If you look online, you can find out a lot about a person. You should think that any prospective employer will look around online for your personal details. That search might help you, but it may also hinder your employment chances.
People searches can reveal many personal details, and we’ll talk about some of those right now. Try to stay on top of what employers can find out about you online because they might want you to address that before they hire you.
They Reveal Your Marital Status
Whether you have a spouse or not shouldn’t influence whether a company hires you. However, a potential boss who finds your marital status via a free person lookup search might find that information useful.
Some companies like hiring people with spouses or families. They want to know whether you’ll fit in selling family-related products or services. A prospective employer might look at that information and take it into account when interviewing you and considering you for the position.
They Can Find Out Whether You Have Children
They can find out via one of these searches whether you have children as well. Much like whether you have a spouse or not, this information shouldn’t matter, but your prospective boss might think about it during the hiring process.
Maybe this company makes children’s products, and you’re getting a job on their marketing team. If the company’s owner or operator sees that you have kids, they may feel like you can bring firsthand experience to your work. You might know about being a parent and go through the trials and tribulations associated with having a young family daily.
They Can Find Out Whether You Have a Criminal Record
When someone does a free person lookup search on you, they can find out whether you have a criminal record. They can learn whether you committed any misdemeanors or felonies in your life and the police caught you.
If a prospective boss sees that you got a ticket because you jaywalked once, they probably won’t let that stop them from hiring you. Any similar small indiscretion might not cost you a job opportunity.
If someone thinking about hiring you sees some felonies, though, they might look at that more seriously. For instance, maybe they see a violent crime like murder or manslaughter on your record. Perhaps they see robbery or burglary.
In that case, they might not hire you. In theory, prison should rehabilitate you, and you paid society the debt you owed.
Still, some company owners might feel you don’t have the values they want. At the very least, they’ll discuss the matter with you. Maybe you can say something that will convince them. If not, your past could mean you don’t get this job.
Social Media Information
When someone looks for you via a free person lookup search, they can often find your social media accounts. Maybe you set them to private, but your prospective boss might still find some information about you this way. Some people don’t bother setting their profiles to private, and anyone can see what they post.
Maybe you have some political views the person hiring you might not like. Perhaps you posted something years ago that comes back to haunt you now.
Social media reveals much about people and what they believe. Even if you changed your mind about some topic, maybe you posted something about it in the past that doesn’t sit well with someone thinking about you as a job candidate. That single post from years back might cost you a job today.
You should anticipate this and set your social media profiles to private. You can go back through your post history and scrub anything someone might consider controversial. You might even delete your social media accounts if they reveal something you’d prefer a would-be boss not know about you.
They Can Find Out About Your Educational Background
Maybe you told your boss that you’re a Harvard graduate or have a degree from somewhere equally prestigious. Perhaps they look at that as one of the key reasons why they’d hire you.
You might have no record from that school that you ever went there or graduated from there. That could mean you lied on your resume. A potential boss or hiring manager won’t like that. They might feel you lied or misrepresented yourself and pass you over for that reason.
Even if you did graduate from that school, maybe a hiring manager can’t find that record when doing a people lookup search for some reason. If so, anticipate that and have your physical degree handy if you go in to interview. If you have your transcripts from that university or school, you might also bring those.
They Can Find Out About Prior Work History
The person potentially hiring you might use a free person lookup website to find out about your work history. Maybe you talk about that on LinkedIn, and you mention your former jobs in your resume as well.
If you lied about where you worked before, internships you had, or anything along those lines, a free person lookup search should reveal that. These searches usually turn up former job and internship information. If you lied or exaggerated, this search should make that clear to anyone who takes the time to look.
Get Ready to Answer Questions About Your Background
With your background, you know what’s fact and fiction. You should know what questions a hiring manager or company owner will ask based on what they’re likely to find out about you online with a simple search via one of these sites.
If there’s something questionable in your past, know you’ll get that question and have an answer ready. Any time you can document your history, and it can help you, do that. If you can answer confidently and a question about your past does not blindside you, you might get the job you want.