What Job Hunters Need to Know About Background Checks

What Job Hunters Need to Know About Background Checks

By Jeff Are companies really allowed to do background checks? What can they check and why? What positions are eligible for checks? I cover what you need to know about background checks.Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Are companies really allowed to do background checks? What can they check and why? What positions are eligible for checks? I cover what you need to know about background checks.

Recruiters Are Not Your Friends

Hi. I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. And people hire me for no BS career advice, which covers really much the lifecycle of you in your career. It can involve a job search, hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, resolving workplace issues, career transitions, and much more.

Let’s talk about background checks. Now, employee background checks are often used by HR departments and business owners, because they want to make sure that you’re not a crook. They want to make sure you’re not a liar. They want to make sure they know who they’re hiring. You may dread them, because they may seem invasive because they dredge up old mistakes you make. However, from an employer standpoint, they’re trying to be safe on their site.

There are rules about what a background check can be conducted and the information that employers are allowed to access. However, you have the option to refuse these kinds of checks, but the impact may be, you’ll be denied employment. So unless an employer is asking for medical or genetic information, it’s not illegal to ask you questions about your background, or to require a background check.

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Now, there’s certain professions that clearly the law will permit background checks. So they can be positions in education, health care, government positions, in financial fields, whether it’s banking or accounting, they may want to make sure that you don’t have any criminal record in order to protect their clients. In certain IT and computer related positions, they’re allowed to do background checks. And this may vary from state to state. So check about positions of trust in your state.

If you’re in a major city, in your city even, they’re permitted employer to do a background check on you and your background. And once you know that, you may want to do a background check on your own to see what’s there proactively, so that you’re not blindsided the last minute. Again, employers are going to try and find out things about your background. And they’ll probably hire a firm to do it for them.

They’ll go into credit and criminal background, driving history, past employment, education, professional licensing, references, in general, civil court history, your address history, social security number, aliases, and alternate names. For example, you may be married and have changed your name, they’ll want to know your previous names, and identify you under those names as well. Bankruptcy history, social media presence, educational transcripts, Military Service Records, compensation claims, and there are other things as well.

Now, if they get a background report on you, without your permission, contact the FTC in the United States.

If an employer thinks it might not hire you, because of something in the report, it has to give you a copy of the report and a notice of rights that tells you how to contact the firm that made the report. And I’m going to encourage you to act quickly on this because if there’s something incorrect in there, you need to tell them that and that what you want to do is correct the inaccurate report as a result.

So again, ask the reporting company to fix it if you need to provide proof of it. This way, you can act quickly, because sometimes there are mistaken identities in there. And firms have the right to do it in many different fields.

So I’m Jeff Altman. I hope you never run into a problem. I’ll just simply say if you do, move quickly so that this way, you’re not hurt by the repercussions of those choices.

There’s a lot more on my website, TheBigGameHunter.us. Go to the site; go exploring. The blog has a ton. You can also find that about my courses, books and guides. You can rent the courses or purchase them. Either way is fine.

You can schedule time for a free introductory call with me or a paid coaching session because I can help. Also connect with me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/TheBigGameHunter. Have aterrific day and be great!

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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. He is hired to provide No BS Career Advice globally. That can involve job search, hiring staff, management, leadership, career transition and advice about resolving workplace issues. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us

He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2400 episodes.

I do a livestream on LinkedIn, and YouTube (on the JobSearchTV.com account) Tuesdays and Fridays at 1 PM Eastern. You can send your questions about job search, hiring better, management, leadership or to get advice about a workplace issue to me via messaging on LinkedIn or in chat during the approximately 30-minute show.

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