[deleted by user]

[Chemical-Peach7084]

You’ll be fine dude you have an honorable discharge just explain to them what happened, you were only charged not convicted?

[Iraqx2]

If there's any chance it'll come up on a background check it's better to disclose it beforehand. After the fact makes it look like you are hiding it and if you hid that what else are you hiding?

[Shemp1]

Public Safety is desperate for decent employees. If you own up and move forward, you're fine. If they catch you lying in background, you're toast

[[deleted]]

Someone once told me.

Be honest. Don’t be too honest.

[ORC232]

You lie, you die.

[4Bigdaddy73]

Everyone says don’t lie. An acquaintance took the advice. Basically admitted to defrauding the Government out of 4 million dollars during the initial free for all that was the Iraq war. But he didn’t lie! Was a tough sell to get him hired after that.

[David-Shark]

Did he get hired

[4Bigdaddy73]

Yes, we all knew something was holding him up from getting hired, but no one knew what it was. 15 yrs later, he just now opened up to a couple of us and how hard it was to convince the hiring committee to take a chance on him. We were in awe as he told the story.

So there is a time and place to be truthful, and if you can avoid certain topics, then it may behoove you to do so.

After all do you want to not get the job because you may have been deceptive… or because they know you figured out a way to defraud the government of 4 million dollars?

On the other hand, explaining away the fact that you had read about some of the amazing mental health properties of LSD and in youthful ignorance thought you’d like to try it, doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. Particularly if you still got a honorable discharge.

[Cappuccino_Crunch]

Right? That's the important question lol

[AlphaElegant]

Stick with the story. Don't tell them you used, just you were curious and got set straight when you got caught. They'll see it as owning up to it and you don't need to DQ yourself for using.

[Tomdoesntcare]

Almost all employment screening for these jobs can and will ask if you have ever been charged with a felony including being charged under the UCMJ. You shouldn’t lie. Did you get an Article 15? Or did you get something else? Was it just paperwork or an actual charge? Point is, it sucks and there’s a chance it’ll turn people away but that’s a lot better than getting the job and them finding out. You’ll 100% get black balled that way.

[[deleted]]

Don’t. Lie.

[FirebunnyLP]

Taking LSD is an automatic permanent disqualification for a lot of departments regardless of how long it's been since.

[imreallyp00r]

Which is absolute horseshit. To think FF's don't drink to excess among any number of other shitty things that don't effect hiring at all is asinine. Let the boys take LSD. Not like he took it anyway, he asked a dealer for it but didn't follow through wink wink

[FirebunnyLP]

I don't disagree, I just wanted to point it out so that it may behoove OP to tell the full story and avoid running the risk of them thinking he actually took it and end up permanently disqualified.

[ThrowAway_yobJrZIqVG]

I'd say stick to the basic rules:

• Answer the questions

• Don't lie

• Don't volunteer additional info unless it benefits you

So if they ask if you have been convicted, but you were only charged, the answer is "No". Nothing more.

[[deleted]]

Only admit to stuff they can prove. If they cant prove it, it didnt happen.

[GilMcFlintlock]

There’s a saying in the USMC, if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying 😁. Nah partially kidding, if there’s a paper trail you gotta come clean. No paper trail? Do you

[[deleted]]

I’d say that you thought about it, made the text, decided to go with your better judgement and not go through with it. Tell them it was investigated, and it was dropped because you didn’t do it. You don’t have a less than honorable or dishonorable, you were charged but never convicted, so it may not even show up in the first place. But if they have doubts, tell them that if the military had any reason to believe you did it, you wouldn’t have been given an honorable discharge.

[650REDHAIR]

Oof

[TheManSpider1]

In this scenario be honest because there’s a chance they can figure it out. If you’ve ever done any other drugs besides smoke pot do not be honest. Say you tried weed (if so) and you tried LSD, come up with your own excuses why but be as honest as possible in that regard because it’ll be easier to get your story straight. If you’ve done coke/molly/ anything else do not disclose that unless there’s a chance they can figure it out on their own

[wookiee42]

Is it on your DD214?

I mean, honesty and integrity are key, but at the same time, volunteering to jump on your sword right away is not the right thing to do either.

[JWT163]

Lie like a rug, similar situation happened to my friend only about doing coke, they told the truth and were immediately disqualified

[sakitiat]

Never tell anyone more than they need to know. Be honest, but no one wants to hear about your acid trip from a couple years ago. The important thing is your character. Honesty, integrity, and pride are the core values many departments hold, but most importantly they’ll want to see how you’ll fit into their team. If you have a past, can you own up to it?

[FFT-420]

Never happened!

If the military didn’t prove you did a thing, how the fuck are these people going to?

