Hopeful55 wrote on Nov 15^th, 2010 at 5:00pm:

Good thing someone quoted it.  He either got hired, or his background started, so he deleted it all.

hmm what happened?  was the original reply deleted?

CIA Polygraph Test.
See the Penn and Teller polygraph video here: http://video.yahoo.com/watch/5618156/14742989
As silly as it is, this an accurage depiction of the CIA polygraph. 

First off, be prepared for an interrogation.  Whether you tell the truth or not, whether you use countermeasures or not, you will be interrogated and accused of trying to beat the system.   Just suck it up, roll with it, and play the game.   Pretend to believe in the polygraph just to appease the polygrapher.

The 3-day processing occurs at the CIA Dulles Discovery Building in Chantilly, VA(google it, it's a well known building right off Air & Space Museum Pkwy and Rt. 28).  13800 Air & Space Museum Pkwy, Chantilly VA is the address.  The Dulles Discovery Building is where all of the applicant processing takes place as well as many interviews and info sessions.  There are 2 or 3 buildings there at Dulles Discovery and they are all CIA buildings.  The 3-day processing includes medical, psych, and polygraph tests.  This only occurs months after a Conditional Offer of Employment (COE) is issued to you, which will come about a month after an interview if they are interested in you, and the processings days will be a few months after COE.  Some applicants will also get an office visit where you get to chat wtih a person or people from your perspective office that you'll be working at should you clear security (which probably won't happen).  The medical test simply tests your vision, hearing, and test you for illegal drugs and STD's.  You will pee in a cup and give some blood from your arm.  The eye and ear test is standard from any other doctor's office.  The psych test is the MMPI-2 psychological personality test  test of 567 true-or-false-questions.  You can google this MMPI-2 test, and there is even a thread in this forum that shows you an example test.

As for the polygraph, that is a joke in itself.  The polygraph machine is by Lafayette Instruments, this exact machine.    You can see a brochure here.  All the machine does is montor your bodily functions.  You will sit in a chair with a sensor in the seat (so no anal sphincter contracting counter measures), pneumatic  tubes places around your chest, an arm cuff placed VERY TIGHTLY on your upper arm, sensors on you hand, and you may be instructed to stare at the blank wall in front of you.  There is no eye-piece like in the movie "The Recruit".  There is a camera in the upper corner of the room watching your every move closely, and may be a big obvious two-way mirror in the rear of the room.  The room looks like a regular office. You may be told to relax, or not to relax, depending on what results the polygrapher is going for.

You will first be given a general pre-test where the polygrapher writes the numbers 1 through 6 on paper and you are told to write one of the numbers in between, and answer "yes" or "no" when asked if you wrote that number.  This test structure may vary but the concept is the same.  The polygraher will tell you that they can read you like a book and know for sure when you are lying (this is bullshit).   You will never get to see your actual polygraph charts that are on the computer in front of you that the polygrapher looks at.  Anyway, the polygraph test comes in two parts.  The polygraph test only focuses on a few questions to make it more effective. You'll be told the questions asked before the polygraph session starts.  So despite what TV and movies tells you, there are no random questions fired at you during the session.  The two parts to the polygraph are Counterintelligence and Lifestyle.  Most likely, you'll be asked 4 or so Counterintel and 4 or so Lifestyle questions. These are two different parts.  

General Counterintel questions are:
- Have you ever had contact with a foreign country's government?
- Have you ever been part of a group who wanted to overthrow the US government?  (They are concerned with patriotism to the U.S..  If you know Bin Laden, you are in trouble).
- Do you owe anything to any foreigners? (or something. this includes business with non-U.S. citizens, money owed to foreigners, anything to make you susceptible to blackmail).

General Lifestyle questions are:
- Since the age of 18, have you committed a serious violent crime?  (note: they are concerned with serious crimes.  speeding tickets don't count.  They want to know about murder, rape, robbery, arson, assault, prostitution, etc.)
- Have you used computers for illegal use? (downloading hundreds of songs without paying for your own use won't hurt you, just tell them about this.  They want to know about hacking, downloading porn at work, etc.)
- Have you ever defaulted on a loan or had financial trouble? (some version of this.  They are concerned wtih your financials. Bankrupcy, huge dept, foreclosure...this will affect you)
- Have you ever been involved in devious sexual acts?

Within these questions, they will also throw in IRRELEVENT or CONTROL questions.  Such as:
- Are we in Virgina?
- Are we in the USA?
- Is today's date xxx (where xxx is the correct date)?
- Is your name yyy (where yyy is your name)?

According to TLBTLD on Antipolygraph.org, the polygraph test may not ask any actual "control" questions, but may only irrelevant questions.  Funny thing is, you'll only be "testing" for like 5 minutes at a time.  Each set (counterintel and lifestyle) of questions will have the questions asked more than once.  So your polygraph session may last a few  hours with a general timeframe of:

- Happy meet and greet with polygrapher.  You sign forms, smile, handshake, etc.  20min.
- Pretest (the writing numbers on paper game) - 15min
- Counterintel questions - 5min
- Counterintel questions again - 5min
- Interrogation.  You'll be accused of lying, using countermeasures (CMs), etc.  Polygrapher may leave room for 20min and then return to accuse you.  - 20min
- Lifestyle questions - 5min
- Lifestyle questions again - 5min
- Polygrapher tells you the test is done.  Post-test interrogation is next.  Polygraphers try to get final confessions from you. Accuse you of lying, CM's, etc.  - 30min

More or less, it will take a few hours total.  Remember, when the polygrapher says the test is "over", they are still monitoring you through the tubes and sensors on you.  The test isn't "over" until all tubes and sensors are removed from you.  REMEMBER THAT!  Don't expect to pass.  Most people tell the truth, have nothing bad in their background, and still fail.