Background checks are a common part of many hiring processes, but they don’t always work in your favor. Here are five ways a bad background check could hurt your odds of being employed.
Bad Reviews
As part of a background check, many organizations will contact not only your references, but also your previous employers. If things ended poorly with your last boss and they give your potential employer a bad review, there’s a real chance that you’ll stop being considered for the new position.
Poor Financial History
Most jobs won’t care about your personal credit history, but it may come up if you’re being considered for a position in finances. Put simply, your potential employer wants to see how you’ve handled your personal finances before giving you a position working with theirs. You don’t necessarily need to be a financial mogul to pass this test, but you may run into trouble if you’ve defaulted on debts or have obvious financial troubles.
Providing False Information
Lying or embellishing on your resume might get you an interview, but it can easily come back to bite you. Whether you lied about your education, previous work history or even drastically changed a previous job title, all of it could be grounds for a potential employer to retract any previous offers. After all, why would they hire someone who’s already lying to them?
Extensive Criminal History
If you have one minor charge on your record, you probably have nothing to fear from a background check. Misdemeanors and minor, decades-old offenses are often shrugged off by employers who can recognize a single mistake as an anomaly. If you have multiple charges, however, or major crimes like rape or felony embezzlement could easily remove you from consideration for most jobs.
Bad Driving Record
Depending on the position you’re applying for, repeated driving infractions could easily eliminate you from further consideration. For example, a DUI could keep you from being a delivery driver. For employers, it’s hard to entrust someone with bad personal driving habits with a company car or their brand’s reputation.
Know Your Odds
There isn’t much you can do to change the results of a background check, but you can know how your history will impact your odds of being hired for a position. Use the above five scenarios to help decide what positions would be right for you.