Smitty,

The main purpose of the NSA's pre-employment polygraph examinations is to get admissions. Everyone is routinely asked to explain what they were thinking of when the relevant questions are asked. It is also routine for applicants to be subjected to up to three polygraph sessions. Sometimes even more are administered.

The NSA uses the relevant/irrelevant technique, which you'll find explained toward the end of Chapter 3 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector.

Many others have had experiences similar to yours (or worse). For further reading, see the NSA related statements on our Personal Statements page and "Ralph J. Perro's" article, "Interviewing With an Intelligence Agency (or, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Fort Meade)".

Also, if you do a keyword search for "NSA" (and check "Match as phrase") on this message board, (be sure to increase the parameters from the default of searching only the past seven days), you'll find a number of posts from other NSA applicants, too.

I have to disagree with Randy where he seems to suggest that the decision of the NSA polygraph section doesn't matter. It most certainly does (unless perhaps someone well-connected is pulling strings for you). The polygraph is more than a "piece of the puzzle." It's a sine qua non. If you don't pass the polygraph, you won't get hired.

Randy,
Thanks for your words of support.

Counting could easily be seen by a polygrapher who has heard of countermeasures as a mental countermeasure. 

You could have simply replied to the question of what you were thinking about by saying "nothing important, just listening to the question and answering as instructed".

You never know though. I have failed my polygraph, but all is not lost. It isn't their decision that matters. The polygraph is one piece of the puzzle with other pieces that could shape how that one piece fits. I'm sure if the other pieces look good, that will go a long way in determining the next step.

Randy

My NSA polygraph indicated deception even though I was being totally honest--I was floored.  Six months later I was permitted to try again.  This time I decided to count sheep or count backwards by three during the exam, so that it might help me be less nervous.

I guess I was having difficulty because the examiner kept asking me what I had been thinking about during the exam.  So I explained that I was just counting in order to relax.  He stated not to do that because it will cause a problem, so we did the exam again and I just focused on the subject matter of the questions.

Get this.  After the re-test he finally stated that the graph did not necessarily indicate dishonesty, but he was nevertheless very concerned that the polygraph reflected I had been thinking of a lot of other things during the exam.  This seemed to be a real problem to him, but I couldn’t find out why or what to expect next.

Why are thoughts such a concern if there was no deception indicated?  Perhaps that dumb machine was still indicating deception, but he didn’t want to upset me so he beat around the bush.   

I’m so disappointed in the system.  What can I expect now?  This isn’t looking good.  Polygraphs simply do not work in my case.