Sunday, September 10, 2006
Background Check: Be Prepared for What Future Employers Might Find.
Lifehack.Community Beta: "Do you know what to expect when applying for a new job? Most job seekers are under the impression that employers only check the references listed on your resume or application. This is an inherently false assumption. A recent People Search News.com article reported that more than 80% of all business now performs comprehensive background checks on all potential employees"
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7 comments:
Last week in HR Mgmt. This topic was highly debated. Under the Fair Creadit Reporting Act, the employer must tell the person that the credit check and criminal history will be checked out, and what aspects of the background check were the reasons for not getting the job. This is a touchy subject. There are MANY employment laws that protect against unfair hiring practices. The employer many only use relevant info to make the descion. ie. if a guy was applying to a pre-school, and he has child porn Conviction (not arrest) then that is a reason for not hiring him. On the other hand, if I tried to apply to teach 1st grade, and I have credit card debt, that is not a reason for not hiring me. With this practice of checking backgrounds, the law suits have shot way up.
- Julie Cross
The other useful thing to check before sending out your resumes are the public search engines like google, myspace, and facebook. Keep in mind that any hiring manager can probably check all of these very quickly to get a better sense of what you are like. Your professional webpage may look amazing, but the stories of drunken stupidity and stealing office supplies that you posted in your blog may just come back to haunt you.
I recall a girl in our class who had a picture on facebook of her with a 6-foot bong. There are plenty of employers who require drug tests before they will hire you. Might they be interested in that picture? The employer may also be concerned about your behavior (aka "social life") reflecting negatively on the company. In any case, they want to know who they are really hiring.
yes this seems a little bit like invasion of privacy, but it does mention that perspective employees have to give permission for the background check and are able to request a copy of it. and if you do have something to hide then its probably better for the employer that they dont hire you
I think that background checks are great, and that even looking on facebook or myspace or doing a google search for a person is a perfectly valid tool. I also think that it is incredibly important that you explain your choice not to hire someone in the event that it is because of a discovery made online in a search. The fact of the matter is - you are selling yourself to a company and they are (probably) looking for a well rounded, mostly sane, fun but not crazy...(the list goes on) person. If your online persona is one that blows that out of the water, then they will most likely find that out sooner or later. Its a matter of matching a person with a job.
- Jen O
while background checks and other data-mining technologies are growing in both power and popularity, there are still some very simple things that can be done to avoid a digital trail back to you on the internet...to me, this is simply common sense...I can think of several stories about this very subject (in fact doing a 1 minute search of several blogs/livejournals of people I know reinforced this)...when it comes to anything internet...there are just some folks who haven’t really internalized the best part about it: Anyone can access it (and immortalize it with the almighty Save As…)… No matter what it is from pictures of you and people, to pictures of piles of drugs that you are making into rice crispy treats with friends, to badmouthing the people you work for...there are just some REALLY simple guidelines to abide by...such as: don't post what you don’t want to be reminded of anytime in the future. Don’t say things that you wouldn’t say to anyone you can think of…if you post it online, someone you know will read it, and generally the more shocking the content, the faster that sort of news travels. Just something to think about next time you’re ready to hit the Publish button…it could cost you a job…
http://ariel-jennifer.livejournal.com/101059.html#cutid1
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