So, my story in a nutshell: Recently finished my certification for a healthcare position and got assigned to an unpaid externship at a hospital. I apply for a job there at the behest of everyone in my department; my whole department goes to the department manager and encourages them to hire me. I get the interview and nail it and go on to nail the proceeding two interviews including a peer interview.

I get the job offer and accept. Now comes the background check: My education on my resume is accurate, my most recent job is accurate, my certifications are accurate, I have zero criminal history. My worry is that I have stretched dates on some past retail jobs from years ago, I honestly don’t keep records of anything and ball-parked an estimate from memory of when I worked at some of these places. Am I stressing over nothing? I already did a criminal background and whatnot to even be working in an extern capacity with patients in the first place. When my recruiter called he only asked if they could contact my current employer - I’m very good at what I do and my whole department and the department head like me. Should I chill tf out?

UPDATE: My orientation is next Monday. Honestly and truly thank each and every one of you for calming me down. We’re in like Flynn, baby ✌️

To keep it short and sweet, I accepted a job offer and I'm in the process of going through the background check. Unfortunately, I realized that I messed up the time ranges for my employment history. I reached out to the company doing the check to see how I can fix this, as well as reached out to the person in charge of my offer to keep it transparent with him.

Has anyone gone through something similar that could give me some advice? I'd be devastated if I lost my dream job because I couldn't remember what restaurant I worked at 7 years ago.

And I say that having watched offers get pulled for things candidates genuinely didn't think anyone would find or bother to check.

People actually think a background check is about is criminal history, and that's part of it, but it's actually one of the smaller concerns for most white collar roles unless the conviction is directly relevant to the job. What ends up causing the most problems are the things people put on their own resume. Employment dates that are off by a few months to cover a gap, a title that was slightly inflated, a degree that's listed but was never finished.

The background check providers have access to a database called The Work Number which holds over 800 million payroll records, and when your dates don't match what's in there the screening company flags it immediately.

Reference checks are part of the same process and I've personally watched a reference check reverse a hiring decision that was already leaning toward an offer. Candidates pick people they're friendly with without thinking about what those people will actually say when someone calls them and starts asking specific questions about performance and work style.

Credit history gets pulled for roles that involve handling money or financial data, driving records for anything involving company vehicles, and in some cases social media gets screened too, specifically for evidence of behavior that contradicts what someone presented in interviews.

If they find discrepancies, they treat it as a character issue and the conversation ends.

If you have anything on your resume you're uncertain about or you're heading into a process where a background check is coming, make sure you double check.

So, I need advice. After over a year of searching I was finally hired to work as an administrative assistant for a contracter that works closely with a federal government agency. As part of onboarding, I have to complete a background check.

It’s been very in depth so far, asking me to list every address I’ve lived at in the last 7 years, every employer and supervisor I’ve had, people who knew me when I was living at each residence etc. It also asks if you’ve ever been reprimanded or fired at any of of your past jobs. The thing is, I was fired from the serving job I had before my current one for not showing up to 2 of my shifts, AND I kind of ghosted out of grad school 3 years into my program. My instinct is to lie, since my future boss damn near out right told me to lie about whether I’ve smoked weed within the past year, so I know some bending of the truth is maybe expected?

But I’m scared to lie, it’s such a weight on my conscience, plus I worry that I’ll be found out. My boss told me to contact him if I had any questions about anything and I wonder if it would be helpful or stupid to reach out to him and ask what I should say? I vaguely alluded to a less than amicable break with my grad school advisor during my interview but not getting fired from my old serving job, so he has at least some sense of what my conflict is.

I know this sounds like a total mess and trust me, I feel like one. But I’ve done so much work to fix myself and I really am so eager to get started at this new job and give it my everything. I just don’t want my chances to do that to be jeopardized before I even have my first day.

I signed an offer for a dream job yesterday, and filled out all the background check paperwork. I know there's nothing unusual in there, and it's not like I lied on my resume or anything. A lot of my job history before my current job is tough to validate because they're all out of business, but also, totally irrelevant to my engineering work (like, I worked at a bar and a small retail shop) and I've been at my current job for 9 years. I have a clean criminal record (no arrests, and like one speeding ticket 11 years ago), and my credit is good enough for my mortgage lender at least.

So why am I so antsy about this?

My current job, I actually got promoted up from a position that didn't require a background check and they never did one on me post-promotion. So this is my first time through it.

Has anyone had a job offer rescinded after their background check came through for something? I'm worried about putting in my two weeks at my current job if there's a real risk that they pull the offer after getting the background back, even though I think I'm being unnecessarily neurotic about it.

Hello All,

After months of interviewing I landed an offer at a top 5 institution, I am currently in the background check stage which is with Cisive and it seems like they tend to do very thorough checks since it is FINA regulated. There are a few discrepancies I was worried about and wanted to know if anyone here had any experience.

1. I put that I graduated in Dec on my Resume, however I found out after the final interview that because of a hold on my account the graduation was not processed. The job description did say a Bachelors was required but I fully thought I graduated as I received my gown and was able to walk. I have since fixed the hold and all requirements are met but my conferral date can't be processed until the next batch in March. On the background check application I put the expected date as March and uploaded a letter from my University showing that I was in good standing, requirements were met, my GPA and the conferral date. Will they cross reference this with my resume?

