What shows up in a background check

So what actually shows up in a background check? Well this depends on a variety of factors – primarily, who is performing the background check and what information they are trying to obtain. Seeing as this is a blog for pre-employment background screening, that is what we’ll focus on in this post. Let’s take a look at the five main parts of an employment background check: Education History

It is likely that a background check run on you prior to employment will delve into your educational past. The main reason behind this is to validate the information you provided in your application. So as mentioned in a previous post, be honest in the claims you make about the schools you went to and the results you obtained.

Criminal Records

You can be sure that a potential employer will check out your criminal past. Any felonies, misdemeanors or outstanding warrants will show up, so it’s best to be truthful about this during the application process.

Past Employment History

Obviously, it’s important for an employer to know that you will be a reliable, trustworthy and hard-working employee. So they will likely speak to the references you provided or the previous employers you list on your resume.

Social Security Number Records Check

This is a potential part of a pre-employment background check, and will verify that you are who you say you are.

Sex-Offender Database Check

This will check whether you have ever been convicted of a sex crime or offense before, and is particularly significant when there is a potential to work with vulnerable members of society, such as the elderly, disabled or children. There we have a short synopsis of the main parts of a pre-employment background check. As mentioned at the start, the precise checks performed will depend on the job you are applying for, the company hired to do the checks and a number of other factors. However, hopefully this gives you an insight into what you might expect.]]>