Would background check check your performance at the previous firm?

To the best of my knowledge, no.  They only check things like criminal records, etc.  

Hi Anonymous,

In regular cases no, and even employers are on thin ice legally to answer those sort of questions to your disadvantage.

However, if there are reasonable doubts about something explicitly mentioned in your application documents, recruiting can at least try to reach out and get some kind of confirmation on that.

Hope that helps - if so, please be so kind to give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!

Robert

Hi,

If they're deciding about whether or not to offer you the job, they may call your referees to check to see if you did a good job.

However, if they've made you the offer, then a background check is really just to check that you were indeed employed at the firm. They won't check performance, but they may check that you weren't fired for something egregious (harassment, embezzlement, etc.)

Hi there,

Only if recruiters have any doubts, they can ask your previous employers for references. Basically, security companies check on the criminal records and that’s it. 

Was it helpful?

All the best,

GB

As far as I know, no. But they might reach out to confirm that you have worked where you claim you have.

No. They just confirm that you worked there and for how long / when. They may confirm job titles/rank as well. Performance is not part of the background check (in some countries it's not even legal / could get the previous firm HR into legal trouble).

Hello!

Not at all!

Background checks are nothing to be worried about, as long as you haven´t lied (e.g., saying that you graduated from Uni X when you didn´t, or that you worked in Company Y 2 years instead of 6 months). Minor things, such as 1 month differences, etc. don´t matter. 

Most of the times, they are done by 3rd party companies to which the job is externalized. If they find any discrepancy, they contact you first and clarify it with you. 

For instance, with the MIT background check I had the issue that the external name of my Amazon job is not the same as the one Amazon uses internally -and that was the name given in the certificated that Amazon gives oficially-. It was easily solved by an HR doc that explained that both were the same thing. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara