Background over 10 years

Nah, it won't always. If it was from back when records were on all paper, it could have easily been missed when they moved over to electronic records or lost entirely. Back then, and to an extent even now, every little jurisdiction has its own isolated records. Many things will not show up unless the person looking knows to check that specific jurisdiction, be it town, city, county, or state.

Anything that was expunged is nearly impossible to find, though. The military can't even find it unless they dig really hard and get lucky. So if you did or do get something expunged, never speak of it again (unless you're going into the military. Don't lie to them.)

 

Not always true. A guy in my class at truck school had something expunged and it was showing up on background checks. He did have the paperwork from the court proceedings for the expungement though and sent them in to companies and actually had no trouble getting a job.

I'd call around if you're having a hard time cause of the possession. I have a possession that isn't 10 years old yet and was able to get a job. I was upfront with everyone I applied to as well. Most companies I talked to that did turn me down had 10 year limits on drug charges. This is usually beyond what they state under hiring requirements for misdemeanors, and you'll rarely find it listed separately.

Now, they could still not hire you because of it after the 10 year limit, but it won't be an automatic disqualifier.

 

misdemeanors do not show up after 10 yrs however felonies never disappear if they ask about the last ten yrs dont even mention it

 

There is no time limit for misdemeanors to no longer show on your record. A company can have a policy to to not go further back than X years but they don't magically disappear after so many years.

 

Background/Record checks and how far back they go or can go, is largely dependent on who is conducting them. I'm not referring to the carriers, but the firms they retain to do them. Also the availability of those records, or how easy they can be accessed.

Very small communities may not send in all records to an agency that's in charge of storing and recording them. I think most states will designate an agency, in Kansas this falls on the shoulders of the KBI (Kansas Bureau of Investigation, a branch of the Attorney General's Office). The KBI then will disseminate those required by the federal government (FBI) to their designated agency.

Now the FBI is only interested in Felony cases, not misdemeanor. So states do not forward any of the misdemeanors to them. The state (KBI) requires that all arrests and convictions be reported to them. This is done by way of fingerprinting all persons arrested and incarcerated. Disposition forms must be forwarded for each person. Now it used to be that the very small communities did not send all arrests or convictions in. However since the good old computers, and networks came about, this is no longer the case.

Proof of this is the community/county where I live. The total population for the county is 8,000, the largest town, which is the county seat has about 2,600. However we are very computerized. When you're booked into jail, the finger prints are no longer done on the old cards, but on a scanner, and are automatically sent to the state, along with the accompanying arrest information. This is a very small community that doesn't have near the budget and resources of many of your cities and metros.

Ok included in this network is the court. To update the arrest information with convictions or acquittals, all they need to do is enter into the computer database. These small communities started well over 10 yrs ago with digitizing their records. They were provided federal grant dollars to hire people to do this all day long, 5 days a week, until all records were now in computers. There were some time cut-offs for very old records, generally those that were at least 15 yrs old, unless they were serious, violent crimes.

So with that out of the way, when a company has hired a research firm to do the background investigations, they have access to all those records. They pay a healthy fee to the states for that privilege. Now if they have a suspicion, or their client requires a very thorough investigation, they will hire someone to go to the communities found on the persons application and do hand searches of court documents, and talk to people, to find what they can.

Every time I read or hear They're only allowed to go back..., I say that is a figment of that person's imagination. They are allowed to go back to that person's very day they were born if they so desire. There is nothing saying that you must stop at 3,5,7 or 10 yrs. It's what the client, carrier requests, and how much they are willing to pay. Manual searches, investigations are very expensive to conduct, since the computer can generally satisfy what the carrier wants.

My suggestion is real, real, simple. Just be honest. If you screwed up, you screwed up. You can't change history. If a form asks, answer it honestly. I think that most any prospective employer is looking more for someone that is honest. It shows they can be trusted with their equipment, their clients products, and moreover the safety of the public. It's far better to be honest, and get denied, than try to hide something and have them find it anyway. When they do, not only are they now aware of your past screw up, but you shown them that you're dishonest and can not be trusted.