I recently accepted a position at a mid sized company after finally getting interviews following a year of searching. I have been trying to leave my current job at a larger company because I am burned out and do not respect the leadership. I dislike it so much that I gave my manager my notice right away. He is a good manager and I wanted to make the transition smooth. But I did this before the background check cleared.
If it is just a criminal check, there will be no problem. But now I am worried it is more than that. When I applied, I listed my education as a BS. But actually I only have some college. I joined my current company with only one credit left to graduate. They even mailed the signed diploma. I know it was a mistake not to finish. Now I am afraid they might contact my school and take back the offer. Even though the job posting says or equivalent experience, and I have worked here twice as long as I was in school.
So I messaged my boss after hours to withdraw my verbal resignation. I have not heard back yet.
I am really scared I have made a big mistake. I know they cannot take away my experience. But the tech industry is in bad shape now. It could take months to get another interview, even if I apply every day like my life depends on it, because it does.
If they do not let me take back my resignation and the new company cancels the offer, I will likely lose severance and maybe unemployment too. Since it will look like I quit. The only hope is that HR has not been told yet according to my manager. But it is embarrassing. I wish I had waited until the check passed.
I do not know what I will do if I end up without a job. I have nowhere to go. My savings will last about four months. I would not harm my self as I have family, but this did make the disturbing visual cross my mind and it is hard to forget. I have never gone from so happy to so sad in less than 24 hours.
Don’t worry, they went through a lot of crap just to find you in the pile, and you’ve clearly demonstrated you can do the job to their satisfaction during the interview process because they offered you the job. They’re not going to check into your education history, they have no reason to. The only thing they care about is that you don’t have a criminal history that you didn’t tell them about. And you don’t have one of those at all, disclosed or otherwise, so you’re set to go. Chin up mate, and congratulations on the new job!
I appreciate your kind words and reassurance. The reason I am so nervous about them checking is because I saw a post somewhere, maybe even on reddit, saying that the applicant input the wrong graduation month and that it was flagged during the background check. There were no other details or a follow up. I am hoping that their case was for a college grad junior position and that for me they don’t care since it’s not a junior position and I have years of experience.
I would be devastated if I leave my current job before background check completion and then they fire me over this issue. I am sorry about my nerves, the team and manager seemed like great fits during interview and it really seems like it would be a nice move. I was, or I guess I am looking forward to it, I just do not want to put my partner and I at risk and feel like I already have.
If you’ve got the signed diploma, just argue it’s a mistake if they ask but my last job was fine without me having graduated.
So if the background check does contain an education section should I put my diploma that I have or should I put that I have some college experience? The some college may cause a discrepancy with my application but the diploma may also cause one.
I’d say you have the diploma and if you don’t technically have the degree it was a misunderstanding…you thought the degree superseded the class… hopefully this was bunches of years ago.
Then let them know you’re going to fix it…n
That’s if they ask
One credit short? If I were the hiring manager, I wouldn’t question it. Unfortunately things like this get wrapped up into process so all I get is a pass/fail. Hopefully your new employer has a “human in the loop” who can overrridevany negative automation
Wait, so you have a signed diploma?
Nothing to worry about. You’ve got proof of your ‘BS’
I do but I do not know if it lines up with the records that the school has. They mailed it to me after the graduation ceremony. I am not sure if I can provide it as proof if the background check people contact the school. Meaning that they will take the school’s word over my diploma.
No one checks that shit anymore. Stop worrying about it.
Most universities only provide academic records in the form of a complete transcript and you are generally the only one who can initiate that transfer, so if they are actually checking this they will ask you to provide an official transcript.
At best, background check services might have the public graduation roles the University publishes but these are generally understood to be informal and potentially incomplete. I’d be skeptical that a company which cares about degrees would use that as a reliable source.
The only times I’ve ever had to provide actual transcripts was for academic positions, and one time for a government lab.
Is this the case in the US?
As far as I know. A student’s interaction with a University is more complicated than just a degree so the typical policy is that they will only provide that information via full official transcripts (also they can charge for this). Maybe things have changed, but that was the situation the last time I checked.
