False Flags: Correcting Mistakes in Background Checks for Security Clearance Jobs

Most people drawn to jobs requiring the handling of classified information, taking clandestine adventures, and embarking on top secret missions fully expect a comprehensive background check as part of the application and onboarding process.

After all, character, honor, and trust are as much a part of the job requirements as top grades from top schools and stellar references. In this extremely particular and nuanced job field, not only are employment background checks important, they are the ultimate determinative factor. They are the sifter and sorter that separates great candidates from hired personnell. They are the judge, jury, and executioner on your career. No one lands security clearance jobs without a pitch perfect record.

So what happens when background check errors plant false flags all over your file? Do you watch as the security clearance jobs you worked so hard to achieve just disappear behind an impenetrable curtain? Well, that's one option. But we offer you another...fight and fix mistakes, correct the record, and land the job.

Popular Security Clearance Jobs

While this isn't even close to a complete list of security clearance jobs, it is a comprehensive overview of the types of positions that hinge on an absolutely flawless background check report due to high levels of operational and informational risk.

1. Intelligence positions: intelligence analysts and technicians exist across the spectrum, including in the private sector (corporate intelligence, cyber threat, and risk analysts), law enforcement (criminal intelligence analysts), and military and government (counterintelligence officers, human intelligence officers, CIA, FBI, NSA, and others).
2. Translators working with highly sensitive or classified information
3. Software developers for military and government positions
4. Aerospace engineers working with national defense programs
5. Cybersecurity engineers tasked with preventing the most egregious threats to the nation's most sensitive systems

Red Flags: Background Check Mishaps That End Careers Before They Start

When background check companies make mistakes, those mistakes have real consequences. And when you're shooting for high-level security clearance jobs and they mark up your background check report with baseless, inaccurate, misleading, and unreportable data, those consequences are career-ending. When the competition is fierce and the standards are high, a less-than-pristine record can land your application packet in the file bin that sits on the floor, not the one that advances you to the next steps.

Here are the biggest, baddest background check mistakes blocking security clearance jobs:

• Mistaken identity: You may have worked overtime protecting your own identity from tarnishment, but what good does that do if your background check report mixes in data from someone else? You never had a criminal record, right? Well, your background check report says otherwise. Probably because a birthdate or SSN was entered into a database wrong, or because the algorithms that pull, review, and report your data didn't catch the differences between your name and someone else who did time on felony drug charges.
• Credit concoctions: You know you have always paid all of your bills on time, never let your debts get out of hand, and keep your rental history in check. But the people reviewing your background check report don't know that. All they see is someone wanting security clearance jobs whose credit and financial data gives the appearance of disorganized mayhem. Probably not someone who should have their hand in top secret data, right?
• Employment, education, and credentialing inaccuracies: Your cover letter, resume, and interview tell a critical story about where and when you went to school, what kinds of jobs you've held, and whether you achieved any necessary credentialing requirements. When your background check tells a different story, many employers have to stop and think twice. Sometimes the errors are glaring and obvious, but sometimes they're not. Even subtle, but incorrect data can tank your dreams of landing security clearance jobs.
• Foreign or terrorist affiliations: It goes without saying that anyone hoping to start or keep a career that requires a security clearance at the highest level, cannot have a record that reflects certain concerning affiliations with foreign actors or states. Good luck with that application after they're falsely told you have prior connections to a known terrorist group.

Fix Background Check Mistakes, Clear Your Record, Get the Clearance

Do not, we repeat, do not give up on your career goals because of background check mistakes. Once you understand, as we do, that background check mistakes are incomprehensibly common (impacting up to 50% or more of the background checks run at any given time!) AND that you have strong consumer protections to fight them, you'll be empowered to keep moving forward with confidence.

Here's what to do:

1. Get a copy: Once you receive notice that your candidacy for security clearance jobs is being assessed negatively due to information in your background check report, get a copy of the report. The background check company that prepared the report can provide one, as can the employer.
2. Review for errors: Go over every detail of your report. Mark every incidence of false, misleading, and unreportable information. And keep in mind that the net for this is broad, not narrow. So things like duplicate entries (even for accurate information) can be considered an error. Why? Because maybe two parking tickets seems normal, but four parking tickets seems reckless. Or maybe being arrested but never charged isn't a dealbreaker because there clearly wasn't grounds to pursue criminal action against you. But if the report makes it seem like charges were filed or leaves it ambiguous, that can count as an error.
3. Let the employer know: When you find errors in your background check report, let the hiring manager know that you are going to file a formal dispute of the information in the report and tell them which information is false. They likely won't change their mind unless and until you have the record corrected, but it's a good place to start.
4. File a formal dispute: Dive in with a strongly worded, legally supported, clearly marked dispute letter explaining what the mistakes are, what makes them incorrect, and what documentation you're including to support your dispute.
5. Send the dispute: Yes, the background check company gave you access to an online platform so you could quickly and easily file your dispute, but you should do things the old-fashioned way- snail mail, certified, return receipt requested. Why? Because these online dispute platforms frequently ask you to waive certain legal rights in order to use the platform..."accept the terms of service by clicking here..." The best safeguard is the one where you control all of the variables- you take the dispute letter and supporting docs to the post office, you mail them and keep the receipts, you track the days.
6. Start the clock: Background check companies have 30 days to reinvestigate the disputed information and respond.

The easiest fix though? Work with the consumer protection attorneys at Mistake.com. Our lawyers fix mistakes fast, free, and with the legal flair to stop the games, shut down the run around, and lift the smoke screen on the stalls, delays, and zero-effort "investigations" these companies undertake.

Your dream of putting your clean record and hard effort to work landing security clearance jobs doesn't end just because of sloppy mistakes by the background check companies.

They make mistakes. We fix mistakes. For free.

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