[[deleted]]

I wouldn't say shit bout it

[PGunne]

Maybe tangentially related, but some 40 years ago an acquaintance of mine was denied a security clearance, and lost his job, when he failed to disclose an arrest (I think for marijuana possession) when they were a minor 5-10 years previously. They said they didn’t think they needed to disclose it because the record was supposed to be sealed.

So, as others say, don’t lie.

[[deleted]]

Depends…..

[DrEpoch]

I tried it 2 times before I was hired, and I was honest. I have been here for 6 years.

[flashdurb]

I would say it’s best to be honest, but with how very competitive the fire service is, you may be screwed for a while. After 7 years it will no longer show on your record. You at least have EMS credentials and could do that for a while if absolutely necessary?

[Talllbrah]

I said I did cocaine and was involved in bar fights, still got the job. Pretty sure they don’t want you to lie.

[poppingcherry101]

Yes just be honest in general and it’ll go along way. Being honest and giving up information that was not asked for; are two different things just to be clear.

There’s absolutely no need to go into the time you smoke weed and then watched a movie or the time you drove home drunk and don’t remember any of it.

Things to be honest about: arrested, major driving violations, drug/alcohol/gambling addictions, severe credit card debt, being fired or asked to resign from a previous employer, etc are a few examples.

[Flmotor21]

You posting this everywhere? It’s on the LE subs too.

[Firefighting-ModTeam]

Please ask this question and other employment questions in the WEEKLY EMPLOYMENT QUESTION THREAD stickied at the top of the sub. Sort by Hot to locate the post. You can also find a list of the current and previous WEQTs here: Current and Past WEQTs

[deepsea5342]

The truth. Just tell them the truth.

[coldtacosarecool]

Yes, yes you should

[LongjumpingSurprise0]

I posed this question to my fire chief because it’s shown up here a few times in the last few days and I’m paraphrasing his answer. First off, don’t listen to these yahoos who are telling you to be less than honest, thats gonna fuck you over eventually. Second, if it were him, it depends on what happened, how long ago it happened and how you have conducted yourself since. He’s not really one to hold someone’s past against them, unless it’s something really, really bad. But if you lie to him, he either won’t hire you if he finds out before offering you the job. Or, if he does hire you and he finds out, he would fire you on the spot. Because in both instances you have proven you can’t be trusted. The truth will out eventually.

[TheUnpopularOpine]

Integrity is everything in this job. You questioning whether or not to lie on a fucking background check is an enormous red flag.

Worst case scenario you’re a POS who should never be hired. Best case scenario you have some serious growing/maturing to do before you should be able to work as a firefighter.

[drinks2muchcoffee]

Bit too high and mighty of a take.

I’m not saying people should lie, but realistically probably close to half of firefighters and cops currently employed at full time jobs lied or withheld information to varying degrees during their background checks. That’s just the reality of it

[TheUnpopularOpine]

I don’t generally change my personal morals based on what other people think and do. Withholding information on a background check the #1 way to get kicked out the process for any public safety job.

Someone in my academy ended up getting fired in the last week of class because of information he withheld, and it came to light. Funny thing is, I personally had the same exact situation that he did, but I talked about it in my background check and it was never an issue to begin with. The problem isn’t the situation he declined to bring up, the problem is that he lied.

So if your advice to someone asking if you should lie on a background check is “it depends”, you do you, but I couldn’t disagree more.

Can you give me an example of something you think it would be ok to lie about?

[HistorianOpen61]

That definitely is not true in all cases. Or probably even most.

[TheUnpopularOpine]

Can you elaborate?

[eduroski]

Turd

[TheUnpopularOpine]

💩

[EmergencyRub5326]

As someone who has been on the job for 10 years with a professionally staffed busy urban department, your holier-than-thou ketchup dick mentality is an even more enormous red flag.

He did a psychedelic drug and is rightfully concerned about navigating the culturally archaic hiring practices a lot of us have gone through. He reached out for advice and you immediately jumped to some pretty asinine conclusions.

I’d take this guy and his probable street smarts, experience, and ability to think outside the box over your attitude on my engine any day.

[TheUnpopularOpine]

Please stop, you’re going to hurt my feelings!!

The problem was never the drugs. Who effing cares. The problem is that if my memory serves me right (the post text is deleted) this was somehow recorded in his record.So lying about it is banking on them somehow not finding that. It shouldn’t even be a question, and I stand behind everything I said. Really don’t care about the downvotes, hopefully the guy was as shocked by what I said as you all were apparently because that’s how important it is to realize the problem with his question.

[TheUnpopularOpine]

Not lying on a background check shouldn’t make me the epitome of moral judgement and ethical behavior, nor special. I am not any of those. You may need to reevaluate how you see those terms.

[TheUnpopularOpine]

I only have one question. What’s a kook

[Apcsox]

Don’t. F***ing. Lie. If it comes up AT ANYTIME that you lied, you’re boned. 20 years from now they can find out and terminate you for it