Employers often spend considerable amount of time conducting background checks on prospective employees in order to ensure that the employees have only incorporated the truth on their resume.

Years of research has proved that almost 40% of resumes that are submitted to companies contain false or camouflaged information. This often prompts employers to run background checks to make sure that they are not making wrong decisions under any false impressions. Employers can also conduct a background check to affirm that the educational qualifications that have been specified on the resume are authentic. This is essential as it is the only reasonable and legal to find out whether the individual actually graduated from the college that is mentioned on the resume and how he / she performed at college or even on their last job.

Prior to getting a background report for employment purposes, the employer must notify the FCRA in writing. Irrespective of the nature of the inquiries, the employer must receive the FCRA consent.

In case the employer decides against hiring an individual as a result of any information contained in the report, then employer is obliged to file a pre-adverse action disclosure in addition with a copy of the consumer report with FCRA. It is also the duty of the employers to inform the individual about the consumer report agency and furnish him / her with the name and address of the consumer reporting agency.

Regulation background checks essentially include verification of the applicant's social security number. Several background checks also take into account the individual’s work history, educational qualification and credit report. Some background checks also include verification of credit payment records, driving records and even criminal history.

There is some information, however, that is strictly personal and cannot be disclosed while running background checks under any circumstances. Some of these limitations include, school records  that cannot be released without the student's consent. Few states also prohibit employers from running background checks into criminal and arrest records. Medical records are another territory that remain off limits while running background checks, purely due to the fact that an individual cannot be submitted to discrimination due to any disability.

Individuals applying for jobs must be confident and well-prepared for background checks. This confidence will come with the knowledge of the information that an employer may stumble upon if he  / she runs requests a background check. Few thing that you need to run checks upon before submitting the same for scrutiny are your credit report and your motor vehicle record  your record from your state Department of Motor Vehicles.