background question (employment, credit report, applying, interview)

[ogplife]

I was having this argument with my friends last night maybe someone can help me or provide a link to answer this. When someone omits a past employer (fired possibly) from an employment application. Does it show when companies conduct your background check?

[Sassberto]

Originally Posted by ogplife

I was having this argument with my friends last night maybe someone can help me or provide a link to answer this. When someone omits a past employer (fired possibly) from an employment application. Does it show when companies conduct your background check?

Depends on the background check. All the companies are a little different. Usually most people use Choicepoint. That tends to focus on past addresses, credit and criminal history. It's harder to check job histories as it's not really public data.

[black_fx_35]

Originally Posted by ogplife

I was having this argument with my friends last night maybe someone can help me or provide a link to answer this. When someone omits a past employer (fired possibly) from an employment application. Does it show when companies conduct your background check?

I always encourage you to list all information. Here's the deal, a company isn't going to decide not to move forward with you JUST BECAUSE you were fired from a previous organization. They may decide not to hire him/her because he was fired for stealing cash/product, or fraudulant activity.

Additionally, 99% of the time, if you do not list information on your application (ie a job that you were fired from), and a company finds out during their background check, they will NOT hire you. Furthermore, any good recruiter is going to ask about gaps in employment on a resume.

[jamesandveybe]

This firm is admittedly quite intrusive in our screening process. We conduct checks for background, credit and reference PRIOR TO interviews. If your negative employer checked your credit at any point prior to or during employment with them, your history with them is now on your credit report. Best to pull a copy yourself to see what others see before assuming. Get all three agency reports to be sure.

One element of credit report history that most people forget about, because nothing of value may come of it to the consumer, are past credit applications you have made to companies that run credit checks (regardless of whether credit was approved or denied). Specifically, the employer(s) you reference on those credit applications are added to your credit report.

As stated elsewhere, most HR staff and head-hunters make negative assumptions about unanswered questions, and since you already know they want to weed you out of the resume pile, I recommend you not omit any information that you believe the above checks would reveal about you, if the prospective employer discloses they run those kind of checks.

Don't lie.

[DogLover99]

Do not lie on a resume or an application. This is your first interaction with your potential new employer.

If you expect to develop a relationship, do NOT start off by lying. (true in every aspect of life!)

If you were fired, you probably know why. Can you take that and use it in the interview as a positive?

Negative: fired because you were always late.
Positive: Well, they let me go, but it was one of the best things that could have happened to me. I was young and didn't realize the importance of being available during work hours. Their action served as a wake-up call and I re-examined my priorities. Since that time, I'm consistently early for work and appointments!

[ogplife]

I am not sure why some you are giving these moralistic answers. It was an argument. I never mentioned anything about anyone contemplating doing it.

[jhlcomp]

og - it depends on how thorough a background check is performed. Consider this - if it appears that there is a gap in employment (because that employer was omitted), then it could raise a flag particularly when there has been contiguous employment.

If you are applying for a government job, it will be an issue. Much also depends on the level of the position you are applying for and type.

Hope this answers some of your questions. Good luck!