What do jobs look for in background check

There are many types of background checks available, and states and cities may have different laws regarding background checks. Read more: Questions to Ask in an Interview. Employment background checks are used by all kinds of organizations for all kinds of jobs. In particular, if you are applying for a job that includes handling finances, property or sensitive information, you can expect employers to run a background check before formally offering you the position.

Less common reasons for conducting background checks are:. Employer background checks can occur at any time. In many industries, it is common to request a background report once a conditional job offer is made.

Knowing that many employers will likely look into your history before formally offering you a job, there are several steps you may want to take:. Today, it is common for hiring managers and recruiters to look at the social media profiles of job candidates. If there is information you do not want potential employers to access, make your accounts private and curate your content by deleting or hiding to manage what they will be able to see. Have the contact information of past employers and references at hand so you can accurately fill out employment applications.

It may be helpful for you to know what a potential employer can learn from your records. To do this, you may request information from various sources yourself.

For example, many financial services companies can provide you with your credit score free of charge. The most common types of background checks search for criminal activity, verify employment and education, including identity verification, and request driving records. Some employers also review credit, and social media, and conducted drug tests.

What kind of screening will you get? It depends on the employer and the job position — if you work in finance, your credit may be checked. If you are a driver, your driving records will probably be screened. Employment Verification With your consent, your future employer can request that we contact your past employers to verify that you were employed there.

The CRA will contact your former employers to verify dates and positions held. References may also be contacted. Sometimes the CRA cannot reach your former employer, or they are no longer in business, and this will help.

The FCRA and some states restrict the reporting of convictions that occurred more than seven years ago unless certain exceptions are met. Identity An identity search verifies that you have a validly issued ID and that your name is assigned to that ID number. The search is performed through various sources, depending on the country where your ID was issued.

Motor Vehicle Record If your role involves driving, your future employer will likely check your motor vehicle record MVR. An MVR is often necessary for them to provide you with a work vehicle. Drug Testing If your employer requires a drug test, you will be asked to go to a collection site and provide a sample which is typically urine, saliva, or hair. The types of tests performed, such as what drugs are in scope for the test, are determined by your future employer. For example, while many states have legalized marijuana medically or for recreational adult use not all states require that employers accommodate its use.

Check with your future employer if you have questions on the drug test and their workplace drug policy. The most commonly found discrepancies are previous employment, criminal history, and education credentials. Not all of the discrepancies are intentional, but the employer will make hiring decisions based on the information they are provided.

These inconsistencies will likely be discovered during a background screening. At this point, you may be having some anxiety over an upcoming background screening. What if you accidentally provide incorrect information? Though sometimes confused with employment verification checks, reference checks serve a different purpose. Often, employers will ask that candidates list two to three references as part of the job application. Reference checks involve contacting those individuals directly to learn more about the candidate.

Education checks involve contacting a college or university to verify that a candidate attended, as well as dates of attendance, degrees or certificates received, and any honors attached to those degrees. Professional license verifications ensure that a person holds the license s necessary to work in a specific field in a particular state.

Examples include teaching licenses, licenses to practice law, nursing licenses, or licenses to practice medicine. While different types of employment background checks can reveal much information about a candidate, there are certain types of information that employers are not allowed to access—even as part of checks that might seem to reveal that information. Examples include:. School records from further back—high school, for example—are also not accessible to employers.

Much of the information gleaned through an employee or candidate investigation is technically part of the public record. Medical records do not fall into this category: they are private documents, with privacy ensured by doctor-patient confidentiality.

Employers should not expect to learn about medical history through background screening. Records that have been sealed or expunged, for instance, should not feature on a check report and cannot be used to bar a person from employment.

Many states also have laws that restrict the use of arrest records in hiring, that specify a criminal history lookback period of seven years, or both. Employers should take care to learn the laws of where they do business to avoid any compliance issues in how they use criminal details in their hiring decisions.

Here are a few steps that candidates can keep in mind to avoid any surprises:. Contrary to widespread assumption, most employers will stick to answering only simple point-of-fact questions when called for an employment verification check.

Job titles, employment dates, the reason for leaving, eligibility for rehire: these topics are objective talking points that HR managers are willing to answer.

More freeform questions, such as a past employer's comment on character or work ethic, are challenging territory. HR managers or former supervisors will often decline to answer them to avoid legal claims of defamation from their previous employees.

Job seekers concerned about the verification process are often encouraged to run investigations on themselves. This strategy provides an opportunity for a candidate to see their record and get a preview of what their hiring manager will see. Running a self-check can be a valuable way to make sure that an expungement has gone through or simply to achieve peace of mind.

Like a self-check for criminal history, a self-check for credit can give a sense of what employers might see and what conclusions they could draw from that information. Job seekers will sometimes use these self-assessments to determine if they need to provide any explanations about their history that may help provide context for less-than-flattering results. Note that every consumer is entitled to a free credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion each year.

The answer to this question will vary from one employer to the next. Factors such as the industry where the employer operates, industry regulations, state and local laws, the job in question, specific company policies, and even the leniency of individual hiring managers can affect the answer. The most common disqualifiers in the vetting process tend to be either severe felony convictions violent crimes, sex offenses, etc.

However, as previously discussed, other factors can be disqualifiers as well, depending on the job—such as a history of dangerous driving, for jobs that involve driving, or bad credit, for financial-related positions.