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I have got an offer from a very good company and I have also accepted it. Now they are performing background checks using First Advantage.

My current and next employer are both multibillion-dollar US-based tech companies in the area of scientific computing. A little background is that I am the highest rated employee and just last month I was promoted also. I have the review documents etc. with me. Last week I designed an end-to-end system which was very positively received by the customers and they are interested in doing business with company. Now that I am leaving, no one in team can take it forward.

My current manager is very sour that I am leaving his team. In the background checks by at new company, I was told they'll contact my current employer.

I am worried if his sour attitude spoil my chances of leaving as he might say something negative about me during the process? Last month internal reviews were all very good and filled with praises. For someone who left the team last year, he told the prospective employer that she was "untrustworthy" even though she was highly-rated also.

How do I deal with this? Will I get a chance to explain myself to my next employer in case background checks are returned bad?

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  • "For someone who left the team last year, he had told that she is 'untrustworthy'" -- Who was this said to? In what context? How did you learn of it?
    – Daniel R. Collins
    Commented May 25 at 15:50
  • That answered none of my questions.
    – Daniel R. Collins
    Commented May 25 at 18:43
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    @DanielR.Collins sorry for the confusion. This was said to her next recruiter when they performed some kind of verification. I learnt because my manager himself was telling everyone in team
    – Jolly Roger
    Commented May 26 at 1:46
  • “Now that I am leaving, no one in team can take it forward.” — Why not?  Will you have done all the necessary handover? Have you written relevant documentation etc.?  Are your colleagues competent?
    – gidds
    Commented May 30 at 21:17

3 Answers 3

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A background check is not a reference. Typically the check includes verifying objective information: typically employment dates and maybe job titles. Anything beyond that is somewhat questionable and some US companies have explicit policies that specifically disallows sharing anything more than that.

A background check simply verifies dates, job titles, degrees, licenses, on your resume and looks for any legal, regulatory or financial warning signs that are accessible public information.

So in this regard you should be fine.

A reference on the other hand does indeed include more subjective assessment from people who you have worked with in the past and that are willing and/or allowed to share this information.

Typically this happens BEFORE an offer has been made and it would be unusual to your current employer for that: a) it outs the candidate and b) presents a conflict of interest for the reference.

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  • The service first advantage specifically said it does a reference check, fadv.com/india/solutions/background-verification
    – Jolly Roger
    Commented May 25 at 17:51
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    @JollyRoger: Notice they're very careful to explicate they check "Employment (through HR Department)" and "references provided by client or candidate, where available". So unless that's false info or I'm missing something, they'd specifically avoid the current manager unless you provided them as a reference.
    – Daniel R. Collins
    Commented May 26 at 2:34
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As mentioned in the other answer, a Background Check is not a reference check. It is a check that you worked at the places you have said you did. For which they will ask the HR if this is true. They may also do a Police or Criminal check.

Since you have not volunteered this Manager's name as a reference, it is highly unlikely that they will converse with him.

However, if they have said that they will contact your current employer, then they could ask a few more questions. And there is always a possibility that they may get passed to this manager. You can short-circuit this by providing them your review documents.

It is also an accepted practice to tell the new company that you do not want your current employer to be contacted. Often, you don't them to know that you are planning on leaving (until you have an offer).

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  • My next employer has specifically told they'll contact the current employer
    – Jolly Roger
    Commented May 25 at 17:45
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    @JollyRoger Then tell them that your former employer soured at your leaving, and is unlikely to give a good reference. Many companies understand that some people take offense to having a person leave them for reasons that are outside of your work performance. If you give them a warning, and they get what you warned them about, then because you told them first, it will be less damaging. Also, indicate that they can contact all of your other previous employers where they can expect good reviews.
    – Edwin Buck
    Commented May 28 at 13:45
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My current and next employer are both multibillion-dollar US-based tech companies

Given this the answer is probably more US centric than India centric.

In the US, a employer can be successfully sued for providing an opinion rather than objective information. Verifying title, employment dates, and if an employee is eligible for rehire is all acceptable. Saying things like "that guy was terrible at his job". is not. Saying those kinds of things is slander without proper documentation.

Additionally, the request will probably be handled by some low-level HR person. They do not know you so will just be reading some database record to provide the above information.

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    Many companies know that the more unhappy the old company is about you leaving, the better it is. In countries with strong employee rights, your current employer praising you up can be a bad sign :-(
    – gnasher729
    Commented Jun 6 at 13:25

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