Are potential employers finding something negative in my background?

July 23, 2015 6:11 PM

Is there a way to find out if potential employers are finding something negative in my background check?

I've had two interviews cancelled after an initial phone screening. In both cases the initial phone interview seemed to go well and the potential employers scheduled follow up interviews. Then in both cases, a day or two before the scheduled follow up the potential employer cancelled.

One of the interviews was cancelled because the training class was cancelled and most recently because of a "management decision."

I'm wondering if this is simply bad luck or if the interviews were cancelled due to HR starting the background check before the in-person interview and finding something negative.

There have been two additional job opportunities that I attended onsite interviews for but neither gave me an offer.

posted by bolquist to Work & Money (16 answers total)

Are you sure there aren't problems with your references? There are companies that will call your references and employers Asking questions as though they are offering a job to you. Then they report back to you and tell you what old employers or references are saying.
posted by discopolo at 6:16 PM on July 23, 2015

For both of the cancelled interviews they didn't have references yet, just my resume and cover letter. They could have contacted my previous employer but when the interviews were cancelled the explanations were for other reasons.

I'm not sure of the rules in this forum so let me know if I'm not supposed to respond.
posted by bolquist at 6:26 PM on July 23, 2015

Background checks cost money, so most companies aren't going to do them until the final stages. I'd chalk it up to bad luck.

Also in terms of AskMe etiquette: Generally you can answer questions if people are asking for further clarification, that's fine. It's just not supposed to be a back-and-forth.
posted by radioamy at 6:30 PM on July 23, 2015

radioamy: "Background checks cost money, so most companies aren't going to do them until the final stages. I'd chalk it up to bad luck."

I'm inclined to agree. In the processes I'm familiar with, background check happens around the time of reference checks and drug tests (if applicable) and not before owing to the costs. Also, depending on the background check company and the exact kind of check, I think they'd be likely to ask for information that is either not advised to put on a resume (e.g.: date of birth, social security number) or never put on a resume (e.g.: prior addresses, whether or not you've been convicted of a felony and if so, in which state & county).

On the other hand, Google searches are free. Maybe do a quick check of Google for your name just in case something weird pops up (either about the actual you or a doppleganger) for your own peace of mind?
posted by mhum at 6:51 PM on July 23, 2015

At my company and others I've worked at, it is de rigueur to start an informal internal reference check at the outset of the interview process (ie just ask around within the company, if there are people there who came from your company, if they remember you.) This can take a few days to get responses to, and can strengthen or torpedo a candidacy.

In addition, and to my enormous chagrin, there are hiring managers who - despite the ethical problems with this - start asking their friends, externally to the company, about candidates as well. So, yes, I have absolutely had to cancel interview processes when informal checks came back bad, and that can be as minimal as someone important getting an email back from their friend saying "oh, yeah, her, I don't remember much about her but I recall she was kind of rude."

That said, it is far more common that I cancel an interview because the hiring group has decided not to hire right then after all; because they've decided to hire a slightly different profile; because they decided to go with someone else; because they realize they can't pay as much as the candidate would need; because someone within the group has raised their hand for an internal application... a hundred other reasons that have nothing to do with any negative reference.
posted by fingersandtoes at 6:55 PM on July 23, 2015

Have you run a background check on yourself?
posted by J. Wilson at 6:55 PM on July 23, 2015

By the way, the kind of background check that you "run", i.e. pay a third party to do, generally consists of checking for your name in criminal (and in some cases civil or bankruptcy) courts in the counties where you have lived, and is not done in any hiring process I'm familiar with until all interviews have been concluded and the group has indicated to the candidate that they are going to do it (often this is in conjunction with an offer process.) Also, at least in my jurisdiction, you have the right to see what comes back on the report. It's not done behind your back. So I don't think formal background checks are going to turn out to be your problem.

If indeed there's "something out there" about you (and again, nothing in your narrative suggests to me that there is) it's going to be something like a reputation you have in your industry; someone you know giving a bad report; something in a social media account of yours that you don't realize is problematic... stuff like that.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:03 PM on July 23, 2015

Oh hai I work in HR now.

There are two kinds of reference checks that my office can deal with:

1. The kind I do, where someone calls me to ask if so-and-so works where I am and what their title is and what their hire date was (and what their exit date was if they're a former worker). Sometimes they ask for salary, but I'm literally not allowed to tell them unless I have written permission from the employee. And this is pretty much the only information they ask for, and the only information I give them. This happens often.

2. The kind we do when we're about to hire someone, where the legal/credit/criminal history is checked out. We place an order for some entity to do this, and we do not do this until someone is literally about to be hired (and I mean LITERALLY about-to-be-hired, like, "hi, we'd like to make you an offer, so we'll be emailing you the hire letter and we'll be doing the background check stuff while you're looking it over for the next couple days").

So unless you're putting some place as a former place of employment and they're calling and the people they talk to are cursing them out or something, I doubt that this is because of a bad reference.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:09 PM on July 23, 2015

Depending on the industry (financial services for one), background checks might include a check of your credit report. If there's something weird there, it might be flagging you.
posted by jquinby at 7:11 PM on July 23, 2015

Have you googled or social media-checked your name? That's free so is more likely to happen early on, and among people I know seems to be pretty common prior to hiring.
posted by tchemgrrl at 7:22 PM on July 23, 2015

Google yourself and see what comes up, and check your social media presence. I have declined to interview candidates because of social media issues (for instance, openly displaying blatant racism/sexism/homophobia probably means someone wouldn't be a good fit). Another candidate did a remote interview and his Skype account name was a thinly-veiled porn reference.

Basically, make sure your easily-searchable web presence is appropriate.
posted by erst at 7:23 PM on July 23, 2015

I agree about googling your name - companies are far more likely to do that this early in the interviewing stage than run a background or credit check. Also, every time I have had a background or credit check done for job purposes I have explicitly been told that it is about to be done and I think there's sometimes some sort of consent involved. So, you would definitely know.
posted by joan_holloway at 7:25 PM on July 23, 2015

If you are googling yourself to check if there's a problem, do it from a computer you've never used before (local library?), or at the very least log out of your browser and all your accounts (email, Facebook, etc) first. That will allow you to more closely replicate what someone else sees when they search for you, which may not be the same as when Google tries to helpfully tailor the results for your eyes.
posted by une_heure_pleine at 7:59 PM on July 23, 2015

Thanks everyone for your feedback. Based on these answers I'm thinking these were just two interview where I had some bad luck and they were cancelled for whatever reason.

It sounds like background checks are not the issue. Also, I have googled my name and nothing about me comes up but there are several people with the same name I have. I don't have a Facebook, LinkedIn or any other social media profiles. So the only social media issue could be the fact that I'm not on it.
posted by bolquist at 8:25 PM on July 23, 2015

At my organization, we do not do any sort of professional background checks or googling-type vets until the end stage. Same with references. I really doubt that after an initial phone screen, they are devoting any sort of resources to that. Those sorts of procedures take time, and the initial phone screen is really preliminary.

I would assume it is indeed bad luck. For the first one, assume they told the truth about the training class being canceled. For the second, I would guess they just found a candidate they wanted to hire or maybe they had a hiring freeze or something.

Sure, take people's advice and google yourself, curate your online presence, check in with your references to make sure they will be positive, etc. But I very seriously doubt that is the problem, unless you do spot something that pops up immediate when you search for yourself.
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