Do you know what a full background check shows?
Calling all of your previous employers will get them your dates of employment and nothing else. Less than that if you worked for a startup that went out of business.
Calling all of your previous employers will get them your dates of employment and nothing else. Less than that if you worked for a startup that went out of business.
Since the business's domain and phone number no longer worked I had to get a letter of reference on """corporate letterhead""". He had never made any such thing so he printed it on the back of a receipt. Bigcorp HR hated this and said they were moving in a different direction.
It was really annoying at the time because I was fresh out of college and did not have any other jobs to list as experience.
HR people say that they do that to avoid liability, but… typically they aren’t covered by NDA, and there’s only slander/defamation if you find out about it, it’s negative, and it’s not true.
I used to do my own reference checks and got lots of info, often without asking. Well placed silence will often lead people to jabber. More often than not they would say lovely things. They they’d say lovely things than silence on a difficult topic.
Eh, HR at previous employers might share whether you were a problem employee. And any references you provide from previous employers had better speak glowingly about you -- if they wouldn't, don't provide them.
I don't know if any of the references I've ever given were called, but since none of the references I've given ever told me about getting called about me I assume none were called. To be fair I've had a) few jobs, b) enough credentials in terms of portfolio of public works (in standards setting organizations, in open source, etc.) that there is little need to check those references. If you interview me and you can get me to talk in detail about said public work and also you can check how I think and would solve problems, then between that and a background check that's almost certainly enough.
This is why I tell people to make sure to have a portfolio of public work. In practice it is difficult to make a large portfolio of public work -- at some point that has to include participation in the upstreams of external open source, in mailing lists, in fora, etc., and that all takes time and not being shy. Most job applicants are not going to have much of a portfolio.
> Eh, HR at previous employers might share whether you were a problem employee.
HR departments are trained to say exactly two things: whether or not the person worked there and the person's dates of employment. Anything else can result in a lawsuit.