Nowadays, employers are more cautious than ever when they hire new staff. It’s not uncommon for them to conduct a background check on a potential candidate to make sure that everything is in order. What an employer wants to know about a candidate depends on the type of job they are trying to fill.
Background checks can range from a verification of a candidate’s basic information, to a more in-depth checking on your background with your former employers. Here are some of the things that an employer might ask in a background check.
1. Education records.
In certain professions, such as law and medicine, employers may verify the degrees, majors, dates of degrees of job candidates, to make sure that they have the right qualifications and experience for a position.
2. Job title and description.
Some employers may want to verify that the employment information you indicate on your resume is accurate. They want to make sure that you truly have the experiences and skills that you said you have. You can’t really blame them because some candidates tend to inflate their experience, so make sure that you are 100% truthful when writing your resume.
3. Reason for leaving a company.
If you switched jobs a lot, and the work duration for each job was short, your potential employers may wonder why you switched jobs so frequently. Was it because you are hard to get along with? Or was it because you were terminated for other reasons? In order to build an idea about why you have a history of changing jobs, they may contact some of your former employers to find out why you left.
4. Credit history.
For positions that deal with money or any other type of financial information, employers may do a background check on job candidates, as they do not want to hire candidates with poor credit ratings. However, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), an employer must obtain a candidate’s written consent before doing a credit check. In addition, if an employer decides not to hire a candidate based on his or her credit history, the employer must let the candidate know of the right the challenge the credit report.
5. Driving record.
If a candidate is applying for a position that requires a lot of driving, the employer may check the candidate’s driving record to make sure that he or she has not committed any previous driving offences. If driving is involved in the role, the employer will want to know that they can trust the individual and that they are not a reckless driver.
6. Criminal record.
A lot of job applications require the applicant to declare whether or not they have a criminal record. This is particularly common for jobs such as doctors, lawyers, accountants, and teachers. Before they are allowed to perform and criminal record checks, they have to obtain written consent from the candidates.
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