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All I can think about is writing down a prison address!
My grand dad was a warden and lived at the prison. That style of background check with him only giving the address would have gotten him straight to the garbage can file.!
I've gotta say from a "vetting" process,it does indirectly gives the hiring staff an idea of: economic life style,immigrant(?), And confirmation on the credit check done in unison with the background check .
Am I the only one who hates background check questions like this? I've rented rooms and apartments at over 10 addresses and it takes me forever to dig up this info.
I never fill out that section. I just list my home (house) address.
In my opinion, some companies are becoming too invasive in their demands for information about your personal life. Things like the one you mention, and also social media passwords. I would NEVER give any information like the latter. I understand they have concerns about the kind of person they are hiring, but some of this crosses the line.
Also, what HR dept has the time to research all of the information they are seeking ?
That is a pain. My husband had to do this in connection with a security clearance. What we have done is kept a copy of the information he filled out so that we have all of the information in one place if we need it in the future.
Good advice. Since OP says is running into this on multiple applications, create a document with the information that you keep so that you can pull it out and refer to it whenever requested.
TS/SCI clearance requirements are above and beyond what most workers deal with.
With that said, the fact that I moved to Iowa for one year five years ago, and had an address there, really isn't relevant to my ability to do the job. At all.
When I knew my location wasn't stable long-term, this is one of the reasons I lived with my parents (at least on paper) for several years. When I relocated back to my state, my house was still for sale in the other state, so I did legitimately live with them until it sold. Once it sold, I began renting a room because I was commuting 90 miles each way. I was a teacher and just waiting for the school year to be over to look for something closer. I only stayed there a few nights a week, and with my parents the other nights. A few months later, I took a closer job, but I knew it still wasn't a long-term job. I moved into an apartment, but I did not change my address on anything. I knew it was temporary and my parents were just a few miles away. I switched jobs again, which is still not a long-term job, but good for a few years at least. I decided I could buy a house, since I had more stability. When I purchased my house a few months ago, they rejoiced because they would finally get rid of my mail, lol.
In my opinion, some companies are becoming too invasive in their demands for information about your personal life. Things like the one you mention, and also social media passwords. I would NEVER give any information like the latter. I understand they have concerns about the kind of person they are hiring, but some of this crosses the line.
Also, what HR dept has the time to research all of the information they are seeking ?
They pay a background check company to do the research for them. Meaning the background check company pays one of their employees $7.25/hr, or possibly an overseas employee $.02/hr, to spend a full week trying to call/bug every employer you've worked for in the past 7 years (If you're in your late 20s like I am, that means they're going to try and get a hold of someone who can verify the random seasonal job you held in 2010 to make extra money during college). The background check form I just filled out was even asking me to provide W2s of every job in the past 7 years. So I would have to dig those up out of some drawer and scan them (I don't own a scanner, I'd have to go to FedEx or Kinkos) and convert to PDF and upload them. As I said, this is not for a job with a security agency or anything, just a private sector job.
I don't really consider it invasive as much as I do unnecessary and counter-productive. I've heard of cases where someone who signed a job offer over a month ago is still stuck in limbo because the background check company needs extra time to verify some tidbit of information that is not even related to their resume.
I have encountered this as information needed in order to perform a criminal background check. Verifications are done by state, so they want to know where you have lived in order to check criminal records for those states.
I am not sure if the exact street address is really necessary, and other than falling into the general category of being a dismissible offense for lying on an application I don't see any penalty for not giving a complete record.
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