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Recently I was terminated. Just before this. I was approached by a company for another role and it ended up on a job offer. At the time of the first interview I told them I was working (Which is true) under certain conditions (true as well). By the time I got the offer and negotiated it, I was already unemployed. the time between my termination and the job offer is 20 days. I'm concerned because the background check now as they might/will contact my former company and they will notice the couple of weeks discrepancy. Also part of my concern is that I negotiated new terms and conditions as if I was employed. Any insights if a) Th background company will in fact catch this small discrepancy in time b) What should I expect if so?

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    The cause of termination is probably of greater concern to your new employer than the actual termination date. If there no skeletons rattling in your closet, you should be fine.
    – Vietnhi Phuvan
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 20:15
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    If they care about 20 days you don't want to work there even if they do explain the situation.
    – Donald
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 21:50

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I wouldn't bring this up.

If the information you provided was accurate at the time that you presented it then there is no discrepancy. Calling them at this point to say, "Oh, btw, I was fired from my previous job." isn't going to be helpful.

You've already been offered the job and you've accepted. The background checks at this point are really just going to be focused on a few things such as: have you been convicted of a crime that might impact your job/performance? Did you actually work at the places you claimed? For some jobs they might look at your credit history to see if you are in a lot of personal debt (usually finance and security related).

In the US, most employers only give a few details about employees: length of service, hire date and salary. Some might give an answer to the possibility of rehire question, others will ignore it and I can't recall talking to one that gave any actual details a person would not be eligible for rehire as that can lead to litigation.

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  • Thanks for your thoughts. I'm in a very unusual situation. Everything else I provided is accurate so I should be fine. Thanks again!
    – Frank
    Commented Oct 31, 2014 at 23:47
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I just went through almost this exact same situation (except that I wasn't terminated, I voluntarily left) and let me confirm your thoughts: it doesn't matter.

I got the call that I was accepted on a Wednesday and that very same day they initiated the background check. On next Friday I had a call with the recruiter to discuss terms for the offer and I could barely sleep thinking about these possible catastrophic scenarios. I was preparing to tell all my story and to bring this up, so I asked if he needed my updated resume or something like that for the background check. Much to my surprise, he replied "what? no, that is already done". Probably they didn't check and just looked for criminal records, so... it just didn't matter.

Also, that same day I received my background check report from my temporary 2-week job and they found a lot of discrepancies specially with dates because I filled their form like "01-03-2022" (as I was required to put a day), but they came up with "03-2022". It's not a big deal, but the report was all highlighted in red and nobody cared.

So, in the end, if you are reading this, don't worry. You are probably having anxiety attacks and all those catastrophic scenarios are in your head :)

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