Interview tips : Background Check

Last week, I had my 3rd interview with a company. That's the last interview prior to making a decision. It's a very large company, and I'm assuming they do background checks. However, as of right now, they do not have all the information they would need for a background check (i.e. SS#, date of birth, maiden name, etc.). When I filled out the application prior to the 1st interview, it did not ask for this information. It asked for employment history, education, and if there were any criminal convictions, but not for the information they will need to actually check the accuracy of the answers. Does this sound like they forgot to give me the necessary form(s) to fill out, or is it standard practice for companies to hold off on asking for this information until they are ready to make an offer?

Not all companies do background checks. Some just check references.

Have you provided references? If not, call to follow up with them and ask whether they would like your references. If they say no, it may not be a good sign.

If they have your references, call your references and see if they have been contacted.

It's a huge international company with thousands of employees. It seems unlikely that they would not bother to at least check prospective hires' education and limit themselves to just calling the 3 references on the list. Plus, they asked about criminal history in the application and provided a rather lengthy explanation of what an applicant should or shouldn't list, so I would imagine that's a matter of some importance to them.

And yes, I have provided references. One of them is out of reach at the moment because he is in a hospital recovering from a car accident, but the other 2 have not been contacted either. This doesn't surprise me though because, in my 10 years of professional experience, I have never come across a company that actually bothered to contact my references prior to making an offer, and I'm counting the 3 offers I accepted during this time and about 7 or so I didn't. My husband has never had his references checked either, so I'm guessing based on this experience that a lot more companies run background checks than rely on calling references.

I guess I'm just surprised that I wasn't asked to sign the release form for the background check as I normally am prior to the 1st interview. I was wondering if there are some companies that don't ask you to fill out those forms until they know who the finalists are and are ready to make an offer.

Sure some companies don't check until the end. Background checks cost money so they often don't do it until they're down to the last few folks. Some do it sooner, some have you do the paperwork then may or may not actually do it. It all depends.

And don't think they won't check references as well. I've never worked for a company that DIDN'T check references and in the last 20 years, I've worked for several companies. I've even had 2 companies go to some lengths to check things on my application from the 2 years I was in another country.

Tess

Anything is possible. Some companies check references, some don't, or check references for some types of positions, but not for others (yes, this doesn't make sense to me either). Some run background checks early in the process, others wait until they've narrowed it down to the final few, or make an offer contingent on passing a background check and only once it's been accepted actually run the checks. I wouldn't worry too much about them not asking you to fill out the release forms just yet. When/if they are at a point when they are ready to begin your background check, they'll let you know. They may ask you to come in and fill out the necessary papers, or send the papers to you and have you return them via fax/mail. Some companies have electronic release forms you can fill out by logging on to a secure site. There is no law that says they have to handle this one way or another, and it's up to the company how they want to do this. Just make sure you do not send any personal information via e-mail.

I have a suggestion though. When/if they notify you that they intend to start a background check, if your reference who is recovering from an accident is still unable to take phone calls, let them know the situation. If possible, you should try to produce another reference to replace him. If you can't, and he is your only reference from that job, you should make sure they at least have a number they can call to verify employment if they can't reach him. It may be true that not all employers will contact references, but you should always assume that they will because many do.

Many applicants worry about having to provide their personal information from the get go, before either side knows whether or not the position is going to work out. I've seen many posts here overtime from applicants who complain about having to provide all the info beforehand and then wondering what happens to it and how well it's protected if they don't get the offer. Maybe this company doesn't want to be held responsible for other people's personal information and only collects it on "as needed" basis. I doubt that they "forgot" to give you papers to sign because, from my interviewing experience, the application papers are checked at least twice by HR, first by the receptionist who collects them, and then by the recruiter.

From experience it simply depends on the company, agency, job and department. Anything can happen. If they want it, they'll let you know.

Thanks to everyone who responded. I think the interviews went well, but what do I know. We'll just have to wait and see. It's just that I was a little puzzled by the fact that they didn't ask for social security number, name changes, or date of birth on the application I filled out prior to the first interview. I guess not all companies do it that way. It has always made me a little nervous to have to provide all of my personal information right away, before even interviewing, so I kind of like it better if a company doesn't ask for this stuff until they are ready to begin background checks. I guess I'm just used to a different approach, so I found this a little odd. But like I said, what do I know?

Not all companies do background checks, but this one sounds like it might. What I would do is contact them for followup and ask if there are any other questions they might have that I could answer and ask them at that time if they need my information to do the background check (providing you want them to do one ). If they say no, then you probably aren't getting an offer anytime soon. Most companies do reference checks, but mostly to past employers. So if they haven't called your personal references yet, then that's not really a sign. Good Luck!

I don't have personal references. All of my references are professional - people I've worked with. I do not mind having my references checked, it's just that in the past, employers never called them (I'm assuming they just verified employment and left it at that). One of them is unavailable due to injury, so if he is still not in a position to talk when/if they get around to checking references, they'll just have to limit themselves to whatever HR can tell them because that company does not give out references and the friend who is in the hospital is the only reference I have from there. If that's not enough for them, then that's that, nothing I can do about it.

The interview was this past Friday, so I'm definitely not planning on contacting them until at least next Wednesday. I've sent my 'thank you's", so as far as I'm concerned, it's out of my hands at this point. I'm not really a huge believer in calling to follow up and "see if they need anything". The way I see it, if they need anything, they'll let me know. If they are not interested, they are not interested.

I just wanted to know if it's normal for the company not to fill out background check release forms prior to the interviews. I was mainly just wondering if perhaps they were supposed to do that, but forgot. I can see from the responses I got that some companies do in fact like to wait until the very end and that it's nothing out of the ordinary. That's all I needed to know.

Once again, thanks for the help, everyone!

Career Tips

Background Check