Background Checks: What to worry about? How to handle?

Question

I applied to a three Top 25 schools. I'm reasonably confident that I'll be accepted to at least one of them. My concern is with a background check. I was a Consultant for a federal agency for a year. I was paid through a consulting/contracting company; however, I worked at the agency. I later went to work for the agency on their payroll. In my industry it is not unique for a Contractor or Consultant to list the agency where they worked in their resume which is what I did on my application. Would this cause a school to question my credibility or honesty?

Second, I received a misdemeanor alcohol related driving infraction about 9 years ago. I didn't list this on the application when asked about criminal charges. I assume they want to know about nefarious felonies. Is my assumption correct?

Should I mention either of these things in my interviews? Do you know what schools do background checks?

bb · Answer

Hi. All schools do background checks. Their thoroughness varies from candidate to candidate. It is NOT a problem to list company while working for a contracting middle man. I have had the same situation and it was never an issue with my background checks.

Search around GMAT Club - there are a number of discussions on both topics - quite a few I would say. You are not the first one and not the last one either

https://gmatclub.com/forum/reporting-du ... 20591.html

MBALinkLawrence · Answer

When schools do background checks they are primarily looking for employers and employment dates. It is not an issue to be hired through a contracting agency, but I think it could not hurt to mention somewhere in your application the name of the contracting agency so that the adcoms dont have to make any connections on their own.

Regarding your misdemeanor I think all of the following are true:
- likelihood of this coming out in a background check: probably low
- likelihood of this influencing your application should you disclose: also probably low
- likelihood of schools dinging you after finding this on your background check, not previously disclosed: still not very high, but probably higher than the others

It's the last possibility I would want to mitigate against.

subhashghosh · Answer

For international students, they also verify the Undergrad Degree.

barradoiro · Answer

Hello guys

I was pretty chill about background check, because I've always worked in a big company with a structured HR department. I got admitted to a top 5 school and talking to a friend, I got a little bit worried. Here's the deal: my company has a pretty weird career structure. It has four levels and you are always at one of those four levels, which are kind of like a junior to senior scale, so if you are an accountant for example, you will always be jr. accountant, xyz accountant until senior accountant. You also have your job function, which is a different thing. You can be a jr. accountant working as a trader, as a HR specialist, as many different things, but these titles don't show. Nevertheless, I mentioned I was an acting manager for a project by the side of my official title, as in jr. xyz / acting manager, on the cv I sent in with my application. As "acting manager" is not an official title, this friend of mine told me that might be a problem. What do you guys think? I have references at work that can testify to it, but would that even be a problem?

redfield · Answer

Wait for others to chime in but from what I gather the background check isn't really going to care. The only reason a title change like that would matter is if you said like Senior Manager and your title is Junior Executive. I think given how much some companies have title changes (hell mine has changed twice since I've applied) they won't really care as long as it's close and clearly not an attempt to fool anyone.

anshuman203 · Answer

Hi, I have a couple of questions regarding the background check process:

1. Though I have never been convicted in any crime (which needs to be declared in all B-School applications), I had to go through divorce and related court cases a few years back. The issue was resolved amicably. Do I need to declare this anywhere in the application? Does Background check also verify the resolved court cases?

2. I started a company five months back and it is yet to make profits. What do I need to enter in the compensation/annual revenue part in the Employer section of the application form? Do I need to provide any extra documents (company registration certificate etc) at the time of background verification?

Thank You!

saury2k · Answer

Hi...I'm not sure if I'm too late to ask questions on this mail chain. But I have a query, in a background check do they also check the awards you have mentioned in your resume. I've mentioned 2 awards, I could find the certificate of one but the other one was an internal award, and its now not possible to get a certificate of it and I've lost it.

Background Checks: What to worry about? How to handle?

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