Yikes

From the Washington Post:

You're chambered into this dimly lit tunnel of truth like a shell into a shotgun. First you are instructed to twist plugs far into your ears. Then you lie on a gurney narrower than a stretcher. A woman in a lab coat slides a helmet over your head. It is not really like a Hannibal Lecter mask, although the researchers like to make that joke. Your nose barely clears the equipment, your eyes can only look up, and your head is cradled to discourage movement.

Traditional polygraphs are long, frustrating and uncomfortable. The idea that the tiny rooms that are always just a little bit hotter than they should be (don't forget the looming two-way mirrors) are now evolving to these infallible truth tubes of patriotism makes me all that more relieved that I no longer have an active clearance. The current technology involved with polygraphs is dated and hopelessly subjective, but imposing a more invasive treatment on prospective employees is not going to help the government's recruitment problems (nor will airing 30-second spots for the clandestine service during Grey's Anatomy - I LOVE the "world of ambiguity" line). I needed three polygraphs to get my security clearance, even as a nineteen year old whose worst offenses related to the polygraph probably involved rampant cheating in high school computer science class. This new system would have tossed me in the reject pile after fifteen minutes.

I haven't spoken to any of my friends from my time at the CIA in years, but for all the ones that accepted full-time offers - good fucking luck.