Don't Believe Everything That's in Your File

So....

HireRight.com

It's a company that runs background checks for employment.

You know, make sure that you have answered your education and criminal history correctly?

Well, evidently, it's a good thing to check the little box that you want a copy of the report.

Because they had three mistakes on my report, which they listed as "discrepancies", which could cost me the job.  The best part is that two of the mistakes are their own fault:  one was a typo because some non-English speaker called my former employer- let's call him Bob- and they heard Dod.

Now, trying to convince them that they have that wrong is like trying to tell the bank that they didn't calculate your interest correct.  In fact, even when you show them emails with the name spelled correctly, they won't change their report.

Seriously!

So that misinformation is now in the system as me working for a Dod instead of Bob, so when someone asks them who I worked for, they will answer "Dod", the person making the request will try to find "Dod", won't be able to because "Dod" doesn't exist, and then my application gets a demerit.

THEN, heaven forbid they try to contact the university that you attended, because evidently, it's too much work for the University of Minnesota to do a student search in their own files- they search in a national database based on name- not on a social security number- but on a name.

I'm only guessing here, based on the dates reported, but I think that they got my cousin.

Nice, huh?

While it's faltering to be given a couple of years off my age, it comes across as another demerit against my application to not know when I graduated.

And finally, when you've worked for an employer in the past and you're returning to work for that employer, how do you answer this question:

Employer Name:
Beginning Date
End Date

Since you are returning, you don't really HAVE an End Date, do you?

Yeah, they wouldn't correct that one, either.