I’m not at all happy with the weather the past few days. I tried running this morning and it was absolutely horrible.
Parkrun is back at the weekend but I don’t think I’ll be doing it. The COVID case numbers are shooting up very quickly, which puts me off. It seems like Parkrun has promised to return a number of times and then didn’t, but ironically now it looks like they’re actually going to do it, it’s happening at a time when there’s a higher chance of contracting COVID than any time previously.
I phoned the recruiter and said I was happy to progress. The next stage is to wait for the employer to send everything through. I’m not used to such a slow process! And it’s playing on my anxiety. Apparently they do some kind of background checking. The recruiter told me there would be a credit check (why?!) and a criminal record check. I’ve never had to deal with this for a job before so I don’t know what to expect. From my research it appears it will be the basic DBS check, because my role is not eligible for the standard or enhanced checks.
But since I’ve never done this and don’t know what to expect then I guess I should wait until this clears before actually handing in my notice? Obviously, I’m worrying I’ll fail the background check despite there being no reason I should. I’m worrying about references too. I’m sure my current employer will be fine, but the previous one… I have low expectations of them. I keep telling myself that they would gain nothing by starting a fight with me and potentially exposing themselves to a hefty lost earnings lawsuit, but eh. What if they just refused to give a reference? Thanks, anxiety.
Rambles 
The industry I work in generally requires the background checks (not a credit check, I have no idea why they’d need that) because we work with controlled drugs (eg opioids (drugs that are frequently abused)). I’ve also been through numerous police checks because of volunteering with vulnerable people. I would always caution to wait until there’s a signed contract in your hand & your checks & references are all back prior to handing in your notice. It’s not even totally about the checks, sometimes the position falls through internally. (A hiring freeze, a restructuring, it feels very unfair when a job is snatched from you like that but unfortunately it happens).
My checks have always come back fine, & if you’d been in trouble with the law you would know already. The wait is frustrating though, on the other hand you’ve done the hard bit which is getting the offer, now the wait… & we’ll be here waiting with you 🙂
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Thank you Nik. You are right of course, but I’m not going to wait for everything to come back.
The background checks should be fine (no credit problems, no criminal record) and it should only be the basic DBS check which supposedly only takes a couple of weeks at most.
The references is more tricky because if I wait for those to come back before handing in my notice then that’s going to be awkward when my boss goes “so we got a request for a reference…”. So I could ask them to delay asking for this one, but the previous reference is the risk, so really I want my current reference there at the same time to offset that should there be any problems with it.
They’ve sent me the formal offer and contract now, so I’m going to go through it all and hopefully give my notice in tomorrow…
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