Does background check check every employment you have took?

No.

From my experience, the majority of companies who claim they do background checks don’t actually do them. They use it rather as a deterrent from candidates claiming false experience.

In some cases, some employers might do selective background checks, picking 1-2 former employers or anything that is odd / stands out in your CV. That also tends to be the case for specialized, security-focused consultancies and less so for management consulting. 

Usually, the interview is the actually ‘background check’. It’s where as an interviewer it becomes quite easy to tell whether someone has the experience they claim they have. Which is why there’s little point to inflating your CV (not to mention the moral concerns). 

Also, in case you’ve had an employer where you didn’t break off in agreeable terms, and the company you’re applying for is known for doing background checks, I‘d rather just leave it out of the CV. Just so you don’t shoot yourself in the foot ?

Hope this helps ;)

Hi!

I don't think so :)

Best,

Anto

True answer is no one knows for real. Sometimes check may happen, sometimes not. Sometimes it's a deterrent, sometimes a formality.

Hi there,

Honestly, it depends on the company, role, etc. You should always assume all experiences on your resume will be checked.

However, I can pretty assuredly say your former employer will not be called every time you change a job for the rest of your career.

Hi there,

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for quite a lot of users, so I'm happy to give you my perspective on that:

Based on the experiences of coachees of mine and my personal network, it depends on the region and company you're applying to and your specific situation if and how thorough your background will be checked. Ask yourself the following questions, they might guide you:

• Is the country I'm applying to known for actively involving reference checks in the recruiting process - at least during the screening stage (the U.S. is a good example for that)? For most European countries, for instance, this is not the case.
• Is the company known for being suspicious about information in applications? For instance, several consulting companies have included a “background check” passage in their offers to be able to withdraw an offer if anything pops up.
• Is there anything peculiar about my application that might want the company to check the references? Examples for that would be an unusual number of projects (few in a long time/ many in a short time) for project-based activities or odd wordings in the interim report.

In case you want a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare your upcoming applications, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen

I don't think there is a standard policy and this depends on the company and location (office). For example in UK, some consulting companies look at last 5 years of employment, some look at 3 years and some even up to 10 years.

Best check with HR.

Technically they could, but in practice the answer is almost always no. At most, HR may call 1 or 2 of your past employers (or people you worked for in the past 3 years), but your work beyond that would probably be much less relevant. Larger firms will probably just run a check to confirm that you worked where you said you worked, and in the position you specified, but won't actually speak to any of your former bosses since they simply have too many applicants.

Hello!

Not at all! (and if so it´d be an email)

Background checks are nothing to be worried about, as long as you haven´t lied (e.g., saying that you graduated from Uni X when you didn´t, or that you worked in Company Y 2 years instead of 6 months). Minor things, such as 1 month differences, etc. don´t matter. 

Most of the times, they are done by 3rd party companies to which the job is externalized. If they find any discrepancy, they contact you first and clarify it with you. 

For instance, with the MIT background check I had the issue that the external name of my Amazon job is not the same as the one Amazon uses internally -and that was the name given in the certificated that Amazon gives oficially-. It was easily solved by an HR doc that explained that both were the same thing. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara