# So I think i'm pretty screwed.



## emtblcil (Mar 11, 2013)

So I recently got my EMT-B and was looking forward to working in the field, now please don't judge but in my younger years I experimented with a variety of drugs. I am clean now, I would like to get a job as a paid on call with a fire department but I found out they polygraph test, on the application they asked if I ever did any drugs obviously I said no thinking I would be automatically disqualified. Should I even bother trying to get with a department? Should I bother going on to be a Paramedic? Will I just be stuck working privates or in a hospital?


----------



## Rialaigh (Mar 11, 2013)

emtblcil said:


> So I recently got my EMT-B and was looking forward to working in the field, now please don't judge but in my younger years I experimented with a variety of drugs. I am clean now, I would like to get a job as a paid on call with a fire department but I found out they polygraph test, on the application they asked if I ever did any drugs obviously I said no thinking I would be automatically disqualified. Should I even bother trying to get with a department? Should I bother going on to be a Paramedic? Will I just be stuck working privates or in a hospital?



Many fire departments, but not all, are fine with a variety of drug use as long as you have been clean 3-5+ years (longer is better) and you are up front and honest with them. However lying is the biggest no no on a public service application. 

If you were able to get your EMT-B then I am guessing the drug use did not end with some ugly felonies or anything, and if your history of drug use is old enough and you are honest you will be fine in many fire department application processes. 

I would call, say you think you answer a question incorrectly on your application and ask if you can amend it. Most departments will work with you


----------



## eprex (Mar 11, 2013)

emtblcil said:


> So I recently got my EMT-B and was looking forward to working in the field, now please don't judge but in my younger years I experimented with a variety of drugs. I am clean now, I would like to get a job as a paid on call with a fire department but I found out they polygraph test, on the application they asked if I ever did any drugs obviously I said no thinking I would be automatically disqualified. Should I even bother trying to get with a department? Should I bother going on to be a Paramedic? Will I just be stuck working privates or in a hospital?



I'm amazed a company actually polygraphs people. 

You should not lie on an application, so pick a new department. I'm shocked they even asked that question.


----------



## medicsb (Mar 11, 2013)

Were you ever arrested?

To be honest, I get a little suspicious of anyone who says they never have experimented, at least with marijuana.  If I believe they haven't, my follow up is usually "why".  

Anyhow, I've never been polygraphed for a job.  I'm almost positive that I've checked the "no" box for past drug use, even though, OMG, I actually did smoke some reefer before becoming an EMT.  Not sure which box I'd check if I knew I was getting polygraphed.  I, too, would be worried that I'd be out of the running if I told the truth.


----------



## Rialaigh (Mar 11, 2013)

eprex said:


> I'm amazed a company actually polygraphs people.
> 
> You should not lie on an application, so pick a new department. I'm shocked they even asked that question.



Many large city fire departments polygraph people. It's pretty common now


----------



## Anjel (Mar 11, 2013)

Well obviously you should of told the truth. They would be more willing to understand someone doing them as a teenager, but is clean now than someone who just straight out lies.

Try other departments, but tell the truth.


----------



## JPINFV (Mar 11, 2013)

medicsb said:


> To be honest, I get a little suspicious of anyone who says they never have experimented, at least with marijuana.  If I believe they haven't, my follow up is usually "why".




...because I never felt the need to, but thanks for asking.


----------



## Tigger (Mar 11, 2013)

It is illegal to use polygraphs as condition of employment in Massachusetts.

I wish more states were like that, their accuracy could be best termed as suspect. 

I also do not believe that someone should be judged for everything they did in the past. If all things are equal and one candidate experimented with drugs 5 years ago and the other did not, I think we can all guess who is going to get the job. Many polygraph prior to interviews, so many candidates lose the ability explain and sell themselves.


----------



## Trashtruck (Mar 11, 2013)

eprex said:


> I'm amazed a company actually polygraphs people.
> 
> You should not lie on an application, so pick a new department. I'm shocked they even asked that question.



Yes, polygraphs are certainly alive and well! Mine was a few hours long, and I didn't even know it was part of the hiring process. I was sent for a drug test, told to return to xyz building, and when I got back it was like, 'Come on in!!! Have a seat. This is called a polygraph...' 
Ugh, huh? 
They'll ask every question under the sun. 
EVERYBODY has effed up at one point or another. They want to see that you can be trusted to own up to a mistake, that you have integrity, and are a person of your word. 
Do not lie on it.


