[CA] Sterling Background Check: Don't Worry About 'Consider' Status, Job Title/Dates Discrepancies, etc. (However, Still be Honest)

I recently accepted an offer for a new role at a big company, and like many people here, I was worried when my Sterling background check was flagged as 'consider', especially since I already quit my job. If you're in this position, I'm making this post to calm your nerves and tell you you shouldn't worry at all, and explain how my experience went

First and foremost, I was absolutely honest on my background check and you should be too if you haven't submitted it yet. Regardless of what you put as your job title/dates on your resume, be honest to Sterling. HR will almost never cross-check your resume with what you put into Sterling, so in order to avoid any flags on the check and get a 'clear' status, just be honest even if it doesn't match your resume.

Now, despite being honest, I ended up with 3 huge flags on my check:

  1. They couldn't get in touch with a company I used to work for and therefore couldn't verify my title, dates, or even employment with them at all
  2. My job title from my most recent job was reported completely wrong by my old company. The company reported a job title to Sterling that's not even in the same field as what I work in
  3. My field is one you need a degree for, and Sterling said I had no college degree lmao

Now, these are what I'd consider being some pretty big flags, definitely ones I would think HR would have an issue with. But after the check was complete, I got a notification that HR approved the check with no problem. This wasn't an overlook either, this is a big company with a big, experienced HR team. I'm 90% sure they opened the check results, scrolled through the criminal history to make sure it was clean, and closed it. I never got any questions about the discrepancies and am now working this new job

So, please don't stress about small job title or date discrepancies in your Sterling background check, as you can see, even huge flags don't set off any alarms. Most employers are probably just checking they're hiring good people with clean records. Now go celebrate your new job!