Hiring Process- Background check & Drug Tests

[Brooke]

I'm in job hunting mode right now, the first time since transitioning. Legally my name and gender are changed.

I am guessing there's a high probability that I will incur at least one background check and one drug test. My worry is outing myself to a new employer during this process.

Questions

Will a background check pull up previous names and gender markers, and if so will that info get passed along to my future employer?

With a drug test, guessing urine- will there be any red flags/fraud alerts due to me being genetically male? Do chromosomes get checked to confirm sex/as a fraud check (trying to pass of another person's clean urine off as your own)?

Do I need to inform anyone during this process so as not to trip any alerts?

Thanks for the help!


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[AnneK]

I have had a drug & alcohol test for employment.  It just checked for abusive behaviour of certain substances.  However, you are given a chance to ask questions.

[Dena]

Drug tests are looking only for drugs. Other than the normal collections of illegal drugs you should be find. You  need to warn them if you are on any prescribed pain medication or if you  have had a poppy seed bagel as they will show up in the test as well. They may want to view you while you provide the sample to ensure that you don't have a container with a clean sample hidden on your body so that could be an issue.

As for the background check, it will depend on how deep they go and what the state of your records are. They now verify that social security matches up with the information you provide. If it's not an exact match, the employer will get a note from social security requesting they resolve the differences. Some companies also do credit checks for some positions. If you are applying for a job that requires a credit check, that could also flag issues.

If you think there is going to be a problem, alert HR when they are doing the intake. Most likely the information will not go beyond the HR office and it will remain in your file.

[Brooke]

Thanks. I don't think I'll be flagged unless they are observing while providing a sample or if they deep dive into background. Even a credit check shouldn't be too bad. All my accounts were changed over a year ago.

I don't think they'd suspect too much even if my old name came up, which was androgynous. But just wanted to see if anyone knew more specific information.

Thanks!


~Brooke~

[Zumbagirl]

My old name still comes up on my credit report if I look all the way at the bottom at the section where it says 'other names this person has used'. I went 'full-time' in 2001 so this is 16 year old credit data now. It has variations of my current name with Ms and missing middle initial and with my middle name, but it also has variations of my old name. Still in all of these years no one has ever asked me about it or asked questions. In fact it's never come up, except for the odd places over the years where my old name existed.

[elkie-t]

You know you can pull your own credit report and know for sure what's in there.

I'd assume any decent background check will pull your transition. How much data is provided back to employer - in not so sure. It might just be "no arrests, no felonies, no restriction orders", or could be your full report.

You aren't obligated to tell all your past to any one, so let them dig and don't worry. If they find, they find. Hopefully, it won't be an issue for them at all and it will be kept confidential


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[KathyLauren]

If they check your references, there is a chance that they will discover your transition.  If you don't want to out yourself to the new prospective employer, you should warn any references that would have known you under your old name that they should use your new name and pronouns, and to please not out you.

[Charlie Nicki]

Hi Brooke,

I work in HR and do this for potential employees. A drug test will only check for drugs, but the BGC can out you. Even if your name is legally changed everywhere, there's still a chance they might check your work history and is very likely the companies you worked for pre-transition don't have your new name, they probably don't even know you transitioned at all. Kathy's advice is pretty good:

If they check your references, there is a chance that they will discover your transition.  If you don't want to out yourself to the new prospective employer, you should warn any references that would have known you under your old name that they should use your new name and pronouns, and to please not out you.

This happened to us last year, I hired a trans woman and didn't know she was trans. Only found out when she told me her full name, she hadn't changed it legally yet. So she asked us to be discreet and that's what we did. She got the job and nobody knows about her.

[JoanneB]

Urine tests are just for the typical recreational drugs. No need to worry there.

Background checks, Also Known As, aka, criminal background checks are just that. Some places may also run a credit check. Since you have a legal name change, that is a part of the public record and will likely pop up, especially since your serial number is the all important linkage to your existence in today's world. Names are meaningless to the Great God of the Electron. HR will likely hand you a form to fill out providing any aliases of aka's which just makes life easier for whoever is running the check. With no criminal background they hopefully will be discrete about your name change since it is outside the scope of the inquiry.

All bets are off if any background check, current or future, may lead to needing a national security clearance with it's 30 page questionnaire even wanting to know your shoe sizes for the past 10 years  You will need to come clean there (or risk jail). On the plus side, their hands are definitely tied since being trans is officially not a national security risk in most countries

[Mariah]

Exactly what Dena said. It's why when I was applying for jobs I only shared that info when and if it was necessary. To my knowledge only the person in HR where I work knows about it. Hugs
Mariah

Drug tests are looking only for drugs. Other than the normal collections of illegal drugs you should be find. You  need to warn them if you are on any prescribed pain medication or if you  have had a poppy seed bagel as they will show up in the test as well. They may want to view you while you provide the sample to ensure that you don't have a container with a clean sample hidden on your body so that could be an issue.

As for the background check, it will depend on how deep they go and what the state of your records are. They now verify that social security matches up with the information you provide. If it's not an exact match, the employer will get a note from social security requesting they resolve the differences. Some companies also do credit checks for some positions. If you are applying for a job that requires a credit check, that could also flag issues.

If you think there is going to be a problem, alert HR when they are doing the intake. Most likely the information will not go beyond the HR office and it will remain in your file.

[Brooke]

I was hired, no reference check, and became of health reasons I was unable to work for several years. This put the chances of getting in touch with anyone who knew me under my previous name with former employers as not likely.  Added to that my previous name was gender neutral.

A month into my new position and I'm honestly not sure if anyone knows, even hr.

While I agree that there is a good chance that a previous name would come up in a background check, what I'm not sure of is if previous aliases are put in the report that is given to an employer if/when check comes back as clean. I would imagine it's up to the company doing the check.

If anyone does know it was never brought up and nobody has acted like they might know. So far so good.

Maybe I'm lucky working in IT that education checks are not common at all.

Thanks for all the responses!


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