Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, “Hey, there is an elephant in the village today.”
They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, “Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway.” All of them went where the elephant was. Every one of them touched the elephant.
First one touched the elephant’s leg, he said, “Hey, the elephant is a pillar.”
Second one touched the elephant’s tail, he said, “Oh, no! It is like a rope.”
Third one touched the trunk and he said, “Oh, no! It is like a thick branch of a tree.”
Fourth man touched the elephant’s ear and said, “It is like a big hand fan.”
Fifth one touched the belly and said, “It is like a huge wall.”
Sixth man touched the tusk and said, “It is like a solid pipe.”
All were partially correct and incorrect at the same time. They all stood by their words and kept fighting till another wise man came and placed the complete picture in front of them. He said, “All of you are right. Each one of you touched different part of the elephant and so your description doesn’t match. If you put all the parts together, that makes a complete elephant.”
Whenever there is any job opening in any organization, what all does an organization look for in the aspirant? Is it only the technical know how? Or it is just the behavioral competency? Or is the picture larger than our assumption, just like a complete elephant!
Well, not just one or two competencies are an essential for getting a job, but the complete picture looks quite different. There are two layered-verification most organizations follow – the foreground and the background. Let’s take an elaborate look at the same: 
We all go through the technical round and HR round – the foreground check, which decides whether we will get the job.
After a candidate clears the foreground check and is considered for the job, the next question is – whether he would be able to keep the job or not! The deciding factor is – background check.
In background check, the following checks are quite known to all – address, criminal, education, employment and reference verification. Social media scan has also been added to the background check to understand the applicant’s behavior on social media.
CIBIL Score and Report – This is another part of the elephant, hidden to the eyes of most applicants! We often relate CIBIL score with financial score which is essential for getting loans. Now, even if one a has good or bad credit history how is it going to affect the person in getting a job?
Well, the score speaks very loudly of the two most important characteristic of an individual – trustworthiness and reliability. If the applicant has a good score, it means he has been doing what he was expected to. He is trustworthy and reliable.
On the other hand, if the score is bad, that individual has somewhere breached a trust and hence, more likely, he will break the organization’s trust too. He is not considered reliable and the job offers slip out of that individual’s hand.
Technical knowledge is as important as the personal characteristic of an individual. The information in an organization is confidential and is not to be shared by anyone to anyone. Hence, personal attributes are given a lot of importance. One wrong recruit may turn out to be very costly. So, every organization wants to be extra careful while recruiting and is giving equal importance to background checks also.
As a job applicant, we all should be aware of the entire recruitment process. Not just one or two factors decide whether we will get the job and keep it as well, but there are many. Be aware, be smart, get, set and go towards your dream job!
