Job opportunity has full FBI background check.

Phrasing's Avatar
Should I be worried? I have an opportunity in TX to work in a federal prison. Requirement is a full FBI background check, including drug testing and finger prints. I am 100% clean in all other aspects of my life except this hobby. Should I be worried at all?? Only thing I am worried about is they check my internet activity somehow. Maybe just being paranoid.
  • canny
  • 01-10-2014, 01:45 PM
Those background checks are usually only checking for convictions. If you've never been convicted, it won't find anything.
A "full FBI" background check of this sorts is just looking for arrests and convictions and fraudulent activity. They will test you for drugs, which could include testing your hair, so if to think there is an issue...get a buzz cut.

The background check you would need to be worried about is the check they do when you want to work FOR the FBI.

Congrats on the new job!
Unique_Carpenter's Avatar
The "FBI check" is that they will run your legal identification data and social security number through the FBI's National Crime Information Center "NCIC" system.
Of note is that this data base also contains the National Instant Criminal Background Check System "NCIS" into which criminal records originated by each state are submitted. The phrases NCIC and NCIS are somewhat used interchangeably.

Info link below, it’s interesting quick read with a couple eye-opening bits.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ncic

And Mynx is absolutely correct related to high level security clearances; they will personally interview whomever they wish, including roommates, in-laws, former employers, etc, and they sometimes run the interviewee through the basic NCIC lookup as well.
Not to be worried
Take a look at that Snowden... He passed!
They are only looking for convictions and/or arrests
Phrasing's Avatar
I appreciate everyone's comments. I was told they would be asking for a list of people close to me to follow up with some stuff after my initial interview with an FBI agent.
Unique_Carpenter's Avatar
PM enroute
jframe2's Avatar
Be aware they more than likely will do a 2nd and 3rd circle of contacts checks for affiliations with known gangs or other criminal elements.

Prisons are having a HUGE problem with employee infiltration by criminal elements. Not really talked about in public for the obvious reasons.

And they may ask for access to your social media sites; facebook, google+, twitter, etc, etc. Which means they will have knowledge of whoever you have "friended" or been "friended" as well as "tagged" by others in pictures, posts, etc.

At this point, you are either going to pass or not. If you have filled out the application and signed it, you will know what they are going to look into.

Good luck
hey I got a security clearance for an IT job for the government in 2005 and I had an arrest for solicitation
Unique_Carpenter's Avatar
There are different levels of clearance.
Federal prison systems are medium-high versions, but they do look at your friends
Banking/financial systems are up there also.
Dept of Defense clearance is tippy top.

J-Frame is quite correct about some of the online things they look at. Which is all the more reason for everyone make a bit of an effort to keep that stuff clean, cause nowadays even basic job applications look at that stuff, as its quite inexpensive to have a contractor that specializes in background screening run searches on it.
I once interviewed with the FBI as an agent soon after I got out of the Marine Corps...

I remember one of the written questions being "Have you ever paid someone for sex"

There was a Lie Detector I took later on as well...



Me Thincks you'll be fine though
tia travels's Avatar
...They will test you for drugs, which could include testing your hair, so if to think there is an issue...get a buzz cut.... Originally Posted by LilMynx69
I thought it didn't matter how long your hair was. All they need is the root. So if you give yourself a buzz cut, they can still test for drugs as easily as with longer hair. Or am I incorrect?
I thought it didn't matter how long your hair was. All they need is the root. So if you give yourself a buzz cut, they can still test for drugs as easily as with longer hair. Or am I incorrect? Originally Posted by tia travels
True for current and habitual use, but they can test the strand for past use. I was assuming he isn't using anything right now while he's being vetted for this position.
Lie Detector test:

years ago there was this book written by a Dr Lykkenn [spelling bad] a Univ of Minnesota prof
Called "Tremor in the Blood"
Told all about lie detectors and the principals behind them.
While it did not outright say how to beat them, by studying the book, one could figure that out
Horribly unreliable, almost as bad as flipping a coin
The only good way is to accuse someone of TWO crimes...
a fake crime and the real crime
If the response is the same then person is innocent
laserface's Avatar
I was once interviewed by a DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) agent as part of someone else's security clearance process for a Top Secret clearance. My friend who was trying to get cleared was a woman, and had a somewhat ... interesting ... past, including personal involvement in various aspects of the sex industry. She's totally open about that, and has no problems discussing it with anyone who'd like to know about it. She gave the DoD all the details about it. The DIA agent asked me about it a little bit, but the questions were really focused on trying to find out if she'd been involved in anything else she hadn't already disclosed - and she hadn't. Long story short, she got her clearance, no problem. What they're really concerned about with stuff like that is whether or not you might be subject to being blackmailed. One thing they really don't want, as far as someone who has a clearance, is someone with "skeletons in the closet" that would cause them a lot of embarrassment or other issues if revealed.