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At some places they took my word for everything. At some other places (notably banks) did full background check, calling all my previous employers from the pas

At some places they took my word for everything. At some other places (notably banks) did full background check, calling all my previous employers from the past 10 years, and asking for criminal records from all countries where I spent more than 3 months in the past 5 years. They also wanted all kind of documentation where they found some discrepancy between my CV and their findings... (Funnily they never asked for the records from my original country. For all they care, I might be a fugitive murderer there, as long as I have paid my parking tickets in the other countries...)

lylejantzi3rd 2y ago
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.
- jabroni_salad 2y ago
  I once failed to get hired by an F100 company because of that last sentence. It was a small business that had gone under after a few years after I moved away. 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.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- cryptonector 2y ago
  > Calling all of your previous employers will get them your dates of employment and nothing else. 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.
  - lylejantzi3rd 2y ago
    We're not talking about references. We're talking about potential employers calling the companies listed on your resume to verify your employment history, either as part of the interview process or as part of a background check. > 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.
- Spooky23 2y ago
  Not always. 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.

lylejantzi3rd 2y ago

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.

jabroni_salad 2y ago
I once failed to get hired by an F100 company because of that last sentence. It was a small business that had gone under after a few years after I moved away. 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.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
cryptonector 2y ago
> Calling all of your previous employers will get them your dates of employment and nothing else. 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.
- lylejantzi3rd 2y ago
  We're not talking about references. We're talking about potential employers calling the companies listed on your resume to verify your employment history, either as part of the interview process or as part of a background check. > 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.
Spooky23 2y ago
Not always. 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.