Background check
When a company runs a background check - criminal- are they checking just the state you live in or the entire U.S.?
It depends upon what the potential employer has asked for. Some only want the state that the employer is in other jobs require a national criminal background check, some only want the states that the potential employee has ever lived in (which is kind of silly because it doesn't mean you didn't do something in a state you didn't live in).
Your best bet is if you have something in your background somewhere that you think might show up then you should disclose it otherwise you risk being terminated at a later date if it takes a while for the background check to be completed or excluded for lying on the application. Usually, they ask you to provide your last 10 years of employment history and housing history. Then they match the criminal check to those locations. Let's say you live in Missouri now but two years ago you worked in Oregon. They're going to check Missouri and Oregon. They're not going to check Alaska and Florida since they're not on your list of places you've lived, but they are going to check where you've spent most of your time. Could they miss out on your Spring Break free for all in Palm Beach, California that got you arrested and held for a week? Yes, but most likely they'll find your 6 DUI's at the Porland Airport.
Tess When I saw my criminal background check I was surprised how thorough these investigators were. When I was a reserve police officer, they had people visit the neighborhood I lived in and walked around to the neighbors and asked them questions about me. They had investigated EVERYTHING! They ran my drivers license for 10+ years. The ran my name through every sort of data bank you can imagine - even a child molester listing. They checked FBI, CIA, State and Local police agencies. When everything was done, my criminal check was 15 pages long, credit check one page and background several pages. If you have something to hide and the investigator is good, forget it, it will be found.
That really seems a bit extreme-unless it was for a banking or gov't security position? What kind of job were you going for and whaat kind of company. Most of the jobs I am applying for are administrative and with small companies. I went through the gov't and worked for the Federal gov't 20 years ago. That background check was exhaustive but I can't imagine a company doing that kind of check on a 38000 a yr job.
It all depends on the company or government agency.
If you are going for a average job then they will check the state your in.
If you are dealing with children they may want to know all the states you have lived in.
If you are going for a 3 letter government agency and need top secret clearance then yes they will investigate you on the past 10 years.
Depends on what you're applying for...they could just do criminal/credit /drug check, they could talk to all of your friends, employers, police depts, federal agencies....
like people have probably said though... only the last 7 years are applicable, i suppose there could be instances where they could apply something that happened more than that though. When mine was done, I told them about something that happened more than 10 years ago, in the particular instance, it was something I wasn't charged with ... however, the investigator pursued records from an FBI file, and pulled up some information. Since it happened so long ago, I don't think it was useable in th ebackground investigation. It probably would have been edited out in a final write up. | |
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