----------



## Sublime (Mar 11, 2013)

emtblcil said:


> So I recently got my EMT-B and was looking forward to working in the field, now please don't judge but in my younger years I experimented with a variety of drugs. I am clean now, I would like to get a job as a paid on call with a fire department but I found out they polygraph test, on the application they asked if I ever did any drugs obviously I said no thinking I would be automatically disqualified. Should I even bother trying to get with a department? Should I bother going on to be a Paramedic? Will I just be stuck working privates or in a hospital?



The short answer is... No, that should not affect your career. 

Yes, you should bother going on to be a paramedic. In fact that will greatly increase your chances of being hired on a FD. 

As long as you don't have any misdemeanors above a class c or felonies, you should be good. They probably won't care about experimental drug use in your younger days, as long as they like your personality and think you will fit in at the department you should be good.


----------



## STXmedic (Mar 11, 2013)

Depending on the fire department, for many it is an automatic disqualification for any past drug use. Fire departments (at least around here) tend to be very strict on this area. The only exception I've seen is somebody who admitted to trying marijuana one time over 5 years ago. My cousin tested for my FD, admitted to the processing guy that he once took non-prescribed Adderall to help study for a test in high school. He was automatically disqualified for recreational drug use just by trying to be 100% honest with them. For Adderall.

It seems like less of an issue as you get to smaller FDs.

As to what you should say during a background and polygraph... It's a catch-22. You want to be honest during your application, of course. However, if you're honest about previously using drugs (especially anything other than marijuana), know that you are extremely unlikely to get the job.

Best of luck.


----------



## akflightmedic (Mar 12, 2013)

This is NOT an absolute, however a polygraph is typically not used to discover activity you may or may not have done, a lot of times it is used to discover who you are now.

You have now proven yourself as a liar and full of questionable integrity/ethics...which then leads them to make assumptions of your future behavior. In a career where you have to rely on your fellow coworkers in life threatening situations at times, where you have to gain public trust, where you enter people's homes....you have just proven yourself a risk far greater than an asset as there are 1000 other candidates right behind you who will not lie.

That is the result of your answer--not the fact that you experimented years ago.


----------



## Tigger (Mar 12, 2013)

Nonetheless many departments do operate in a manner as Poetic describes. There is no good answer there as the polygraph is not where you explain to what extent you used drugs in the past. If they ask "have you ever taken illegal or unprescribed drugs?" and you answer yes, you are not getting that job at many, many departments. 

The polygraph is pretty black and white. Lie, process over. Be truthful about youthful mistakes or whatever you want to call it, process over. Departments don't care that you might be able to blow them away during the interview and be the best candidate, if you can't make it through the process then you're done. 

OP just move to Massachusetts haha.


----------



## wubbinz79 (Mar 12, 2013)

Stick with the lie, think it until u believe it and it becomes the truth, that is all those polygraphs are about, ur response to ur truth or ur lies regardless of the real truth. Me and all my friends beat the polys, it can be done.  With all those applications, once u change ur story u r screwed so best to stick with the same story, you'll get it eventually.


----------



## Medic Tim (Mar 12, 2013)

wubbinz79 said:


> Stick with the lie, think it until u believe it and it becomes the truth, that is all those polygraphs are about, ur response to ur truth or ur lies regardless of the real truth. Me and all my friends beat the polys, it can be done.  With all those applications, once u change ur story u r screwed so best to stick with the same story, you'll get it eventually.



or you could just tell the truth in the first place


----------



## AtlasFlyer (Mar 12, 2013)

medicsb said:


> To be honest, I get a little suspicious of anyone who says they never have experimented, at least with marijuana.  If I believe they haven't, my follow up is usually "why".



I am 37 years old, and can honestly say with absolute truth that I have never experimented with drugs of any kind, including marijuana. 

Why? My parents were hippies, and I grew up listening to Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Janis Joplin, etc. When a song would come on the radio, they'd say, "Oh that's a great song, isn't it? That's Jimi Hendrix, he's dead. Drug overdose."  "Oh, that's a great song, isn't it? That's Jim Morrison and The Doors. He's dead too, drug overdose."  Lather, rinse, repeat...  I grew up TERRIFIED of drugs. Parental warnings, WIN.

By the time I got old enough that I was out on my own in the big bad world, I knew enough chemistry and biology to know what drugs do to the brain. At that point I had no interest what-so-ever in putting a substance like that in my body.  Then I went off to the join the airlines, where a positive drug test is an instant career-killer. So, in addition to no desire to do drugs, I also knew it would end my career. 

So yeah, 37 years old and I've never so much as smoked weed. For reals.


