Hi there fellas. I'm from France, and I simply wanted to verify something with you guys when it comes to background checks:
In France, whenever someone wants to hire you or promote you to a very important job (VP sales, partner, director…) if someone wants to do a background check on your previous employment and degrees, they can:
-call every single employer you had and ask about you and verify you were here, and the job you performed
-check if your degrees (bachelor's degree, master's degree, PHD…) are real by asking for copies, calling the corresponding universities / business schools, checking online websites of the aforementioned establishments and so on.
-Sometimes, if the company that wants to recruit you is very thorough (like a consulting firm) OR if a company you worked for shut down (often happens years after you leave a place), they'll ask you to provide them with a work certificate signed by the employer that you were supposed to get when you left the place years ago, like that one:https://reader021.docslide.net/reader021/html5/20170906/58a30eb21a28ab1d068b469d/bg1.png . It's your responsibility to get it whenever you leave a place, so if you don't have it well it's on you lol. If your ex boss that you used as a reference is still alive, you may also let them call him obviously.
And that's about it.
I have two questions:
-if I eventually get a job in the US one day, will that satisfy most companies demands as far as background check goes? I have all the aforementoned documents and I don't mind them calling any reference I indicated.
-How far back do companies tend to go back? Not that I mind obviously, but more than 10-15 years would be quite a hassle in terms of paper work and calling previous employers to ask them if they don't mind being called yada yada yada, and like I said before I may only be able to provide them with proof of employment such as a job/work certificate signed by the employer because…well, after such a long time one of them might be dead xD
Thank you.
NB: W-2's don't exist in France, in fact it's illegal to ask for taxes documents as your employer might want to use that to renegotiate your salaries, which is why we use work certificates like the one I linked to you