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Great news—you’ve landed the job! Or at least, someone wants to hire you. Just one teensy tiny thing. They’re going to do a pre-employment background check.
You don’t need to panic—they’re not going to call your college roommate to ask if you ever smoked weed. At least, I don’t think they will. But it’s not always clear what happens when an employer undertakes a background check. I’ve had jobs where they went dark for a month, and I assumed they dug up some piece of information they didn’t like (I’ve tweeted a lot).
It’s scary to know someone is investigating you, especially if you don’t know what exactly they’re looking into. Fortunately, I have all the information you need about the dreaded pre-employment background check.
What Is a Pre-Employment Background Check?
A pre-employment background check is a process employers conduct to verify the information provided by job applicants. The purpose of a pre-employment background check is to minimize the risk of hiring someone who may pose a threat to the workplace, is unqualified for the position, or has a history of bad behavior that could later cause problems for the employer. Basically, it’s to confirm you are the person you reflected on your job application—and 72% of employers do them, so if you’re hunting for a new job, it’s likely to come up.
Components of a Pre-Employment Background Check
The specific components of a background check vary based on the employer's policies. For example, government positions can require extensive background checks that take months before the employee is cleared to begin working. I’ve had any number of freelance jobs that only checked to confirm my Twitter following is what I claimed it was. It’s up in the air.
In general, the trick to passing the background check is not to lie on your application. To give you a sense of what they’ll be looking into, here are some of the more common parts:
- Criminal Records: This involves verifying if you have any criminal records or have been involved in any illegal activities.
- Education: This involves verifying your degree. Basically, do you have the education you say you do?
- Professional licenses and certifications: This involves verifying any licenses and certifications required for the job position. Similar to the education check, it means reaching out to the institutions to confirm you have what you say you have on your application.
- Social Media: According to some estimates, 54% of employers have eliminated a candidate based on their social media. It’s not clear what all they’re looking for here, so if you’re nervous, lock your accounts. Or at least delete the thirst traps.
- Employment History: This involves verifying your employment history, including past job titles, dates of employment, and reason for leaving.
- Reference checks: This involves contacting your previous employers or personal references to gather information about your work ethic, skills, and character. Make sure you’ve given them references who can speak to your talent!
- Drug testing: This involves testing you for the presence of drugs or alcohol in their system. Let me guess—this is the first one you thought of, right?
What If They Find Something?
If an employer finds an offense on your pre-employment background check, all hope it not lost. It ultimately comes down to nature of the offense and the employer's policies. Some employers may have strict policies against hiring candidates with certain types of criminal records, while others may take a case-by-case approach and consider factors such as the nature of the offense, how much time has passed, and whether it's relevant to the job. If you have a criminal record, there are steps you can take to mitigate its impact, like obtaining a certificate of rehabilitation or expungement. This can help you pass a pre-employment background check.
“If you have done some unflattering things in the past, always be truthful about those things and, if you get the chance, use it as an opportunity to show how you've learned from them,” advises Dr. Dar-Wei Chen, a cognitive engineer and human factors specialist. “If you're truthful, the worst thing that can happen is that you don't get this job. However, if you're untruthful and they find out, a reputation for being untruthful can last much longer than this interview.”
The good news is that employers must follow the law when conducting background checks—they cannot go rogue! For example, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, employers must provide the candidate with a copy of their background check report and give them an opportunity to dispute any inaccuracies before making a final decision. So if you believe you’ve been misrepresented in the background check, you’ll get a chance to defend yourself.
Pre-employment background checks can be scary. You’ve worked yourself silly getting a new job, and all of a sudden, the end result feels totally out of your hands. Still, have faith that if you’re right for the job and you’ve taken steps to prepare yourself, you will be able to pass the check. And just to be on the safe side, maybe call your college roommate and apologize for blacking out at his wedding and demanding the DJ play “American Pie” three times in a row (it’s an eight minute song). Good luck!
