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Pre-Employment Background Check


iceman85

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Hello everyone,

 

I was recently offered a position at a very large company and part of the process is a pre-employment background check. I have never held a job that did a background check on me that asked me for release forms. As far as I can glean, they will be pulling criminal, credit and employment checks.

 

I am due to start the job in just under a week's time. My question is how long do these background checks take, and should I be worried? I have been let go from a few jobs and am worried about my former employer possibly saying something that could hurt me.

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"background check" sounds more like they just want to verify that you are who you say you are, that you didn't go to jail, and that your resume is correct. i guess it can take 1-4 weeks, depending on how quickly they act. i don't think you need to worry, i am guessing they are just going to call and ask the secretary to ask if you worked at xyz company from 2005-2008 and that you worked as a xxxxxx. it doesn't sound like they are going to be asking for letters of recommendation (they've already done that, right)?

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"background check" sounds more like they just want to verify that you are who you say you are, that you didn't go to jail, and that your resume is correct. i guess it can take 1-4 weeks, depending on how quickly they act. i don't think you need to worry, i am guessing they are just going to call and ask the secretary to ask if you worked at xyz company from 2005-2008 and that you worked as a xxxxxx. it doesn't sound like they are going to be asking for letters of recommendation (they've already done that, right)?

I think Annie has this exactly right. I used to have a nuclear security clearance, and they checked my background pretty thoroughly -- criminal history, credit history, schools, previous employers. They talked to personal references and asked them for additional personal references. I've never been fired (I was part of a large lay-off once), but that's really not what they're looking for. They're just looking for something "especially bad" that you didn't offer voluntarily.

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Yeah they asked me for a few references which I provided to them. I know they will probably call them but they outsource everything to a third party, Lexis Nexis. I have left a job voluntarily and been fired from another. I was just worried that the company who fired me would try and torpedo me for this.

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Most companies have policies about what they can and cannot disclose about former employees. They stick to factual information - dates of employment, position, pay. Offering "editorial remarks" about your (previous) employment leaves the company open to a lawsuit, and most companies want to steer clear of that.

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  • 1 year later...

I had to wait a week or two for mine to be done, but that was only cause of the extensive criminal background checks. I was subject to many different ones, including federal because they didn't want to take anyone who had a drug or abuse problem. Employment verification is easy. They just verify that you worked there at one point. That's all.

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  • 3 weeks later...

There are many companies which check background of the persons before offering jobs. If you want to check backgrounds of your employees then can take help of the background check companies. We provide the best facilities to check backgrounds and provides the best results also.

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They take a week or two, and they often don't investigate as much as they could. I know my references have never been called, I have never been called up as a reference for someone else (although I know people have me listed), and I also even know people who had some sort of conviction (including felonies) that never came up as an issue. If everything you gave them is correct, there shouldn't be a problem.

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