Whether you’re looking for a new job or your better half, running a background check on yourself gives you a better picture of what others can find out about you, if they look.
When was the last time you Googled yourself or took a long, hard gander at your profile on Facebook or LinkedIn? The truth is, prospective employers and potential love interests are both pretty likely to check you out online. And unfortunately, what they find can sometimes impact their impressions in a significant way. The creepy reality is that some guy or gal from Tinder can potentially find your Instagram, Google you, and read your 2007 writings. That’s why you should pay as much attention to your online presence as you do to your physical one.
Nothing to hide, you say, nothing to seek?
Fear is not the goal here. It’s not about hiding information, but rather, curating it, so that what others see helps you achieve what you want in life, rather than holding you back. All of the following can have an impact: unprofessional or overly revealing information or visuals, unflattering photos, past bankruptcy, a criminal record, unorganized or incomplete professional information, low quality work showing up first, little visibility, no visibility, or your name can even “co-mingle” with someone else’s. The wrong results can have worse consequences than bad breath on a first date. This Ohio man lost out on a job because he was mistaken for a known pedophile. Not good. But—to every problem, there is a solution. Self-knowledge is power.
Power tools are made for you to use.
What can a background check expose that a simple Google search can’t? With a quality background check service, you can easily scour millions of public records and get a detailed report with integral information. A variety of sources are often included, from office and courthouse records to social media sites.
Check out these power tools with kick:
- Instant Checkmate compiles background checks from local, state, and federal records, and can provide you with a ton of data. It’s got a clean design, and is user friendly, making reports easy to read. However, you do have to pay more to access criminal information.
- Intelius was ranked gold award winner for best service by Top 10 Reviews. It provides the most complete and recent data out there, and is 90% accurate, all in a report that’s easy to read. The “but” here is that you can’t search for a person by age or phone number, which makes it difficult to narrow your search, and there’s no social media profile information.
- Been Verified is very accurate, and provides in-depth results on bankruptcy, tax lien, and court judgment reports. Desktop and mobile versions manually gather information that’s not found online. And great user support too, reportedly. Though, sometimes the data is incomplete.
Give yourself the gift of a background check so you can finally get down to the business of finding whatever it is you’re looking for.