You thought the interview went great, but you didn’t get the job. You don’t know why.
You constantly replay the interview in your mind, scrutinize your résumé for typos and torture yourself about the outfit you wore. Nothing connects, but perhaps they said something about a background check?
More companies are using them to develop a dossier on prospective employees, and you might be surprised to learn what they are looking for. Companies increasingly turn snoops loose on applicants in hopes of weeding out people who made bad choices in their lives.
Your Money spoke with three Manhattan-based investigators about what they are looking for when they do a background check, and what you can do to protect your reputation.
Alan Schissel – Integrated Security Services
Prospects for employment, partnerships, acquisitions, board appointments – Alan Schissel vets all these and more.
“We don’t look at the credit score as much as the pattern of behavior between lender and borrower,” he said.
“If findings suggest that the person can’t meet obligations, a company typically wouldn’t want to hire or put the person around tangible assets unsupervised,” he added.
Schissel, 48, warned that a job candidate who resists a background check would likely raise a red flag. If you suspect you were done in unfairly by private investigators, Schissel echoed his colleagues: Contact the credit reporting agencies. Challenge anything that makes you look bad, he said.
For example, watch for a bill after a medical procedure or accident that might have been paid late because of recovery time – or because it never arrived.
By Mildred L. Culp
