Background check question

You can enter the Army up until your 41st birthday.

 

You have to weigh the consequences of what will happen if you tell them you served. Nobody calls the service to verify you service it's done by your discharge papers. If you have a general and up then check the box because it's no big deal. But if you have other than those like a DD then you might want to leave that box blank. Companies can find out however. They can figure it out if you list one state you lived in and had a license from another. I'm not sure if they can get your general SS record but that would list your service. Any flags you put up on the application they are going to wonder. Then they could take just two steps. Either not hire you or investigate you. Believe me I've seen when a company investigates they use an outside source and they find more than you think.

 

something else to think about and that is the background checks can be done by 3rd party companies we are not even aware that exist. case in point...i had applied to Chrysler. they had the some what usual application the one fills out. i did sign for them to do a background check on me. the company was "Sterling Systems" (or something like that)..Sterling found things in my background i didn't know about, that a DAC DID NOT find....!!!

so why would anyone want to hide his/her time in the military..??

who knows, why should we care, all we can do is advise the o/p to not hide things...but serving in the military was done so by choice, as we do not have a mandatory draft call like when "some of us" were younger.

i think by NOT saying he was in the military only goes to maybe prevent him from getting "points" towards a better job, like you know, when one applies to the post office or some other civil service job. they always give (at least what i thought, preferential treatment to vets).

i cannot say for sure if any employer will check on his status of being a former vet....however now, he WILL NEED to account for all his time during the past 10 years.....and if in those years he cannot account for his time, by including military time, he may have to come up with a reason for the lapse in employment.....

 

If the guy has a BCD, dishonorable (not common) or general, he may not want to advertise it - that's the only reason I can imagine. It isn't like they're going to call and talk to your basic training drill sgt or your supervisor when you were at base X.

 

I have to agree with Ronin. I am an O/O and very careful on everything that I check on new hire - size of shoes, hats, what flavor Jello is their favorite (ok, maybe not that bad, but there are times I feel like I am and I am sure they do too!!) I was surprised when I read the question. It never entered my wee-little mind to check on military record. As far as that goes now I am wondering how anyone would even check on somebody's military with the Privacy Act. I may have asked if someone had just come out of the military but never had that happen with a "youngun" or with a retiree from the military. I would just answer yes, because telling a fib is a big no-no with me, and not worry about it. It would take an act of Congress to check a military record and we all know how Congress is.....

 

The other side of this is someone who hasn't served, or served briefly and was discharged, or was discharged on bad terms, but lists that yes, they served for x years and got out as a (whatever)... people could fraudulently use this time to account for employment experience or gaps in employment - not cool at all.

For example, saying I served 18 years in the Army, did an early retirement as a first sergeant, when they really hopped jobs for 18 years and the last three ended really ugly, just short of going to jail.

If someone just assumed that this info is accurate, you're giving them a lot of credit where none is due.

 

Any decent company that asked me about military service,

also asked to see my discharge papers.

If you claim not to have said papers, that can send up a red flag !!!!



anybody reading this, that needs a copy of their discharge papers

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/ yes, it IS free.

 

The application usually asks if you have a DD Fm 214 - I can't imagine anyone bold enough to fake service and say they have a 214, but I've NEVER been asked for mine.

 

If you went through and were convicted in a court martial while in the military, it's considered one in the same as a felony conviction, and it will show up on your background check.

 

It's not like they are going to contact anyone in the military. When military service is checked they want to see the discharged papers. That's all. That's the way it's been with me on several applications. Besides that they are ways that they can find out especially if you were in any length of time. I'm not sure what they check on a background check with hazmat but once they get the SSN they can complete a time frame and if there's any gaps they want to know.

Not to pry or be noisy or anything but we could give a better answer and help better if we knew what type of discharge the OP got.