By Jason Barnes
Job interview questions which can catch you out may be preventable with a bit of research beforehand.
There's a lot of advice available both online and offline if you're going for an interview and need some pointers. This includes researching the company you're applying to, the types of questions you may be asked, what to wear, how to sit. In fact the list goes on and on.
What most, if not all of the interview advisors fail to prepare you for is what kind of questions you may be asked about your own background. Information you may not have wanted your prospective employer to know about.
I'm talking about the type of questions which would expose your history from long ago, like if you have a criminal record (not necessarily if you've done jail time), whether you've been involved in subversive behavior, why you've moved so many times in the last few years etc.
These are the type of questions which could catch you completely off guard and leave you looking red-faced. The problem is you really don't know exactly what the prospective employer does know about you, and if you lie then you could find yourself out of the interview room before you've even started.
The question then becomes, how did this prospective employer know so much about you?
This is what most interview advisers fail to prepare you for as it's something relatively new to the interview game. It's access to personal data from new technology.
Having worked in the Human Resources departments of a number of large (and small) companies, the one thing I have noticed in recent years is the mandatory background checking of prospective employees.
It has become standard practice for many companies to run a background check on prospects before the interview. During the interview, they can then ask the prospect to clarify some of the issues which may have come up from the background check.
The reason this has become so widespread, and continues to become more so, is due to the ease in which companies can now get access to public records, such as criminal history reports, comprehensive background checks and other personal information.
This kind of information is no longer the realm of law enforcement, or something which requires a trip to the public records offices, followed by payment of a large fee and a long wait for the information to get printed and mailed to you.
Nowadays, companies simply need to log on to the website of a personal data service, enter the prospect's name and address (which was provided on the application letter) and within seconds pages and pages of data comes up about the prospect which may or may not help their chances of getting the job.
What does this mean to you?
Well, if you knew what kind of information there was out there on you then you could prepare yourself for some of the questions which may be fired your way. Perhaps there was an innocent reason why you found yourself in front of the courts, maybe it was a long time ago and you've changed since then.
If you knew what they might ask, then forewarned is forearmed - you can have the perfect response ready.
Fortunately for you, the same information sources where the prospective employer gets their background checks done is also available to you too.
Why not get the upper hand and find out what information there is out there on you before you go along to your interview. A good response to a very difficult question could be the make or break of your interview.
There's a lot of advice available both online and offline if you're going for an interview and need some pointers. This includes researching the company you're applying to, the types of questions you may be asked, what to wear, how to sit. In fact the list goes on and on.
What most, if not all of the interview advisors fail to prepare you for is what kind of questions you may be asked about your own background. Information you may not have wanted your prospective employer to know about.
I'm talking about the type of questions which would expose your history from long ago, like if you have a criminal record (not necessarily if you've done jail time), whether you've been involved in subversive behavior, why you've moved so many times in the last few years etc.
These are the type of questions which could catch you completely off guard and leave you looking red-faced. The problem is you really don't know exactly what the prospective employer does know about you, and if you lie then you could find yourself out of the interview room before you've even started.
The question then becomes, how did this prospective employer know so much about you?
This is what most interview advisers fail to prepare you for as it's something relatively new to the interview game. It's access to personal data from new technology.
Having worked in the Human Resources departments of a number of large (and small) companies, the one thing I have noticed in recent years is the mandatory background checking of prospective employees.
It has become standard practice for many companies to run a background check on prospects before the interview. During the interview, they can then ask the prospect to clarify some of the issues which may have come up from the background check.
The reason this has become so widespread, and continues to become more so, is due to the ease in which companies can now get access to public records, such as criminal history reports, comprehensive background checks and other personal information.
This kind of information is no longer the realm of law enforcement, or something which requires a trip to the public records offices, followed by payment of a large fee and a long wait for the information to get printed and mailed to you.
Nowadays, companies simply need to log on to the website of a personal data service, enter the prospect's name and address (which was provided on the application letter) and within seconds pages and pages of data comes up about the prospect which may or may not help their chances of getting the job.
What does this mean to you?
Well, if you knew what kind of information there was out there on you then you could prepare yourself for some of the questions which may be fired your way. Perhaps there was an innocent reason why you found yourself in front of the courts, maybe it was a long time ago and you've changed since then.
If you knew what they might ask, then forewarned is forearmed - you can have the perfect response ready.
Fortunately for you, the same information sources where the prospective employer gets their background checks done is also available to you too.
Why not get the upper hand and find out what information there is out there on you before you go along to your interview. A good response to a very difficult question could be the make or break of your interview.
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