Questions related to background checks

[ModerateCoward]

So I got an internship this summer that requires a background check, and I am not sure how to answer a few of them, and google didn't help. It asks me to list references and how I met them. What would be an acceptable answer for people that you have no professional relationship with? It also asks for immediate supervisors at your other jobs, and I have good reasons to think that he may not say the best things about me, how often do previous supervisors try to undermine your future job opportunities?

one more thing: I apologize for Bushie style attention whoring/flooding forum with boring sh**t in advance.

[Beet]

Just tell the truth and follow the instructions. References who you know outside of your career are just as good as people who you know professionally for purposes such as vouching for your character, verifying where you lived, and so on. When you go in for your interview, you'll probably have a chance to go over all the same ground again, and if some is unsatisfactory, they'll tell you, so you can find another person or provide some more information. I've never had an immediate supervisor who I got into such a bid tiff that they're trying to undermine me, so you're in a tough spot there. What's working in your favor is that investigators are probably looking for some basic facts such as whether you indeed worked there, that you were not a criminal, and so on. They are not necessarily interested in the supervisor's personal opinion of you.

[Hashemite]

Can old teachers/profs count? If you pick one who liked you, they're likely to give rave reviews.

[dead0man]

Who is doing the background check?  FBI?  Bob's House of Background Checks?

As Beet said, be honest and give them what they ask for.  People that do them run into ex-supervisors with a grudge all the time but unless they have documentation showing you were a douchebag, I wouldn't worry too much about what they tell the background check guy.  For my first clearance, they either didn't look at the references I put down, of just asked those people (and my neighbors) who I hung out with and then they went to talk to those people.  The people that do this tend to know what they are doing and obvious gaming of the system just sends up flags you don't want to sent up, which is why it's best to be honest.

[Χahar]

This may not be entirely related, but I know that my dad had people talk to my baseball coach (for whose team I've played for most of the last eight years) when he was trying to get his security clearance upgraded.