Background Check Anyone?

[wadeblade]

Has anyone here ever experienced a DOJ background check? I will be the subject of one soon, for a new job that will occasionally take me into government buildings. I don't think it's anything super top secret. I was just wondering what to expect. Any input will be appreciated.

My apologies to the moderators if I posted this in the wrong forum.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[L6steel]

Just think happy thoughts while they're puttin you through the anal probing part of the security search!!!!

 

[Totally Judy]

I've been through a DOD background check and it was done by the FBI. I had to fill out a questionnaire and if I remember correctly they ask you for every address you have lived at for the past 15 years, and every job you have had also. If there are periods of time where you were unemployed, you must supply the name(s) of people who can verify where you were during that time, etc. I think it asked about drug use also. For marijuana, I just put down "experimental use in high school" because I wasn't going to lie.

And then they go talk to everyone you have even smiled at in your life. Okay, not that bad. But they go talk to your neighbors, friends, previous employers. I don't even know how many. I had a lot of calls from people telling me the FBI had been to see them and were asking lots of questions about me.

They went to the PD where I used to dispatch and asked about me. The poor guys there just shook their heads and said, "She's so clean you aren't gonna find anything on her."

I don't believe they talk to you. I don't remember them talking to me.

Depending on who does the investigation, it can take quite a long time. Probably due to their backlog of investigations. It was months before I got my clearance. Some investigations take about 18 months before you get your clearance. Depends on the level of clearance your employer is requesting for you.

But that was not DOJ. Probably DOJ and FBI conduct their investigations differently. Are they doing an actual background check or just the fingerprint check? If you are going into government buildings were there is highly classified work going on, they will be doing a regular background check. I imagine for a Secret clearance level, at minimum. Mostly likely not for Top Secret or for any of the "dark" areas.

Background checks have most likely changed a lot since 9-11. Mine was done sometime in 1980.

Just be sure that you are honest when completing you questionnaire. I still have a copy of mine because it has so much information about me it is a good reference tool.

Best of luck. If you have nothing to hide and have no suspicious backkground stuff going on, it should be no big deal. You probably won't even see the DOJ investigators.

Judy

 

[uncle Alan]

Has anyone here ever experienced a DOJ background check? I will be the subject of one soon, for a new job that will occasionally take me into government buildings. I don't think it's anything super top secret. I was just wondering what to expect. Any input will be appreciated.

My apologies to the moderators if I posted this in the wrong forum.

Thanks,
Dave

During the Korean"Police Action " [?] I was given a higher Secret Classification & actually didn't think anyone had checked me out other than the one at the induction center when I enlisted.

Surprise ! When I took my discharge & got home the neighbors wanted to know what I had done to have the FBI investigate me & had I been in prison.

Guess your check is of high priority but mine must have been done after I was in the army for over a year.

What I didn't know ......

Uncle Alan

 

[silenthunterstudios]

My neighbor was freaked out when mine was done, he asked me if everything was okay. I just told him I was applying for a job. This isn't a gummint background check story, but when I was about 18 or 19, I applied for a job at a real estate company. The guy called my fathers shop, and spoke with the "foreman". The guy was asking all these questions, and the foreman told him that yeah, Dan had been married xx years and had about 5 kids, etc, and the real estate agent hiring me asked him "Married how many years, he's a damn kid!"

 

[Lanza]

A good many of these background investigations are subcontracted to vendors operating under contract with gov't. It is a check list type investigation. Just make sure everything on the personal history is correct.

 

[STR]

If you have forgotten about a ticket you got twenty or thirty years ago or incorrectly put down the date it happened or anything like that they may ask you about it. If you don't know a date do the best you can or just say you don't know. Thats about the only thing I can recommend. Otherwise if the info you gave them is correct it should not be a problem. If not they will inform you of what they find or question any discrepancies in most cases but in some they may just kick out the form rejected for incorrect or incomplete info with no contact effort to tell you why unless you inquire about it. My brother was rejected for a bureau of prisons job for something like that and didn't know what the problem was until he called them. Turned out he forgot to mention certain details about something in his past but I fail to recall what that was exactly.


STR

 

[OwenM]

Has anyone here ever experienced a DOJ background check?

Not recently. A man did come to my door a couple of weeks ago asking questions about one of my neighbors, as he had applied for some government job, and this was a "routine part of the background check".
He actually flashed, really quick, some kind of badge and ID at me, which had me laughing, but suspicious. I told him not to bother the people next door, or across the street(since I knew they didn't know the guy either-didn't mention both ladies were home with their kids, while their husbands were at work), and he didn't, but I watched him go to several other houses.
Maybe he was one of these people that Lanza was referring to, with an official sounding company name and ID to add an air of legitimacy.

 

[Mike G]

Same thing happened when I got my clearance.

They interviewed people all the way back into my teenage years, neighbors, friends, former employers, ect. I was also asked if I was in trouble with the feds by my boss at the time, but when I told him I applied for a federal job, he was kind of pissed for a while.

Oh well.

Good luck on the job.