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Ask HN: How do companies handle background verification for dropouts?

2 points by saddist0 ↗ HN
I am a long time lurker in the community and joining a position after 7 years in a FAANG+ role.

I took multiple positions from Sr. SE to Head of Engineering in different startups but the due diligence is quite lax and people don't care much about your degree in early stage startups.

I wanted to hear from HR or people who know about the background checks.

- Does it matter a lot in bigger companies who use fancy background verification tools?

- Just in case it comes negative do the HR recheck with candidates or what is the process to not get it negative at the first place, etc?

7 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 36.7 ms ] thread
bckr
Are you lying about having a degree?
saddist0
No, I specifically added that I dropped off from my degree along with the reason on the resume to be extra clear about it.
bckr
I see. I wouldn't include that information, but instead just include classwork and not mention the degree or lack of completion
saddist0
Yes, leason learnt.

I will make these changes and get rid of ambiguity all together in future. Thanks!

PaulHoule
The main purpose of a background check to confirm what you told the employer. If you were hired on the strength of your work history and were honest about your education, felony status, etc. you are fine, otherwise you are busted.
toast0
There's usually a process to handle negative information that comes up.

Court and police record keeping is poor and identities aren't always verified --- if someone is arested and doesn't have ID, but it's not worth charging them with anything, you let them go in the morning, and file it under whatever info they gave.

So any big company has gotten false positives and knows how to deal with it. Depending on the details, they may delay or pause employment while the background check company does the legwork to get more details on the negative information to see if they can determine if it's actually you.