When to Expect Background Checks

You get past several rounds of interviews, or you fill out an application for an apartment. Or, you decide to be a volunteer for a nonprofit organization. Although each scenario is different, all have a similar outcome – a background check. While not all companies conduct background checks, a large percentage do, and if you're applying for a job, volunteer work, or housing, be prepared to consent to one.

In the early stages of applying for a position, a candidate submits his or her resume or fills out an online application requesting such information; the latter of these two may also ask about criminal history. While, on the surface, a pre-employment background check essentially examines your criminal history, it is also used to verify the information on your resume, particularly past and current employment and education. A background check company contacts all past employers for job titles, salary information, and job duties and all educational institutions for degrees and majors. If the information from a background check does not line up with that on a resume or said in an interview, a potential employer may withdraw a candidate's application.

On a similar note, nonprofits and other organizations requesting volunteers want to make sure each individual has a clean enough background. In many cases, criminals should not or legally cannot work around children, the disabled, or the elderly, and if a volunteer position has such duties, the organization wants to make sure each individual has no criminal history. But even if the position does not call for an individual to work with children, the disabled, or the elderly, an organization wants trustworthy volunteers.

In many cases for renting, a landlord or housing organization wants to verify that a tenant can make payments on time and has a regular source of income; a tenant, in some cases, should not have a criminal past. In order to verify that each applicant for housing can make payments on time and has no criminal record, a landlord or housing organization will request a background check.

Although background checks vary in scope, and more extensive criminal history screenings may require fingerprints, all examine similar information: names and past addresses, employment, education history, credit, and criminal history.

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