Employment Background Checks: Think About Your Career Before You Run That Stop Sign

Not a day goes by anymore that I do not see an article about the rising prevalence of “Googling” candidates before they are even considered by a corporate hiring executive or a recruiter. It behooves us all to constantly monitor what is floating around in cyberspace about us, and proactively work to ensure good press.

But let’s not forget that Googling has not replaced traditional background checks, and that those background checks are routinely conducted on a large proportion of hires today. More often than not, candidates are subject to a thorough background check before the offer is made, including review of criminal, social security, and DMV records. This is particularly true for senior managers and executives, but also applies to virtually any job category where the employee’s character and trustworthiness are important, including a minimum wage cashier's job at the local fast food restaurant.

A recent ExecuNet RecruitSmart Today newsletter article brought this to mind again. Stressed in the article was the importance of the Motor Vehicle Record to background checks, summarized in a nutshell by SVP of Kroll Background Screening, Barry Nadell: “I hire character, and the motor vehicle report tells me a lot about character."

A DMV report is not only a key component of most background checks, it is also among the easiest to obtain—almost instantly in most states. On it will be telltale signs regarding the respect or lack of it that you hold for motor vehicle laws. Drug possession, moving violations, parking tickets, DUI arrests, etc. will be revealed (and possibly lead to discovery of more serious charges). The ExecuNet article revealed a statistic that I found astounding: “One of every 32 American adults has served time in prison”! If this is true, it logically follows that a far greater number have been involved in lesser, but character-revealing infractions easily exposed with a DMV check.

Violations of the motor vehicle laws can and will affect more than your car insurance rates. You’ll want to think twice about the potential impact to your career before you decide to speed, run a stop sign, or even crumple and discard that parking ticket!

Posted by Laurie Smith.

Comments

[Tom Ruff]

This is a great post that I wish more job seekers understood earlier in their lives and careers. I own a sales recruiting firm that specializes in pharmaceutical and medical sales recruiting and I can't begin to tell you how many great candidates have lost out on positions in pharmaceutical or medical sales because they failed the background check due to poor driving records.

I wrote a book on how to break into pharmaceutical sales and in the book, I write about automatic knockout factors for pharmaceutical sales positions. Those factors include: DUI or DWI and typically more than 3 traffic tickets in the last five years.

Laurie offers good advice for those that are looking for a new job.

Tom Ruff is President and CEO of Tom Ruff Company (www.tomruff.com)
and author of How to Break Into Pharmaceutical Sales: A Headhunter's Strategy (www.breakintopharmsales.com)

[Unknown Person]

That is the truth ! I had several out-of-state speeding tickets I have gotten while on vacation, none which made it to my state MVR but when it was time for layoffs, I was at the top of the list ! Someone reported me to the "Executive Suite", a full investigation followed and after that, my termination. The tickets were not for doing something like 30 over but a couple were for a measly 10 mph over the limit.

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