My wife, Pixilated, recently started a new job and though she has been working about a month, they’re just now finishing the background check.
The short story, there were a couple of issues flagged that she will have to explain or risk termination.
The details, she didn’t put a couple of short term jobs (<year) on her resume so they were flagged as omissions on the final report. She had not included them in her initial application filed online and explained the gap as time off for family and school. She did include the jobs when filling out forms online for the background check.
She now has to send an email to HR explaining the discrepancies and wanted to get the opinions of her fellow Dopers.
I roughed out the following missive which I think pretty much sums everything up.
So what do you HR types think? Or has anyone been in this position before that can offer some insight.
That sounds good. I have lost track of the number of one week to a few months jobs that I haven’t bothered to put on my resume. If any employer does a background check on me that turns all these jobs up, good for them. They’re doing better than I am at this point.
I also think they’re being a little silly - you get a crappy job with a crappy company, and you find out the first day that your boss is insane so you don’t go back, and that’s supposed to show up on a resume? Nuh uh.
I should clarify that I had to list my last 7yrs employment on the original application and I explained my big gap as tending to family and going to school - which is true. I didnt intentionaly leave out the 8mo job since that can easily be explained for leaving - it was a graveyard shift and I was having a hard time adjusting to the hours. I left that job for a day job that turned out to be nothing like they said so I quit after a month.
When I was filing out the background ppwk, I realized that the 8mo was not on there so I entered it & realized I also had this other job, but then I started to worry that this other job for a month would show up on the background check so I went ahead and listed it as well.
I’ve never failed a background and I have inadvertently left info out as well as intentionally but have corrected certain information when doing the background and it has never came back to bite me on the ass before - even my boss says it’s not like I was a felon tryin to hide something. Cripes, I forgot to list my maiden name one time and it bounced back with the SSN report but the company never asked me about it.
But alas, I have to submit an explaination for review and then they get to decide whether or not to keep me. This sucks.
I think the email sounds good, but the part about previous employers suggesting that you should leave things off your resume might raise some questions. I assume that came up in the context of an interview with the previous employer, or possibly if the previous employer was helping you to find a new job after a layoff. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it strikes me as an odd thing for an employer to say (and you are saying it happened more than once), and depending on what kind of job you had, HR at the new job might even try to call the previous employer or supervisor to confirm that they did recommend that to you. Good luck.
Leaving short jobs off a resume (a self-written career summary) is a perfectly OK thing to do.
Leaving short jobs off a job application (a form provided by the employer for their purposes) is a risky thing to do.
I think your plan for resolving this is fine, unless the company is stupid-rigid in their processes. Which some are and some aren’t.
[anecdote]
We had an applicant we were probably going to hire. So we ran a background check (with his permission). Came up with a warrant for his arrest in another state. Rather than not hire him for no apparent reason, we told him what we found. He had no idea. Turns out it was a forgotten traffic ticket gotten on a vacation 10 years ago. He got it squared away. He ended up not taking our job, but he thanked us a bunch for our help.
[/anecdote]
I can tell you if they’re looking at “leaving off short term jobs” or such, they’re looking for a reason to get rid of her and make themselves a case not to pay unemployment (if she’s been there long enough)
I’ve often lumped short term jobs together as “Self Employed / Part Time” work to cover my work.
Like right now I’m not really working. I work about 10 jobs some which call me in once a month or so. I’m still on their payroll, but I’m certainly not gonna list all ten jobs on a form. Especially if I’m getting 4 hours PER MONTH.
I would just say she felt there wasn’t enough room on the form to list them properly and since they were short term jobs she omitted them. I would then say, “I was certain that the interviewer would follow up with me to ask and I did volunteer the information while interviewed.”
She’s likely to get axed anyway so you might as well bluff it and say she told the interviewer and put the onus on him/her.
That’s petty stuff, but right now there are so many people out of work employers can be very choosy. But having worked in H/R I can tell you if they’re being that petty, they’re looking for a reason to be shed of your wife.
I don’t agree that “they’re looking for a reason to get rid of her” is the only explanation. Maybe they just always go through the forms looking for minor discrepancies, to clear them up.
If they are trying to get rid of here, they have a nice reason, but if she’s doing a reasonable job, isn’t a nutcase (as far as they can tell yet :)), and they still need that position filled, they’ll just add the note to their file, and be done with it. Who goes through the hassle and expense of hiring a person, then looks around for a reason to immediately fire them? (Well, I guess the HR person could be the nutcase.)
What Markxxx says does make a certain amount of sense, though - who cares if you left off a job you worked at for a week? It obviously didn’t work out, and if there were no criminal charges involved, it didn’t work out for innocuous reasons. I’d go with you have written already and see what happens.
I cannot say there wasnt room on the initial application because there was. At that time I just had it in my head the last long term jobs that I had worked and my current part time job of 4hrs/week.
My history listed on resume and intial app consisted of:
X company - June 09 - current
Y company Nov 94-Sept 07
Z company 2002-2007
From June 2007 - June 2009 there was a gap. I did tend to family matters for the most part during this time, and recouping from the surgeries. From 06/2008 to Feb 2009 I took a graveyard job because I ran out of $ and I hadnt intended to be unemployed for so long. I tried multiple times to get on another shift and a more challenging position for months to no avail. As soon as a position came available for a day shift, I jumped on it but they wouldnt work with my school schedule as they had indicated before I took the job so I left - I had a wedding to plan, anyways.
