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Passing a Background Check the Right Way

According to Spherion Corporation?s latest Workforce Study, 79 percent of respondents say they now run background checks on prospective employees, and over half say they`ve increased their use of the pre-employment screening tool in the last five years. Almost five million background checks were run in 2005, and about half of them found discrepancies in the information provided on job applications.

"Preparing for a background check is as important today as updating your resume. The best candidate in the world won?t get hired if he doesn?t pass the background check," says Jan Maxwell. "Many candidates don?t realize that companies use their job applications, rather than their resumes, to run a background check," says Maxwell, author of "A Job Hunter?s Secret Weapon: How to Survive a Background Check and Get the Job You Really Want!"

Maxwell provides interested parties with this advice: "A job application asks for a lot of detailed information that?s not on a resume, and a candidate needs to make sure that everything can be verified. If a hiring company finds discrepancies, lies, or unexplained employment gaps on a candidate?s job application, he won?t get hired. It`s a good idea to contact your former employers to make sure your records are available."