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Whatever is was, it was to cover THEIR asses not yours.  Probably a form stating that you are VOLUNTARILY terminating the employment process, and that you were not coerced into taking this action, even though you really were.

BTW,  I ripped the chest straps off and put a stop to my NSA poly in 2000.  So don't feel alone.  They didn't have me sign anything and I got a call a few months later wanting to retest me.  But that is a different agency.

This underscores the importance of going into this so-called test prepared.  If you knew ahead of time that the name of their game is to get you as flustered as possible and to try to get you to say stuff you otherwise would not (i.e. an interrogation), you'd have been better prepared.  You'd know that the thing to do is to remain as calm as possible (no matter how nasty they get) and not to admit to anything.

Did you volunteer any information, or did they accuse you of something you didn't do?

TC

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Like any good interrogator, they want you to break down if they think you are withholding.

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They can not legally hold you like that.  You should have just started unhooking yourself,  telling them you are cooperating but don't have to take that shit, and that you are leaving no matter what they say.  They were just trying to intimidate you.

During my test they tried the old "post test interrogation".  The woman  examiner did the following.  Let out a disgusted sign, threw down the chart,  picked up her chair and put it right in front of me sat down knee to knee and start yelling saying:   "WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO STOP LYING TOM!  WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOME GUY AT THE TAIWAN EMBASSY JUST WALKED UP TO YOU ASKING YOU TO TRANSLATE A DOCUMENT!  DO YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT!!!!"

It's a long story, but I attended a seminar in Taiwan in 1992, while on active duty with the Navy (as a chinese linguist).  I had to go to the local Taiwan government office three times.  Once to pick up an application, again to turn it in and apply for a visa, and again to pick up the visa.  Of course I spoke with them in Chinese.  A supervisor there conned me into translating (FOR FREE!!) a 20 page fax that just came in from Taipei promulgating the new law and guildelines for foreigners wanting to work in Taiwan.  He needed it xlated into English so it could be passed out to americans coming into the office wanting to work in Taiwan.

I explain all this in detail during the polygraph, but during the post test yelling session she tried to make it out like I was spying for Taiwan or something.

Anyway, after she started yelling at me I, ripped off the chest straps, and told her in some pretty salty language what a crock of shit I thought her little test was.

To my surprise, about six months later, I get a call from the HR people asking if I'd be willing to retest!!

What do you mean you couldn't share the details of your experience with loved ones?

TC

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That is quite understandable as the public at large and the media still cling to the myth of polygraph accuracy despite a report by the nation's top scientists to the contrary.  It has become part of the "pop" culture.

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That happens to a lot of people.  My foreign national wife (then my cohabitant girl friend) took the test at CIA on my behalf in 1995.  I was in grad school in Hawaii and a sub-agency,  the FBIS (Foreign Broadcast Information Service), have flown me out to Virginia a few months before for screening.   They insisted SHE be tested since she was a FN and living with me.

I got a long distance call from her halfway through her polygraph interrogation crying her eyes out.  They had flustered her pretty good.  Incidently, she was a 21 year old student from Singapore, and probably as naive and innocent as you.  She'd never even had a glass of beer!  I told her to immediately terminate the test as it was not worth it.  I could kick myself in the ass to this day for putting her through that!

Also, in 2000, I came out to the lounge for a break during my NSA poly at the Friendship Annex.  A black girl also applying for a chinese language position was on the couch balling like a baby.  One of the PR reps was trying to calm her down.  I had gotten to know her a little.  Just graduated from Wake Forrest, first person in her family ever to go to college...etc.  I don't know if she ever got hired.

But like I said, it is all part of their strategy.  Make the girl applicants cry, and make the guy applicants lash out in anger.  So DO NOT FEEL BAD!  Just warn people about this con.

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They haven't walked in your shoes.  This is why you need to share your experience with the people who really know you.  That is how myths are dispelled.

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So why work for the government?  There is a whole world out there!  My wife and I are going to the Olympics in Beijing, FREE OF CHARGE, because of our language skills and foreign contacts.  I am no longer worried about what foreigners I met and do business with.  Although I am prohibited for life from talking about my work as former military linguist.  But I will never need, nor ever want a security clearance from a government agency or contractor.  It's like having taken a huge, colon stretching "dump" (naval terminology).

If I worked for the NSA, I'd have to answer to some "14 week wonder" polygrapher every five years during periodic security updates!

In what area is your expertise?

TC

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OMG.  With a background like that the world is your oyster.  Or at least a clam.

TC