So exactly what do they look for in a pre-employment background check?

The last several jobs I've interviewed for in Allied Health the HR droids had me sign a release for a background check with SS#, height, weight, hair and eye color, DOB. For one thing I thought was illegal to ask an applicant their age but does this form wiggle around that law?

I know criminal history, employment history is gone through in one of these screenings. But what else is investigated?

Worker Bee in Brentwood, Tennessee said: For one thing I thought was illegal to ask an applicant their age but does this form wiggle around that law?

I know criminal history, employment history is gone through in one of these screenings. But what else is investigated?

In general, it is not illegal for an employer to ask your age. It is illegal to make a hiring decision based on it. Course, there are exceptions to every rule: If you are over 40, you are too old for the FBI, the astronaut program and you probably won't be serving chicken wings at Hooters either.

What a background check consists of depends on what a company does. Most are pretty standard: citizenship, employment verification, degree verification, credit, criminal record and drug test.

I have worked for some small companies that never checked anything.

Many companies outsource this now to 3rd party verifiers.