I know someone who joined the Secret Service.

One of my former student workers applied for one of those kind of jobs, and a man from the FBI came to question me about her. It ws sort of freaky, espeially since, technically, I think we aren't supposed to give references! And she was a really horrible student worker.

I think that there's a difference between a reference and a security clearance. I have done several of them. I guess it's business as usual, living in DC where so many jobs require a security clearance or background check.

What Vortex said -- I get one of those visits every year or so, and it's nothing to do with whether you're supposed to give references, or whether you'd give a good one in a situation where they could pick what references they list. Depending on the level/type of clearance, the office of personnel management has to check in on every job the person says they've had, even if it was a semester sitting in a student computer lab ignoring the users.

(Although, to be fair, most of mine have been for the good students. And it's still freaky. Not to mention hilarious when they ask about whether the student had any known contact with Foreign Nationals: dude, I manage a Language Lab. That describes, like, 3/4 of our faculty and half the students!)

DH and I were references for a friend of ours applying for a State Dept job. Mostly they just wanted to verify that he'd lived everywhere he said he had (and that he hadn't left anywhere out). It wasn't so much a "Will this person make a good employee?" as a "Did this person lie on their foreign service application?"

I think it was just disconcerting because it never happened, and my boss was the kind of boss where you got in trouble for things. If it ever happens again, I will be prepared, but I am ot sure that a Shool of Nursing is where you get a lot of CIA?FBI/Secret Service peeps.

Is this the thread for Vampire Diaries, or is that Boxed Set?

Ooh, let's do it here. I don't visit BS.

I just watched, and I cannot get over how, although this show (or perhaps because this show) doesn't really seem to have deep themes, it seems to avoid every TV show storytelling mistake ever. Or it least it totally does not draw things out at all, and yet everything seems completely in character. I mean, things just move along in a satisfying way. It is sort of like Kevin Williamson maybe learned some things from Dawson's Creek.

No, it's NOT here. It's Boxed Set. It's not a cable show.