Hi all, I am a recent graduate and I was given an entry level IT job offer by a large corporation not too long ago. They required a recent computer science graduate for the position, I met the requirement and passed their interviews. However on the work-experience section of my resume I mistakenly kept a start date of January 2010 instead of August 2010 for a previous job I had because I got the job while I was on college break and it didn’t quickly occur to me that I got the job in the summer holiday, not the winter holiday of that year.
This company that just gave me the job offer told me that they usually do background checks and now MY WORRY is that if they contact my previous employment place and they find out that my start date for a previous job on my resume was actually August 2010 not January 2010, the company may not give me the job position anymore?
Please anyone here with suggestions or advice regarding this? thanks I appreciate
I’ve never heard anything back from the background checks we do, but I doubt very much it will matter. What is important is that you actually had that job, not the start date. Summer jobs are nice to see if they provide experience, but the exact dates don’t matter much. What end date did you give? (If any.)
I wouldn’t even email the correction, since if you sent it to me I wouldn’t know how to get in touch with the people doing the background check. Have documentation ready in case any one asks - but I’m sure you are fine. Don’t lose any sleep over it.
Thanks for your response. the end date was, and is December 2012. I was wondering if I should inform the company that gave me the job offer about the error in the start date before they start their background check?
Thanks for responding. Like you assumed, the job didn’t have that much relevant experience as it was a student job I held while I was at school. The new job offer doesn’t require previous work experience, it just requires one to be a recently graduated computer science student. I was wondering if I should inform the company that gave me the job offer about the error in the start date before they start their background check?
I disagree to all the above. I say to contact someone there (ideally the person who interviewed you) and point out the mistake. I can’t imagine that this would hurt you at all, and very well might impress them with your honesty and accuracy. My kids will tell you that I’m fond of saying that “Everyone will screw up occasionally. The test of quality is in fixing the mistake.”
Then again, I’m frequently over-naive, and maybe this is one of those times.
I’d agree with Keeve, though you don’t need to make a big deal about it. Just drop your interviewer (or womever your contact at the company is) and say something like “Just realized my start date for that job was actually in August, not January, as I stated on my resume. Sorry about any confusion this may have caused”.
Then be sure to keep a copy of that email tucked away in the unlikely event somebody complains about it later on.
Don’t bother mentioning it. A few months time difference is nothing, a few years is another story. They likely won’t ask the previous employer about when you worked there, nor will they really care.
In Ohio they can only really answer if you worked there and are eligible for re-employment.
Bringing up the mistake only calls undue attention to what may very likely be a non-issue. If they ask you about it, which I can almost guarantee they won’t, be honest about the mistake and that will be it.
If they decide not to employ you based on either the error, or the shorter experience time, you need to find a better employer.
I would concur. Just send them an email telling them you looked at your bank statements or whatever and realized you made a mistake on your start date.
People act is if companies go out of their way to try and fuck people over. No company is looking to find reasons to rescind your offer over some technicality once they hire you.
Now, if you send them an email that you forgot you didn’t get an MBA from Wharton, that’s a different matter.
I would say that Jan vs Aug is a pretty big discrepency, right on the border of what I might feel imposed upon to correct. I honestly doubt they’re going to care that much though.
I would find it highly unlikely that they would even care about a college job. I had to give ten years of employment history when I first joined the finance industry. I did the best I could, but there is simply no way I could remember every college and temp job I had in my teens and early 20’s. It was not an issue, the background check was done to make sure I wasn’t in prison during those years, not trying to track down every restaurant I worked at for a few months which had changed names and owners numerous times.