Interview tips : Job history on background check

In early March 2006, I left job ABC for a new position with DEF. About a month after I started at DEF, I got an offer from GHI, who I interviewed with at the same time. The offer from GHI was considerably better in terms of benefits and pay. Everyone told me to go for it. So, even though they weren' t happy about it, I gave DEF 2 weeks notice and left on "good" terms.

I' ve been at GHI for a year, and it' s been miserable. More importantly, there was a corporate merger and now with the ' writing on the wall' I have been interviewing elsewhere.

I have never listed job DEF on my resume since I was only there for 6 weeks and, frankly, needed more room on my resume for more important things. The timing worked out like this:

Job ABC May 2004 - March 2006

Job GHI April 2006 - Current

So, on my resume, there isn' t necessarily a "gap" in timing per se.

But, will job DEF show up on a background check? If so, will it raise suspicion?

In the past month or so, I' ve had two good interviews, one rejection and no callback or returned calls from there other. Both had background checks as part of the application, which I filled in my info for (SS#).

Everything else on a background check should be fine for me...no crimes, good credit. Should I be listing job DEF on my resume even though I was only employed there 6 weeks and left on relatively good terms?

You do not have to list it on your resume, but you do have to list it on an application if they ask for last 3 jobs or all jobs last 5 years or something along those lines. This is easy to uncover, especially when they ask ABC why you left. There are a number of other ways it can come to light as well.

In this particular situation, there was a document that I filled out when i got there with all my vital info, but this 'application' did not ask for my work history.

I found this welcoming because I hate filling out applications which are usually just reproductions of my resume, except they provide only a 1" by 1/2" box for me to write my job responsibilities of every position I've had.

This application only asked my vital information, yet did ask for three professional references.

If that 6-week job DOES surface, and if this company really wants me, do you think they will ask me for an explanation or simply reject me outright?

I am a little confused as to why you do not want them to be included on your resume. You stated that you did leave on relatively good terms. I should think that the company would have been grateful that you not only left before they had invested a maximum amount of money and training on you but also that you were willing to work out the standard 2 weeks notice.

But, that aside, whether this "in-between" company appears on a background check may depend on the type of background check that is performed. I have seen what a standard criminal background check looks like and it simply has your name, social security number, and any incidents with the police you may have had. A personal background check, which is a little more in depth, will have more information which will include your work history. The more comprehensive the check, the more information the potential employer will have access to.

If they do a check that will show them your past employers and they are really interested in you, they probably will not ask you about it. If they do, you might tell them that the company was temporary until you found a more permanent position. (Beware, this may bite you in the rump because the employer may question if this is something you would do to them). If you state that the job was temporary, you may opt to follow up on that and tell your potential employer that the job was ending when you received the most current one.

If the potential employer decides to contact the employer for a reference, what is truly the worst that they can say about you? You are a hard worker, you worked between whatever and whenever and they would or would not hire you back. If you left on good terms, why wouldn't they?

Have someone contact them and pretend to be another employer checking for a reference. This way you will know and the question may not bother you as much. Also, if it turns out not to be as great as we think or as it should be, you can head off any future potential employers.

IMHO, you were right to omit this job from your resume. The fact that you left one employer after only 6 weeks and are now looking to leave another one after a year does not speak to reliability and may be an impediment to your getting the interview. Your resume is a tool that's supposed to get you the interview, so you only put those things on it that will help you achieve this goal. You are not supposed to lie on your resume, but omitting information you consider non-essential is ok. Once you get the interview, and they ask you to fill out the application requiring that you list your complete work history, that's where you are supposed to disclose everything. If they later ask you about the discreppancy between the application and your resume, you should be prepared to explain why you left the job off your resume. Since you never filled out and signed a form proclaiming that you have made all of your past jobs known to them, you have not lied.

Had you knowingly omitted jobs from an application that asked for all of your recent jobs, your employment could be terminated if you were found out. However, many people exaggerate the amount of information employers are able to get on applicants through a background check. Here are the types of background checks employers may run:

-Driving record (self-explanatory)
-SS# verification
-Education verification
-Criminal background check (it's up to the employers what to look for and how far back)
-Credit check (this will reveal those of your jobs that were listed at some point by you on a credit or loan application)
-Employment verification (they contact those of your former employers they know about, whether or not you have listed a professional reference from that company; questions may vary, but you will find that most companies will limit themselves to title/date verification and, perhaps, salary verification)
-Reference check (when your professional references are contacted; if your references are aware of your 6 week long job, they may mention it to the employer, but if they just know that you left to take another job, but don't know where or what happened next, or if they know not to mention DEF company, you're in the clear). On a side note, many employers won't even bother calling to check your references, even if they ask for them. My references weren't checked once for any one of my jobs, and I know many people who say the same thing. Employers often don't put much weight into what your hand-picked references have to say about you.

You should be careful if you are in a small industry where everyone knows everyone, people frequently move between companies, and noone you've worked with is ever out of your life for good. However, for the rest of us, there is a definite limit to how much can be found out about you. If it was possible for employers to know every detail of someone's life, find out about every time they didn't get along with their boss, or didn't get the project right, or walked out, or even stormed out of their part-time job in college, or were subject to a "lay off" that was actually a good old fashioned firing, or started a job only to realize a week later that it was a mistake, most of us would be unemployable.

I say you're worrying about nothing. Besides, if you weren't even required to list your jobs on the application, you have not actually lied.

Career Tips

Job history on background check