----------



## Veneficus (Mar 12, 2013)

medicsb said:


> Were you ever arrested?
> 
> To be honest, I get a little suspicious of anyone who says they never have experimented, at least with marijuana.  If I believe they haven't, my follow up is usually "why".
> 
> Anyhow, I've never been polygraphed for a job.  I'm almost positive that I've checked the "no" box for past drug use, even though, OMG, I actually did smoke some reefer before becoming an EMT.  Not sure which box I'd check if I knew I was getting polygraphed.  I, too, would be worried that I'd be out of the running if I told the truth.



Never experimented with drugs, even marijuana.

I was raised in a family where altering your mind was highly frowned upon.

Most FDs polygraph. They ask some very invasive questions, my favorite being: "have you ever had sex with a minor" but they do not qualify it with "when you were also a minor."

I am told that they are checking for the lie and not judging your answer, but I have a very difficult time believing that questions such as that would not start shooting off all kinds of red flags.

Of course there was an episode in Cleveland, Ohio where they actually hired a guy later convicted of being a serial rapist.

I think it is really more of a CYA for employers than an actual useful test.


----------



## wubbinz79 (Mar 12, 2013)

U can't go back now bro, u gotta stick with it, the less drugs u say u did the better off u are, the less questions they are going to ask, u say u did drugs they are going to want to know when and how many times, who can remember all that. U are already past the point of no return, so ur drug filled college are a memory of someone else, not yours, good luck, u got this!


----------



## Flight-LP (Mar 12, 2013)

wubbinz79 said:


> U can't go back now bro, u gotta stick with it, the less drugs u say u did the better off u are, the less questions they are going to ask, u say u did drugs they are going to want to know when and how many times, who can remember all that. U are already past the point of no return, so ur drug filled college are a memory of someone else, not yours, good luck, u got this!



And this children is the reason to just say no......................


----------



## katgrl2003 (Mar 12, 2013)

wubbinz79 said:


> U can't go back now bro, u gotta stick with it, the less drugs u say u did the better off u are, the less questions they are going to ask, u say u did drugs they are going to want to know when and how many times, who can remember all that. U are already past the point of no return, so ur drug filled college are a memory of someone else, not yours, good luck, u got this!



How hard is it to type "you"?


----------



## CritterNurse (Mar 12, 2013)

AtlasFlyer said:


> Why? My parents were hippies, and I grew up listening to Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Janis Joplin, etc. When a song would come on the radio, they'd say, "Oh that's a great song, isn't it? That's Jimi Hendrix, he's dead. Drug overdose."  "Oh, that's a great song, isn't it? That's Jim Morrison and The Doors. He's dead too, drug overdose."  Lather, rinse, repeat...  I grew up TERRIFIED of drugs. Parental warnings, WIN.



Sounds like my parents. They were very up front with what they did and did not do in their youth. I also listened to that type of music growing up, and knew about the various death-by-overdose artists. 

Now granted I was caught drinking beer as a toddler. Someone left an open bottle unattended at a party and I found it, and my parents didn't notice right away. Apparently I liked the taste of beer when I was that little, but my parents soon learned to keep a better eye on me around beer bottles. Can't stand the stuff now.


----------



## Anjel (Mar 12, 2013)




----------



## EpiEMS (Mar 12, 2013)

emtblcil said:


> So I recently got my EMT-B and was looking forward to working in the field, now please don't judge but in my younger years I experimented with a variety of drugs. I am clean now, I would like to get a job as a paid on call with a fire department but I found out they polygraph test, on the application they asked if I ever did any drugs obviously I said no thinking I would be automatically disqualified. Should I even bother trying to get with a department? Should I bother going on to be a Paramedic? Will I just be stuck working privates or in a hospital?



No judgement here especially considering that by 21 years of age, more than half (54%, SE 2.8%) of Americans have used marijuana (http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050141).

Polygraphs are not quite scientific (viz.: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309084369). Heck, the National Research Council of the National Academies classified them as bunk (more or less).

Ethically, I would be hard pressed to see a problem with healthcare providers having had used marijuana (or other illicit substances) -- certainly not currently using them, but "youthful indiscretion" can hardly be a disqualifying factor, at least, from an ethical point of view.


----------



## Handsome Robb (Dec 15, 2013)

Polygraph tests aren't designed to see what you've done they're designed to test you honesty and integrity.

I have multiple arrests, spent my time doing plenty of dumb :censored::censored::censored::censored: in the past, my company actually kept me out of jail with a letter of rec. 

It not gonna be easy but it's doable.


----------

