What Do They Check In a Background Check?
Cindy Ellis - November 29, 2025
If you’ve ever applied for a job, chances are you’ve gone through a background check. What appears in the check is usually kept confidential by the employer, which can leave applicants unsure about what’s being reviewed.
You might be wondering whether the information is up-to-date, if it’s missing anything important, or if there are pieces of data that are just plain wrong. Any of these could adversely affect your chances in the hiring process, so it’s important to understand what companies are checking in a background screening and proactively address possible issues.
If you’re asking what do they check in a background check, read our guide to find out.
What Do They Check In a Background Check? Common Areas Checked in a Background Screening
Most background checks look at four main areas of investigation to assess your employability. These are usually mandatory regardless of the position being applied for. The goal here is to verify your identity, authenticity, and whether it’s safe to hire you.
ID and Address History
This is usually the first step in any background check, with the goal of verifying who you are and what your residential history looks like. To do this, companies use Social Security number (SSN) verification, combined with an SSN trace through a compliant third party.
The first part makes sure your SSN is a valid number, but it doesn’t show them your identity. That’s what necessitates a full SSN trace, which confirms the linked identity as well as the places you’ve lived in the past. Your online presence (mostly on social media) may also be evaluated here.
Though this step uses data from the credit bureau, it isn’t a credit check. Instead, it builds a picture of all names and addresses that have been associated with your SSN over the past decade. This information can then be used to define which county and state courts need to be checked in the criminal history search that follows.
Criminal History
Every company needs to make sure the person it’s hiring is safe to have in the workplace (or in its external environment). It’s necessary for employers to mitigate risk and create a safe working environment for people by checking for a history of serious offenses. That’s where criminal history searches help.
The criminal history screening goes through multiple jurisdictions, including county, state, and federal criminal databases. Though most matches are found at the county level, certain crimes (like identity theft) are prosecuted at the federal level, which necessitates a search at all three levels.
Felonies and misdemeanors are the main focus in the criminal history search, especially if the offense is related directly to the job duties you’ll be performing (e.g., financial fraud for an accounting position). Pending charges are usually reported in this search as well, though their interpretation and use are limited in certain states, so your experience may vary.
Employment History
Your professional background is often as important as your criminal record to companies. In a background check, companies will check with your previous employers to make sure the professional history you’ve provided in your application is accurate.
Details of importance include the start and end dates of your employment, job titles you had, and why you ended up separating. This part does depend on cooperation from your previous employers in disclosing certain details. However, they aren’t obligated to do so, especially when it comes to inquiries about your previous salary.
Educational History
Education fraud is a growing concern for employers, making verification an important part of pre-employment screening, especially for technical or specialized roles.
Similar to the employment history check, the hiring staff will make sure the academic achievements you’ve mentioned (diplomas, degrees, certifications, etc.) are legitimate. The process for this involves contacting the Registrar’s office at the institute(s) you’ve listed and getting details about the date of graduation or attendance.
What Do They Check In a Background Check? Context Specific Checks
These checks are run when more depth is needed, following the four main components we discussed above. Context-specific screenings are usually only required in specialized positions where licenses, certifications, or financial responsibility (among others) are critically important.
USCIS Background Check
Any immigrant applying for immigration benefits in the US undergoes a USCIS background check. This is a mandatory part of the process and aims to make sure applicants are authorized to work in the US before employment.
Motor Vehicle Records
If you’re applying for a position that requires you to drive for company operations (delivery, sales, company vehicles, etc.), this check is mandatory before employment. Your license status, suspensions, major or minor violations, and points are all checked in detail.
Licenses and Certifications
Licensed practitioners who work in regulated fields, like healthcare, finance, and law, have to go through this part of the background check as well. Due to industry regulations, it’s mandatory for employers to verify their employees’ professional status.
This involves checking the license or certification’s active status, expiration dates, and assessing if any history of malpractice or disciplinary action is linked. License and certification verification make sure that the company stays compliant and that its customers and assets are protected.
Credit History
Credit reports are very commonly associated with background checks across the globe. In reality, however, these reports are checked quite rarely and only when the job description absolutely necessitates them.
If your job relates to executive, financial, or government roles where you’ll be handling large amounts of money or sensitive data, your credit report will be checked. The company looks primarily for patterns of stability in your financial history to reduce the risk of fraud. This is done by searching through public records for bankruptcies, large debts, and payment history.
Know Your Background Check Rights
As an applicant, it can be a bit unnerving not knowing exactly what companies are seeing on their end when they run a background check on you. Certain regulations and initiatives have been put in place to protect applicants from unfair screenings and biases in judgment during the hiring process, which you should be aware of.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
The FCRA guides companies and any Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) they use on how they must run background checks. The law makes sure there’s fairness, accuracy, and privacy in the way the collected consumer information is reported and used.
You’ve probably given your written consent for a background check before. This is one aspect of the FCRA that disallows any background screening to be run without formal, explicit consent from the applicant.
If an employer decides not to hire you based on something found in the background, they’ll have to follow the Adverse Action Process to do so. You’ll be given a copy of the report they used, along with five days’ time to dispute any inaccuracies in the background check.
Initiatives Protecting Applicants
The FCRA is the main point of protection, but you’ll also see local laws that go a bit further than the FCRA in regulating the use of background information during the hiring process.
One of these is “Ban the Box” legislation, a nationwide movement aiming to delay inquiries about an applicant’s criminal history until later in the hiring process (usually after the interview or conditional job offer). This movement has led to laws in dozens of states and hundreds of cities protecting applicants from discrimination due to their criminal background.
Seeing Your Own Background Check
It’s difficult to anticipate the questions you’ll be asked in an interview. That’s where it can help to run a background check on yourself to see the information hiring staff will be looking at prior to interviewing you. By looking at the report from the perspective of an employer, you’ll be able to better prepare yourself for any questions that come up.
To run a background check on yourself to be prepared, go to our background check search tool and enter your name, address, or phone number to get started. Select the result that most closely matches your profile and click on “Open Report.”
Now, you should be able to see all publicly available information about yourself in a detailed report, including your professional, educational, and even criminal history. Review the report carefully and correct any inaccuracies you find.
Clearing a Background Check
Background checks are more detailed than ever, particularly for specialized roles with specific requirements. As a candidate, you often won’t know exactly what the company is looking at and how it impacts their hiring decision.
When applying for a job, make sure you’re aware of your rights, update all of your information as accurately as you can, and run a background check on yourself to prepare for any queries in the interview.
