Thanks to this site, I have passed my polygraph phase of my investigation.
In the past I have smoked
A LOT of marijuana, I stopped over 3 years ago, and I know what I did was a waste of time and money. Even though things like that made me the person I am today, it does not reflect who I am. So in order to give myself a fair chance, I read a lot of the posts on here as well as a few chapters of TLBTLD.
I used the sphincter pucker as well as counting my breathing and that is all. The breathing was hard to maintain as I was pretty much nervous just being there, the worst part is probably the pressure cuff that was cutting off all the circulation in my hand. Used the pucker and dropped my breating pattern on the control questions and relaxed on the relevant questions and produced the chart they wanted to see. I also used body language techniques. I have always been pretty good at catching people lying, so I knew what not to do.
My examiner was extremely nice, even though there is a lot of information about the examiners in the book and on this board, I would have to say, from the start to the end of my examination, this person was genuinely extremely pleasant and respectful. There were no accusations, there was small talk inbetween phases about various things. I went in there expecting a hard ass and I didn't get it. There were quite a few things that were correct about the head games involved in the whole procedure, namely the small room to wait in, the immobile chair vs the mobile chair, facing a wall with my back towards the door, etc.
With all of this though, I do not know if I agree that the polygraph should be banned from preemployment screening, as it will weed out a lot of people that should not be there... (ironic isn't it?
) In the same respect, the people that fail falsely due to just being nervous, more than likely will get their second chance at the poly. The people that fail knowing they have done things wrong, will probably not put up much of an arguement anyway.
I know some people will come in here and say a bunch a crap from the other side of their monitors, but do yourself a favor and save it. I am not a hardened criminal, I am not trying to avoid a serious crime that I have comitted, I am simply trying for a job I highly desire and will commit myself to 100%. I have grown up a lot from who I was then.
Thank you George for this information.