2. One of the jobs I worked for was off the books, I am unable to provide W2/Paystubs and it doesn't appear on the work number, I put my manager as a reference for this role and uploaded a letter from that job confirming my employment. Will this be enough or will it be questioned?

3. I only put relevant experience on my resume but the background check spans 10 years, there were about 6 other jobs I hadn't listed on my resume. I also have a part time home aid job supporting a family member on the weekends, I left this off my resume. I was honest about all employment on the actual background application. Would this be an issue?

Thank you!

So, I’m a contract employee and finally after proving myself to the direct hires I finally interviewed and got a full time position. I had a lot of praise and referrals for the position. It took them about 3 months to finally give me the offer which was long but still exciting. I accepted the offer, and I got redirected to sterling and I had to do a 7 year employment background.

I knew that some of the dates were wrong so I had 2 jobs that were shorter than my resume by 1-3 months. I had one job that was longer than my resume stated by 8 months. The one that’s worrying me is I had one job that I completely messed up on 5 years ago. I put on my resume I started in January and ended the following year in June. However in reality I started in August and ended in December the same year possibly January the following year.

I’m worried that my offer will get rescinded. Should I be that worried, should I not be I don’t know. I guess I just want to know what you guys think. This is the first time I’ve ever had my employment verified.

Maybe it's my impostor syndrome but the pre-hire background check freaks me the f*$k out. I've been through several comprehensive background checks through the years but every time the anxiety gets worse!
It's not just me right?

So I habitually lie on my resumes about my experience, normal reasons like hating a job so I quit and now I don't want people to see that I held a few jobs for just a few months sometimes. I've held jobs with really big companies, multiple offices over the whole country, as well as state, and county jobs. As far as I know no one has ever verified my employment history, which works out great because I don't girlboss too close to sun and I'm always honest in interview about my abilities, if not my history.

This job I'm pretty nervous about, I submitted my paperwork for the background about four days ago, so it's been three full business days since they likely started my background check. My history is completely spotless except for me stretching a few employment dates by up to 4 months. I called the recruiter recently and they confirmed that typically is takes about a week for background checks, and that mine was processing. If I haven't heard anything back yet about my employment history being flagged, does that mean I'm probably fine?

Honestly it's a little nailbiting because everyday I'm at my current job my coworkers keep pushing me closer and closer to slapping the stupid out of their mouths. I'd love this new job so much more, and the pay would be miles better.

Today the company to whom my new employer outsources background checks called me regarding an inability to verify my employment. I gave them different numbers and people to contact to properly verify my employment, as she was unable to verify my employment with the number I provided (mea culpa?). I've also printed out my W-2 forms from my current job to verify my experience here. The woman said she'd email me if she was unable to verify my employment via the telephone contact I gave her.

My current office doesn't have in-house HR, so I think that was the crux of the problem.

What's the likelihood they'll rescind the offer, if any? I am literally so anxious about this I can't think.

I've just accepted an offer as a junior developer at one of the big 4 consulting companies (not big 4 tech), and I'm worried they are going to rescind my offer due to a couple of things:

• my gpa is a 2.4 and on the job description page it mentions a minimum 3.0, but they never asked me my gpa during the entire hiring process

• i had a pay dispute for one of my last internships and am not on good terms with them, both sides threatened legal. I'm regretting putting them on my resume. I have decent references for all my other positions, do companies insist on calling all previous employers

• I still have 1 exam to complete to finish my bachelors. Its a deferred exam which is why it didnt happen in april, I have good marks in the class and only need a 38 on the final exam to pass the class and am less worried about this scenario being an issue

Id say the 2nd point is the one that worries me the most. I could explain to the my side but what if they call them hear their side and dont believe me anymore. Am i able to insist they not contact that employer (I dont have them on my references list anyways I think they would need to ask me for their contact info). I shouldnt have put them on my resume, as it easily holds up well without that internship

I just got an offer with a company and they are doing pre employment verification I messed up one of the dates at a company I worked for back in 2022 by 4 months every other job I have held in the past 5 years plus dates are accurate including my education how screwed am I?

Hello,

I recently accepted an offer for a position I have no experience in and the hiring company is asking for an employment background check through Accurate.

I listed 3 companies I never worked for in this capacity and infact worked for completely different companies during this time frame.

My certificates are accurate and verifiable, just not the work history.

What can I expect from this? Should I enter the info on my resume? Should I enter the real work history that I actually been employed with during this time frame?

I know it looks bad but after spending several thousand dollars on education and certificates and submitting over 100 applications I had a hard time getting anyone to call except this interview.

Any thoughts?

Ok, so i received a job offer for a fantastic company, really honestly a dream job. They told me they would have to do a third party background check and thats when I got worried. I dont have anything on my record except like a speeding ticket, but I am concerned about employment history. I put on my resume some dates that werent 100% accurate, but very close to it. Like a month or two off. I dont update my resume often, so when it came time to get on the job hunt, I just listed the months off the top of my head. I know theyre within a month or two and nothing too egregious. I just fear that it will look like I was trying to be deceitful. My credit is good, never missed a payment, utilization is below 25%, had one collection, but it was for a small sum ~500$, and I paid it off immediately. Ive had like 4 addresses in the past 6 months so i never received a letter, they might have sent it to a previous address. But yeah, I am worried that these would disqualify me from this position. Does anyone know if this is enough?