Be Honest Before Your Pre Employment Background Check

By Geoffrey Wagner

Jobs Vacancy, Employment Jobs, Employment

When it comes to finding a job, you want to put your best foot forward to ensure you get the position you seek. You do this by filling out an application correctly, putting together your best resume possible, and by dressing appropriately for an interview, should you get one. What happens if you have a great resume and great work experience, but you also have something in your background that may preclude you from getting your dream position? Know that many companies now do a pre employment background check, so they are going to find out about it. What then, should you do?

Your best bet is to be completely honest about your background. This means filling out your application to indicate there may be a glitch in your history, if it is something that is asked on that application. If you have a felony, for example, you may think that leaving that off the application may secure you the job, but that will backfire when they do their pre employment background check. You most definitely will not get the job if you have lied, but you may if you are honest. Lying will always lose you a job when being honest about a felony may not. It's an easy and sensible choice.

You may not have a felony that will come up through a pre employment background check, but there could be something else. Some companies check your credit report, especially if you would be working with or around money. A bad credit score can indicate you may be more likely to steal (though that is not necessarily true), or that you are not organized about keeping your life together, which can reflect on how you would perform on the job. You won't be asked about this on an application, but it could be addressed during an interview. Again, speak up and be honest.

There are many different reasons why you may have a bad credit score show up on your pre employment background check. It could be that you are reckless with money, but there are other reasons that people have credit dings. If there has been a long illness that caused problems, say so. If you have lost your home to foreclosure and it is messing up your credit, discuss this with your potential boss if it comes up. They may be more willing to overlook a bad credit report if you tell them why you have it. It is not always a deal breaker, but it will be if they just assume you are careless or a theft risk.

Sometimes, you may not be aware that something bad is coming up on your pre employment background check. Perhaps there has been an error in which your name was associated with something that you had nothing to do with or know nothing about. The smart thing to do is to find out what would come up by doing your own check on yourself. If you have a great resume, work history, and you have had good interviews, only to come up without any job offers, perhaps the answer will be in your background check. Once you find the error or the problem, you can then work to fix it before you get turned down for a great job yet again.