How thorough are pre-employment screenings?

The background check conducted by employers can vary from one company to the next on how in-depth they look into each applicant and their past history. Some corporations only do a bare minimum check to verify that the social security number is correct. Others on the other hand will do a complete check, which includes a complete work history, information on those the applicant knows, a complete credit report, and a thorough criminal background check. It is up to each company on how much they want to know about all potential applicants but whatever they want to know they still must inform the applicant they are conducting the checks.