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congratulations you were interviewing
for that big opportunity and you landed
your dream offer but before you can get
started the company indicates that
they're going to be conducting a
background check what should you do but
don't worry in this video I'm going to
break down exactly what employers look
for when they conduct a background check
hey everybody it's Brian from Life After
layoff and today I'm going to talk about
what employers generally look for in
background checks but before we get too
far into it if you're interested in more
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alright so let's talk about what
employers typically look for in
background checks now say you're going
through the interview process you're
lucky enough to land that dream offer
and you get an offer letter at the
bottom of the offer letter it's almost
always going to say something to the
effect of this offer is contingent upon
successful completion of a background
check and potentially a drug screen so
let's demystify the background check
process and how it works generally
speaking an employer is going to
Outsource the background check process
to a third party and what these
companies do is they conduct the
background check on behalf of the
employer when you fill out the job
application on the ATS system that's
actually a legal document and a lot of
times there is going to be a
certification that you confirm that
everything on that document is correct
and accurate furthermore your
application becomes a permanent part of
your employment record once you get
hired and usually there's a section that
gives the employer the right to check
your background in the event of a job
offer now of course your background
needs to match what you put on your job
application and if there's a discrepancy
you could actually lose your job offer
once you sign that offer a letter
there's usually another form that comes
with it that authorizes the company to
conduct the criminal background check
also employment verification and
potentially the drug screen and then
they'll refer back to your job
applications so if you haven't completed
it fully they may actually nudge you to
go back in and finish it once they get
all that information from you and your
release what they will do is send it off
to the third-party company and this
third party company essentially takes
all of your information and goes and
verifies it now how is your background
checked employers use a variety of
resources to check your background this
includes searching databases verifying
employment records that you may have
submitted and verifying with your
current or most recent employers and the
most common place for the employment
verification process to start is worth
work number and this is a database that
millions of employers submit information
about their employees too and in some
cases they can also verify not only
employment records but also income as
well now a little bit of an asterisk
there employers don't generally check
what your previous income was because in
a lot of states and a lot of
jurisdictions it's actually becoming an
illegal question but there is some of
that information depending on the
employer and the location and if the
information in the database is not
sufficient enough to verify your
employment then they may actually
contact your employer directly the main
things that they'll be checking in the
employment verification is that you
actually did work for the company what
dates you worked for them for 4 and what
titles you held they generally will not
check what your previous income was some
companies will check all the way back to
the beginning of your work history but
most will only go back seven to ten
years roughly so let's talk about Job
titles for a second in another video I
talked about whether or not you should
lie on your resume and in general I
would not recommend that you lie on your
resume but there might be times where
you switch around job titles to suit the
industry that you're trying to get into
but there may be some times where I
actually would recommend that you
massage your job titles to be more
commonly accepted and if that's the case
it's not going to be a big deal in the
background check because they're the
same level title so in other words if I
called myself a talent acquisition
specialist versus a recruiter which my
actual title was it's not going to be
that big of a deal where it would be a
big deal is if I change my title to be a
completely different level so if I call
myself the director of talent
acquisition but in reality I was only an
individual contributor that could pose
some major problems and would likely be
a major red flag for them employer same
thing goes for dates of employment I
wouldn't recommend that you fudge those
dates and give yourself an extra six
months or a year of work experience that
you don't truly have the next major
check is the criminal background and
let's break that down it's usually two
separate major areas you've got felonies
and you've got misdemeanors now felony
conviction is much more serious and is
certainly going to be a barrier to entry
for a lot of companies whereas a
misdemeanor is a less serious criminal
conviction and a misdemeanor won't
generally hold you back from getting the
job but there is a little asterisk here
it depends on what the conviction was
they're taking on a case-by-case basis
and the human resource department is the
one that makes the ultimate decision on
that then they'll also check for pending
court cases in general they'll go back
about seven years on your background
however if you have a felony that was
previous to that it may still flag that
and an employer has to make a decision
whether or not they want to move forward
if you have a criminal background it's
always better to disclose it at the time
of offer to make sure that they clearly
understand it that there's no surprises
and they know exactly what they're going
to be getting themselves into to when
they conduct the background check so how
is the criminal background check
verified so what they'll do is they'll
look at all the locations that you've
lived at for a given period of time and
they'll actually contact the local
courthouses in each one of those areas
and we've had some situations where some
courthouses were very Antiquated and
didn't have an electronic system so they
actually had to go down into a basement
and pull a file in order to see whether
or not you had a criminal background so
the delays are usually on the court side
and getting back to the employer it's
important to note that the criminal
background check can check to see if
you've got active warrants as well so if
you've got anything in your background
that might come up as a flag it's better
to disclose it early into the offer
process and one final asterisk on that
is that criminal background checks don't
usually report on juvenile infractions
now the next and final check that
employers generally conduct is an
education verification what the
education verification is going to
verify is that you actually went to the
school or got the degree that you
claimed that you did so they'll check
your high school they'll check any
college that you claim and they could
also potentially check some of your
certifications so if you claim that
you're a certified public accountant yet
you don't carry a CPA license that's
something that they will flag on the
background and how these checks happen
is that they'll contact the university
directly and they'll verify the
education at that point and because
universities are pretty used to
employers contacting them to verify
education this process is usually pretty
quick so let's talk about what happens
if you fail the background check the
employer will get a report from the
company who's conducting the background
check and in that report it'll be a
pretty detailed list of things that they
are able to verify or things that they
were unable to verify and if there's an
exception they'll usually note it and
they'll explain what the exception was
and then it's up to the employer to
either Circle back with the employee and
ask them to verify or they could
potentially pull the offer right then
and there so it's in your best interest
to respond very proactively to help the
company get the information that they
need to verify your background and let's
end this video with why it's important
that you're honest about what you've
accomplished and you put on your job
application like I said earlier the job
application that you submit is
considered a legal document so if at any
time the employer second guesses whether
or not you have the credentials that you
say you do and they check it even after
you're an employee you can be terminated
for cause for lying on your resume so
think long and hard before you falsify
anything and submit it to the employer
and that's especially true for those of
you who are thinking about having your
aunt or a buddy act as the employment
verifier you have to ask yourself how
important this job is to you if you
potentially lie on it and you get an
offer there's a high likelihood that you
can get it rescinded so I would suggest
doing the right thing being forthcoming
with your background and make sure that
you actually have the credentials that
you say you do if you're somebody that
has got an offer rescinded and now
you're back to the drawing board or
you're somebody that hasn't gotten any
offers at all that's actually something
that I specialize in I have a website
called a life afterlayoff.com and it's
loaded with career tips on how to get
yourself to the finish line and I share
some of my deepest and most intimate
knowledge in the form of some training
courses the first one is called resume
Rocket Fuel and it's designed to teach
you how to write a link legitimate
resume that is recruiter approved and is
designed to get you that first round
interview and once you get that first
round interview it's up to you to sell
yourself throughout the rest of the
interviewing process and that's where
the ultimate job Seeker boot camp comes
in and it's going to take you through
each step of that interview process
ultimately to get you to that dream
offer if you want to skip the recruiter
altogether and unlock the hidden job
market consider unlocking LinkedIn and
of course I'm available for some private
one-on-one coaching sessions you can
reach me through my website for that
congratulations on your job offer
hopefully you'll get through that
background check without any issue and
we will see you on the next one
