Employment Background Checks What You Should Know

Employment Background Checks What You Should Know Employment Background Checks What You Should Know How do employment background checks work, and what rights do both employers and job candidates have during the process? As a job seeker, youll benefit by understanding that a lack of knowledge about background checks can hurt you, as detailed in a recent  Forbes  magazine article. Here are some tips for job seekers about employment background checks: Know your rights. Employers have a good deal of latitude when checking out prospective hires, but there are legal boundaries that limit just how far they can go. Its well within the rights of companies to check out a job candidates employment history, use of social media, criminal record, and even their credit history. However, employers cant base their background investigations on your age, race or ethnicity, sexual preferences, or medical history, without running afoul of federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission laws. Dont lie. Seems obvious, right? Lying on your resume is never a good idea, yet some job seekers do it on a routine basis. By more than a few estimates, more than 50 percent of job applicants fib to some degree on their resumes. Thats not a great idea for many reasons- including that its morally wrong and theres a pretty good chance it will come back to bite you. Padding your resume and over-stating your qualifications may seem like an easy way to get ahead of the competition, but the odds are excellent youll be found out, sooner or later. Dont do it. Dont leave unexplained gaps in your resume. The timeline you offer to potential employers should give reasonable explanations of what you were doing and when. Even if you were unemployed for a period time, work to avoid what some hiring managers view as the sin of omission. Skipping blithely over  gaps on your resume of months or even years raises questions, and risks leaving employers with a lack of trust issue. Be frank: if you were unemployed for a while, at home working as a caregiver, or only working a few hours here and there as a volunteer, say so. Employers will appreciate it, and it may even work in your favor. Double-check what your references might say about you. When you give a prospective employer the names of people who can offer  references, you likely assume they will say good things about you as a potential hire. But be certain; reach out to your references to make sure theyll go beyond rote information, such as your employment dates and duties. You want to offer the names of people who wont offer negative information and wholl speak glowingly about your skills, accomplishments, and potential in your career going forward. Check out your own background. Employment background checks can be a bit of a two-way street. To be sure, employers can check out who you are- but you can also check out yourself  by conducting a background check to see what information is out there about you. has partnerships with several organizations that offer fantastic services to help job seekers keep tabs on their own background profile, including MyBackgroundCheck.com and Reputation.com. Readers, whats been your experience with employment background checks? Do you have tips to share with other job seekers? Tells us in the comments section below!