Employment history is important especially when doing a background check on a potential employee. It is imperative that an employer verifies all information written on the applicant’s resume to safeguard the company and its present employees. Employment history includes date of employment, name of company, positions held, years of experience, and information on his duties and responsibilities. Searching for a person’s employment history can verify all misrepresentations and fictitious information.

Review the person’s resume. If he is an applicant, let him hand his resume to you. If his current resume does not have a record of his previous employment, ask him to revise it and include his employment history, including the contact information of the companies he worked for.

Verify all employment information listed in his resume. If contact information is provided, contact all of the companies listed for verification. Make sure that you do not skip any company.

Call the references that the applicant declared in his resume. If his references are not work-related, ask him to provide the contact numbers of at least two previous co-workers. Call them and verify if they worked in the same company, and call the company to verify if these people actually worked for them.

Search for the person’s name on a search engine and LinkedIn to check if he has a posted resume online. Look for his employment history and check if there are any discrepancies between the resume that he submitted to you and the resume that he posted online. Also, see if he has blogs or if he is a member of any forum. Look at his profile and check if he listed any company that he is affiliated with.

Interview the applicant and prepare a list of questions related to his employment history. If his answers are different from what he declared in his resume, he may be misrepresenting himself.