Background Checks

[bradley]

PF - During the last cert the background checks were done the same way. Eventually, the calls will be returned,etc. Somewhat disjointed.

[jazz]

Remember, they don't have to contact everyone on your list. It is my understanding that there are only a certain number of references they need to contact. So there may be some references that never get called.

[notajudgeyet]

They were really sloppy last round. So sloppy that I have heard the rumor, just a rumor, that some otherwise eligible ALJ candidates on the last cert did not receive full consideration because their background checks were not completed timely. If true, this might explain a few candidates who were not hired who probably should have been.

[nothingventured]

I'd love to believe that what notajudgeyet says is true. Only 2 of my references were contacted last time, though one received two calls. It sure beats another interpretation which is that I was just "filler" to make up the necessary 3 names per site. Chances are we will never know the truth.

[counsel]

Well, that is really disturbing. Has anyone heard anything else about the background checks?

[pm]

Interesting issue. It was my impression that there was a drop dead date for finishing the background checks and that date was definitely not met by Yale. It had not occurred to me that some ALJ candidates may have been affected by Yale's failure.

[nonamouse]

I would not get too excited about Yale finishing late. I highly doubt that anyone got passed over because of Yale. I know employees of ODAR who worked for years before the agency bothered to complete their files with a fingerprint card. The agency took them initially, then lost them, then took years to finally redo them and get them filed.

[mango]

you will also find that, once hired, OPM does the background check. What yale does is more of a reference check than a background check. And don't ask why they would do a background check after you are hired as I have not figured it out. I was told that you can be disciplined or fired if you provided false information on the app or something else shows up.

[jazz]

If it puts you at ease, you can call, but I would not worry too much about it. If they want to hire you, I don't think they will decide not to based upon an incomplete background check that is out of your control.

[testtaker]

Patriots Fan, you have a private message.

[privateatty]

As I understand it, the “paper” background checks are rather perfunctory. It’s just the idea of colleagues and friends (particularly the former) waxing philosophic about my humble self in the “interviews” that tends to curl my nerve endings. Not that we would or could ever have a conversation on the subject.

I then regretted my weakness and perversely wished it was twenty or even thirty years ago so that my colleagues, naïve to recent social history and unencumbered as it were, would really be able to dish it out…

“Gossip is dying out because fewer and fewer people care to talk about anything besides themselves.” --:Mason Cooley

[calalj]

Newalj,

They contacted your neighbors? What did they want to know? Whether you played loud music, kept your lawn mowed and said hello to them at the mailbox?

Calalj

[privateatty]

NEIGHBORS?

What about when we didn't pull down the shades?

[lawdog98]

I have read that good fences make good neighbors.

Too bad I never bought that fence.

;D

[calalj]

The college references are intriguing. Hmmm. Who didn't get a little bit crazy after final exams or at a Halloween party? And who would think it would come back to haunt us 25 or 35 years later. I am positive my professors would not remember me, so the only ones left are my sorority sisters. I remember getting upset when one fraternity ripped up our new landscaping and put a tombstone in the middle of the courtyard. Do you think I am done for?

(To all Greeks on this board, I discreetly hid all other identifying information.)

[aljhunter]

Isn't there a difference between "reference checks," conducted to determine professional qualifications, and "background checks," conducted to determine suitability for Federal employment? I know that new hires in my office are subject to a cursory FBI/IRS/fingerprint investigation after they commence work. Their continued employment is conditioned upon a satisfactory report from the investigation. Newalj, you are perhaps undergoing a routine "background check." Don't sweat it, unless you haven't paid your Federal income taxes for the past 20 years. . . .

[emphyrio]

I had my in-person interview today. Completely uneventful. I do not think they have contacted my neighbors, but they have sent questionnaires to my references. I think it's a little odd that they are only getting going on this now, 6 days before I start as an ALJ.

[ruonthelist]

Emphyrio: I know it's surprising that they get to the background checking shortly before you start (congratulations and good luck in training, BTW) but it fits with the historical pattern. I was in the large class in 2001. Over a hundred of us were hired with only a few weeks between interviews and the start of class (one class for everybody, not staggered like it was this year). My background references weren't contacted until after I had finished training and was at my duty station.

[emphyrio]

My interview was mainly an item-by-item oral affirmation of what I wrote in my SF85. It took about 45 minutes. I was also asked to identify any other references, describe my relationship to the references I listed, state whether any references would say anything bad about me, and identify anything that might make me susceptible to blackmail (seriously).

If you have been through one of these before (I have been through at least three that I can recall) then you should know what to expect. If you have not been through one before, it may be a little tense because of how personal and invasive it is, but in the end it is not a big deal. It was actually helpful in some sense, because it jogged my memory on one issue (foreign travel) which I could not give a complete answer to on my SF85. Just be straightforward and serious (i.e., not sarcastic or snide, which was a temptation) and it will be over quickly.

[southerner]

I agree with emphyrio. The interview was mainly an affirmation of prior answers/info submitted. I was asked who accompanied me on the various foreign trips I had taken. The blackmail question also was asked and I wasn't expecting it.

As to any logic employed in the process, I can't fathom it. Some of the new ALJ's have not yet been contacted for the in-person interview, but hav ealready held hearings for a few weeks. I am in the June 22nd class. I am told that some ALJ's were contacted during training to set up the interviews.

But, I have worked with the feds for more than a couple of decades and realize that logic does not always occur.