headaches. There's way more to DC than that, despite how it feels sometimes.
Yeah I have no plans on lying if they don't accept me welp 🤷♂️