If you’re looking for work, you know how tough things can be out there. Unemployment is the highest it’s been since the nasty recession in the early 1980s. Hundreds of people are potentially applying for one job listing, making the job market very competitive.

As you work to make yourself stand out from the job-seeking crowd, it’s also a good idea to conduct an online background check on yourself. After all, your prospective employers will.

Most employers today conduct background checks on potential employees. Many employers have been the victims of deceitful or violent employees and have become leery of hiring someone on “good faith” alone.

When a potential employer conducts a background check on you, the employer will be verifying your name, your date of birth, your Social Security number, your address, even your driving history and credit history, in addition to the “usual” checks of your past employers and personal and professional references.

In addition, many employers now search for any felony arrest record you may have.

You should perform an online background check on yourself because mistakes happen when employers conduct a background search on you. Two numbers in your Social Security Number could have been mistakenly transposed some time in your past and suddenly it comes up in the employer’s background check that you haven’t paid your taxes in several years, you job hop every six months or even worse, you’ve been convicted of a crime.

Even less serious mistakes in your past could cause an employer to feel you’re too risky and decide not to hire you.

Instead, if you perform a background check on yourself early in your job search you’ll have the chance to address any mistakes or problems you may find when your search report is delivered to you.

Mistakes on your background search report can be time consuming or very difficult to clear up, meaning that you should consider getting an online background check on yourself early in your job search or, at the very least when you feel an employer is interested enough in you to check your background itself.

Looking for work is hard work, sometimes harder even than actually doing a job once you’re hired. Just think how awful it would be to have done all that work, gone on all those interviews, written all those cover letters, thank you letters and follow up proposals, to disappear because of a mistake you didn’t know about on your background check. Don’t let that happen to you; perform a background check on yourself.

View all Brandon Meryhew's articles

---

About the Author:
Brandon Meryhew is the President of Instant Background Check, a provider of employment background checks to businesses. Their database of national criminal records allows employers to access the criminal records of potential new hires. Individuals applying for jobs, mortgages, and more can run a background check on themselves to reveal any hidden criminal history.

More Careers & Jobs articles