Most employers conduct pre-employment background checks on applicants.
If you’re getting ready to apply for jobs, it makes sense to run a background check on yourself to see what potential employers might discover.
This allows you to fix any mistakes and make sure your resume is up to date.
In this guide, you’ll learn what appears on background checks and how you can complete one on yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Running a background check on yourself allows you to dispute inaccurate information, prevent inconsistencies on your resume, detect identity theft, anticipate employer concerns, and save time when you choose a reliable background check provider.
- To get a background check on yourself, determine the information you need, gather your identity information and addresses, use a professional background check service like iprospectcheck, review the results, and take action if necessary.
- Know your rights under the FCRA and relevant state laws like ban-the-box and social media privacy laws when applying for jobs.
Why Run a Background Check on Yourself?
Checking your own background before applying for a job offers several benefits.
1. Dispute Inaccurate Information
Background check reports may include outdated or inaccurate information.
Some information might be misattributed to you from someone with the same name.
When you run a background check on yourself, you can find and dispute incorrect or outdated information and remove it from your record before a prospective employer sees it.
This can help to protect your reputation and preserve your clear record.
2. Prevent Inconsistencies on Your Resume
Inconsistent information on your resume about your employment or educational history can tank your chances of landing a job.
Whether you’re unsure of your employment dates, job title, or enrollment dates at a specific job or school, it’s important to check your info and ensure the dates listed on your resume match those reported on an employment background check.
When employers identify inconsistent information on a background check from what you reported on your resume, they don’t know whether you intentionally misrepresented your employment or educational history or made an honest mistake.
3. Detect Identity Theft
Running a personal background check can help you detect whether you’ve been the victim of identity theft.
When identity theft is undetected, it can cause employers to turn you down for jobs.
For example, someone might have used your identity to engage in fraudulent activity or run up bad debts.
You can take measures to address the issue and get erroneous information removed when you see indicators that you’ve been the victim of identity theft on a personal background check.
You can also inform prospective employers that someone stole your identity, so they won’t hold you accountable for fraudulent activity appearing on a pre-employment background check.
4. Anticipate Concerns
When you run a background check on yourself, you can review it to identify any information in the report that might concern an employer.
For example, an employment gap that appears on your report could be an issue you might want to address. You can explain the circumstances during your interview.
What Shows Up on a Background Check?
What might show up on your background check depends on the searches requested by your prospective employer.
Requests vary by industry and the position’s authority level.
Searches that iprospectcheck conducts based on employer requests include the following:
- Identity verification – Confirms your identity, provides an address history, and verifies your date of birth.
- National criminal records search – Scans millions of records from many state and county courts, law enforcement agencies, sex offender registries, and correctional facilities to uncover potential criminal history information and identify areas where in-depth searches might be needed for increased accuracy.
- National sex offender registry search – Checks sex offender registries in every state to identify whether you’re a registered sex offender and provides information about the related offense.
- Global sanctions search – Screens you against international and domestic watchlists and sanctions databases to identify whether you are barred from certain types of jobs because of serious regulatory or legal issues.
- Federal criminal records search – Shows whether you have any convictions in federal court.
- Seven-year county criminal records search – Provides details about misdemeanor and felony convictions from the last seven years at the county level in states in which you’ve lived and worked.
- Employment verification – Verifies the positions you’ve held, where you’ve worked, and your employment dates with each employer.
- Education verification – Reveals the names and addresses of the institutions you attended, your enrollment dates, and whether you earned a degree.
- Professional license verification – Verifies professional credentials and provides details about issuance date, expiration date, license number, license type, and public discipline.
- Motor vehicle records (MVR) check – Discloses information about your driving history and license, including license number, license class, issuance and expiration dates, legal name, registered address, traffic violations, major traffic offenses, and revocations or suspensions.
- System for Award Management (SAM) check – Identifies individuals excluded from participating in work involving federal contracts, including work for companies with Medicare or Medicaid contracts, among others.
- Office of Inspector General (OIG) check – Searches the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) OIG’s List of Excluded Individuals and Entities (LEIE) to see whether an individual is barred from participating in Medicare or Medicaid due to sanctions.
- FACIS check – Identifies individuals excluded from healthcare jobs because of fraud, abuse, or other misconduct and who have been debarred or sanctioned.
- Pre-employment drug screen – Multi-panel drug screen to check for recent use of a variety of substances; Can be a DOT drug screen for individuals applying for jobs regulated by a DOT administration like the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, etc.
