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alexanderchr | 10 months ago

What kind of background check would reveal all previous employers? Where I’m from a background check usually consists of checking one or two (candidate provided) references and possibly googling their name for red flags.

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filoleg|10 months ago

Every single work backround check I ever had in the US included that. I do not think it lists all former employers ever tho, only those from the past 7 years iirc.

In fact, I got a copy of it back too, where it listed even some of the jobs I didn’t list myself because I didn’t think they were relevant (e.g., the grocery store job I had the summer before college, 5 years before the SWE position I was getting background checked for).

One time, it even had an interesting tidbit that got flagged. A former employer of mine didn’t exist anymore at the time of the background check (the company got absorbed into another international corp and then closed down all offices in the state I worked in, thus ceasing to exist both legally and physically). So the background check report mentioned there was an indication of me having worked there, but they couldn’t reach out to the company to verify my exact employment dates.

const_cast|10 months ago

The 7 years you're referring to isn't criminal background check, which is what we generally think of when we say background check, it's credit reporting. And it's extremely unethical, in my opinion. It's outlawed in a few states.

It doesn't just show your employment for the past 7 years, it also shows your comp, your debts, your defaults, everything.

MichaelZuo|10 months ago

That’s just some rando googling away.

How does that have any relation to a real agency, staffed with competent experts that specialize in background checks?

alabastervlog|10 months ago

The credit reporting agencies can provide a list of prior employers. And comp.