Background Check for Employment

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know exactly what is pulled when a person gives a potential employer the authorization to do a background check?

Do they just do a soft pull on your Credit Reports for review or do they delve into more than just that? What the "more" I am suggesting I have no idea...Not sure if there is "more" than that.

I am sending my authorization in the morning.....I recently checked my credit and everything is good so should I assume everything will be okay with the background check?

Thanks in Advance!!

[Anonymous]

I recently had one-

They did a soft and I passed with flying colors- don't worry

Unless you have a skeleton- you have nothing to worry about.

Message Edited by Timothy on 06-25-2008 08:40 PM

[Anonymous]

O.K. THANK YOU!

[Lel]

Okay, I'm ignorant about this, but why would an employer need to know your credit history? You're not going to borrow money from the employer.

I had to undergo a background check for my job, which is a non-sensitive position in the federal government. It involved a criminal background check, an accounting of my whereabouts for several years, fingerprinting, and questionnaires to a handful of friends to confirm that I am not fomenting an armed uprising against the United States of America. But it didn't involve my credit.

[marty56]

Anyone who has need of a government security clearance will have their credit looked at.  The reason is that negative information on your credit report could mean that you are open to blackmail or having money problems so you might be open to trying to make money for selling secrets.

As long as you are open with your credit issues and are taking steps to improve, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.  I know people at work who have had BK, collections, and the ex ruining their credit, all of which would sink their credit scores and either didn't loose their security clearance or if they did, it was only temporary.

I never worked for a bank but I suspect they would too.

Message Edited by marty56 on 06-26-2008 03:50 AM

[RobertEG]

Jobs usually place a level of  trust in employess.  Potential employess with credit problems are viewed by some employers as being of higher corporate risk.  Many employers are seeing big jumps in empoyee theft and other illegal activities. Plus, one with clear credit problems is much more susceptible to outside pressure to conduct activities detrimental to the employer.

 It is logical and sound, and not an unreasonable inquiry, if they set it as a condition of employment.

[RobertEG]

I totally agree with Marty.  I ran a national security branch of a federal government agency for 20 years, which requried employess to have at least a secret national security clearance.  Credit problems were a major red flag, and legiitmate security concern for one susceptible to, as Marty has said, coercion by others.  But they were never a show-stopper. 

The bottom  line in all security investigations that we pursued was, once we sat down with the employee or potential employes, were they totally forthright with us.  Dishonesty on top of credit problems will kill you evertime.  Just be honest and open, and you will probably be ok.

HIde something, or tell lies, and you are dead.

[marty56]

Also I dont know if they check the hot check systems but that would be another thing they may check and certianly if you are writing hot checks, that would be a big red flag as well.

Funny thing is that I have not seen any government agencies offer any real training on money management, proactively anyway.

[RobertEG]

Every government employee is subject to at least a National Agency Criminal Inestigation (NACI)background check.  This does not involve a credit check.  This is usually not done prior to employment, but is routinely done within the first six months or so, while you are still a conditional, probationary employee, and thus dont have the union grievance rights extended to career employees. .

Only those having position descriptions (PDs) that include higher sensitivity ratings are subject to further review.  That is where credit checks may come into play.

The whole point of this post is that security checks go on all the time, many of which an employee may not even be aware of.  They are necessary.

[Anonymous]

Your welcome-

I should note- mine was not for a Goverment job -  It was for a Fotune 500 company where I have access to VERY sensitive data

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1111mel wrote:
O.K. THANK YOU!

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