- DEA disbarment check – Checks whether a licensed healthcare professional, such as a physician, has been debarred by the DEA for violations of the Controlled Substances Act.
- Office of Foreign Asset Control Specially Designated Nationals (OFAC-SDN) check – Identifies individuals and entities acting on behalf of targeted countries, narcotics traffickers, terrorists, and others blocked from employment in the US.
- DOT Physical – Screens for medical conditions that would preclude individuals from serving in safety-sensitive roles in jobs regulated by the US Department of Transportation
Refer to the table below to see what your employer might request based on your industry and position level:
How to Get a Self Background Check
1. Determine the Information You Need
Assess the information you want to search for before you order your report.
This might include criminal records, credit reports, employment history, or license information, for example.
2. Gather Personal Information
To run an accurate personal background check, you’ll need to provide the following information:
- Full legal name
- Past names used (i.e. maiden name)
- Date of birth
- Social Security number
- Current and former addresses
3. Use a Professional Background Check Service
While you might think that you can request information from government agencies and courts yourself, doing so can be time-consuming.
You might also not receive comprehensive results, and some of the information you find could be outdated or inaccurate.
It’s best to use a professional background check service like iprospectcheck that regularly performs comprehensive checks for employers.
Working with us is much faster and provides you with the same results potential employers will see when they check your background.
We have extensive access to reliable information sources and provide up-to-date, accurate, and fast personal background checks.
4. Submit Your Information
Complete our online individual background check form by answering the questions and including your current and former names, addresses, and Social Security number.
Our site is highly secure and uses advanced encryption technology to protect your personal identity information (PII) and prevent data breaches.
5. Receive and Review the Results
When your background check is ready, we’ll send it to you.
Review the results carefully and look for outdated or inaccurate information.
Determine how you’ll address issues.
6. Take Action if Needed
If your background check contains errors, take action to correct them.
Contact us immediately with evidence showing the information is wrong so we can correct it.
Contact courts or law enforcement agencies to address any inaccurate criminal history record information that appears on your report.
You might also consider freezing your credit if you find evidence that you’ve been the victim of identity theft.
Finally, if you notice that some of the information on your resume is inconsistent with your background check report, make corrections to your resume so that it accurately reflects your employment and educational history.
Choose iprospectcheck for Reliable Personal Background Checks
When you’re looking for a new job, running a background check on yourself can help you understand the information potential employers might see.
This gives you time to correct inaccurate information and prepare for questions about concerns an employer might have about your background.
At iprospectcheck, we perform employment background checks for employers in every US state and offer employer-quality personal background checks to individuals.
DISCLAIMER: The resources provided here are for educational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Consult your counsel if you have legal questions related to your specific practices and compliance with applicable laws.
FAQs
How much does it cost to run a background check on yourself?
At iprospectcheck, we offer a basic personal background check package for $39.95 and an employer-quality package for $59.95. Additional names/aliases searched cost $4.95 each.
Some jurisdictions charge court records access fees. When we pay these fees on your behalf, they are added to the base price of your background check.
It’s also more comprehensive and accurate than what you might compile yourself.
Can I run a free background check on myself?
While you can submit requests to former employers, schools, and various governmental agencies, doing so is time-consuming.
Most agencies charge fees for information.
While a few sites promise free background check information, what they provide for free is very basic and might be limited.
They typically charge fees for more extensive reports, and the information they provide can be inaccurate and outdated.
It’s best to work with an experienced employment background check provider like iprospectcheck so that you can see the information potential employers will receive about you.
How long does it take to get a background check on yourself?
When you work with iprospectcheck to run a background check on yourself, how fast you will receive the results depends on the complexity of the information and the jurisdictions that need to be searched.
You can anticipate receiving results electronically between one hour and up to 30 days.
How can I get a credit check on myself?
You can get a free copy of your credit report from the three national credit reporting bureaus once per year. These include TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian.
These three credit bureaus have established a website at annualcreditreport.com, where you can request your free annual credit reports.
Not all employers request credit checks on applicants, but if you apply for a job in finance, you might be asked to consent to one.
Credit checks for employment differ from a credit report you pull on yourself.
An employment credit check won’t show your credit score, date of birth, account numbers, or marital status.
Review your credit reports carefully. Dispute any inaccurate information that appears.
The credit reporting bureaus must remove inaccurate information that can’t be validated within 30 days of your dispute.
