Don’t Mess With Digits
I wonder what increasing digitization means for reentering citizens and others with background baggage. This “wondering” is hardly new; it’s been underway for seventeen years since the early notes for my book, Get Beyond Your Troubled Past, first came together. And now, here we are with AI (digits on roids) seeping into every nook and cranny of our 21st-century lives.
In yes-or-no terms, does ever-increasing digitization help or hurt the background-challenged job seeker? I ask this rhetorically because there’s a continual Spy vs. Spy (yes, right out of the old Mad magazine) contest regarding background checks. Vendors of checking tools (platforms and apps) regularly add new technology features and twists, only to see them countered in some way by situations in the Marketplace. This is serious business, to be sure, and yet this cat-and-mouseness is intriguing to watch, with occasional unexpected consequences, like the social media discussion below.
But I’ll cut to the chase and say that in my view, despite the ebb and flow of action and reaction, adding more digits and specifically AI to the fray DOES NOT benefit the challenged job seeker—which is to say (continue to say…) the digit is no friend to the reentering person.
According to vendor data, businesses are NOT pushing back on using AI in various ways to conduct and record background data. I accept that if for no better reason than the regulatory framework around AI is so…what? Behind, non-existent? Anyway, I can see very little regulation, and given the political climate in DC these days, well, game on, AI. We can expect more and more AI-embedded features in checking products, not less.
AI-enhanced background-checking products push the bar higher in three areas: work history, education, and social media checks. Work history (employment checks) is not without its challenges, but overall, more APIs and data integration mean more information that can be accessed more quickly. No real surprise, but there is one regarding social media checking.
Over the years, employers and HR staffers have done their own social media research on candidates, finding all sorts of protected information (age, race, religion, gender). Possessing this information, not to mention using it in hiring, can be problematic, to say the least. Yikes. Nonetheless, interest in a candidate's social media profile isn’t going away (ever).
So, the question for businesses is: How can we get the goods without liability?
Hire third-party specialists to do the research. This reduces bias issues and protects the business/HR department. It’s better to proceed with specialists who know the rules rather than digging around without guardrails. And so, the bar goes up. Social media checking (a menu item already on the options list) becomes increasingly more effective and a “must-have.”
So, in the ebb and flow of things, what does this mean for the background-challenged reentering person? Simply put, there’s less and less margin for error—or “discrepancies” from the background checker’s point of view. And here’s where I stop the bus and clarify that I am not referring to lies or flat-out misrepresentations. No way. There is no place for this, regardless of the situation. That said, digital background-checking bars that continue to move higher create a perfect storm for errors.
For many reentering people, not all the details are available. They have been lost in the shuffle of a collapsed life and a new one under construction. I don’t know, or I don’t recall—they are for real. They can be actual unknowns. But digital applications don’t like “I’m not sure.” Thus, things are left out or best guessed. Most of the time, it works out if the effort is genuine or if there’s an opportunity to include additional information elsewhere on the application. However (back to background checks), what happens when a more detailed check is done later, for a big promotion, or when tools and features have been added to the standard check between getting hired initially and being promoted? Discrepancies may pop up.
As for social media, it can be a theme park of problems, complicated and thorny. My advice for the reentering person hasn't changed. If your Job Search Objective is in a professional or niche arena, you may have to have some social media presence to be considered. If so, present yourself thoughtfully and carefully. If you do not need a social media profile for the type of job you are going after, have none or one that’s minimal and uncontroversial.
This all boils down to the following recommendations for anyone reentering or helping someone who is:
Be straight up, honest, and genuine - always, full stop.
Do your best to represent yourself and your situation when dealing with digits accurately.
Build relationships with people (People Links, as I call them) who get to know you personally and how you work.
Develop a plan, subdivided into defined action steps, that will guide your job search and help you move forward once you start looking for your first job.
Searching for a job and, even more importantly, moving up to a new job without work-related human relationships (professional People Links) is like skating on thin ice. You might make it, but why chance it? The background issue is not likely to disappear, especially in our digital world. Genuine relationships, developed through effort and consistency, can act like an extra layer of ice, supporting you across the frozen lake.
Onward!