I remember when I had to fill out the background info I realized that I had left those two positions off and figured it was in my best interest to disclose the work places - I was completely ignorant that they would hold it against me! I could understand if I didnt disclose the information at all and they found it in my history, but this was not the case. I would have been better off leaving the jobs off completely because looking at the background check all they do is verify the places you give them. :smack:
My manager said he is going to bat for me because I am doing a good job. I am a fast learner and was soloing in less than 2 weeks. I get along with everyone and the boss has been able to tend to making more sales calls.
I just need to figure out how to explain why I didnt include the info in the initial application and but did in the background check without sounding shady or like a complete idiot. But an idiot may be better than sounding shady?
I apologize for the issues raised during my background check.
Allow me to make clear that there was never any intent to conceal any part of my employment history.
When I was filling out the background information for employment, it came to my attention that I had inadvertently left off two short term places of employment - AB and YZ. After a few months at AB, I found the graveyard shift difficult to manage with family life and left when I was offered a position that included day hours. Unfortunately, the schedule changed at YZ and due to the inconsistancy I had to make a choice between school and employment there.
Again, I apologize for any inconvenience caused by this issue and will answer any questions needed to clarify this situation.
Sincerely
Pixilated
Of course, it might be better off leaving out the explaination of why I left these places?
First question. Is there anything about those jobs she wouldn’t want an employer to know? Like was she fired or anything? If not than it’s no big deal.
Look, unless your wife works for the biggest bunch of idiot assholes on the planet, they aren’t going to fire her after a month for filling out some stupid form incorrectly, unless they think she is hiding something like stealing from the company or drug use or whatever. And HR doesn’t generally fire people. The boss does and most boses don’t want to have to deal with the hassle of rehiring for a position they just hired for because a couple of i’s weren’t dotted.
And forget the stupid apology and excuses. Just write a simple email like such
"It has been brought to my attention that I neglected to include several positions of short duration I had worked at within the X years of employment history requested on my application form. Here is the information you requested:
[All the information they requested…and don’t leave anything out this time]
If you have any additional questions, please contact me."
Don’t go into details. Don’t go into groveling or apologies. Just provide the information they asked for and go on with your job.
I don’t understand the fetish that employers have about their not being time gaps in resumes. Maybe the applicant had to attend to personal or family issues for a year. Maybe they were pursuing a lifelong travel or other type of dream that didn’t relate to work. Who cares. A gap suggests to me a better rounded person and would matter not one iota to me if I was doing the hiring!
I’m of the opinion that they’re just following SOP for discrepancies that the check turned up.
She’s still in her probationary period so there’s no need to create a reason to let her go. At this point a simple “We don’t think you’ll be a good fit” is all that would be required to let her go.
No, I left the places voluntarily. I put the one out of mind because it was such a short term mistake - I’m surprised that I even remembered the timeframe! Graveyard shift on the other really sucked. My body was fightin it.
I sent my boss a draft of the email I need to send to HR and he thinks it would be a good idea to explain WHY I put it on one and didnt on the other.
That’s just it - I dont have a ‘good’ explaination. My life was so full of adjustments during that time period that I was completely focused on the positives and I blocked it out of my mind and didnt realize that chunk was missing until I filled out the background check info.
I think I will go with hubby’s (Projammer) example and work from there. I think that explaining that the discrepency was not intentional is the best thing.
I apologize for the issues raised during my background check.
Allow me to make clear that there was never any intent to conceal any part of my employment history. When I realized I had not listed my short term employment with St Michael’s and Harte-Hanks, I made sure it was listed for the background check.
Again, I apologize for any inconvenience caused by this issue and will answer any questions needed to clarify this situation.
Can you say that these were short term jobs not directly related to your career so you felt that they weren’t relevant in terms of your professional history?
In some jurisdictions–California for one–former employers aren’t supposed to reveal the circumstances of the employee’s departure. So even if you – general “you” not the OP – have been fired you shouldn’t have to reveal it to your present or prospective employer. I wonder, though, if HR people have a “code” for this sort of thing that communicates it to other employers.
Because HR and recruiting people are often dummies.
I for one don’t give a shit about gaps in people’s resume. So you didn’t need to work for a year. Good for you. The only time gaps become an issue is of you are currently in your gap when looking for a job. Then there is the very real issue of skills becoming out of date and actually becoming depressed or lazy from not having any work to do for a year.
**Pixilated **- What sort of job is this anyhow? As I said, don’t make a big deal about it. Just tell them it slipped your mind and provide the updated info.
It’s office work inputting billing and various other computer work. Basically, internal customer service. I am working on my own for the most part in the evenings when everyone has gone for the evening. I have access to the safe, but there is rarely any cash brought in (sometimes m/o or check).
When I got the information that I was suspended effective Monday, the manager said that I could leave for the rest of the day (Fri) if I wanted. Although I was a bit upset with knowing that I might not have a job come this week, I told the manager I would not feel right leaving the office in a bind and having the other office person staying to cover my shift (she works til 430, and I stay til the work is done, which is usually 9 or 10pm) and I was certain this would all be cleared up.
He agreed and I stayed to finish my shift. I’m not sure if he was supposed to let me stay, though, because working in management myself any time someone was suspended it was effective immediately.
I’m not hiding anything, I am embarrassed that I was careless in forgetting to include those 2 jobs on my initial employment history. It is out of norm for me to have short term jobs/job hop with the exception of occassionally having an additional part time job for extra income when needed - and those were usually seasonal or backup/on call types.
Anyways, I’ve got to get this letter in tonight and hopefully be back to work by Tues or Wed. An HR rep from our region is supposed to be in the office on Tues as well as the regional manager (but not because of this situation, I hope).