Hello,

This is a question coming from Texas. I am in the market for a new job in higher education and recently received a great offer. I will be finalizing paperwork and turning in authorization for background check next week. When I was getting my documents together for my meeting with the new employer, I noticed that I put some incorrect employment dates on the application. Very careless but completely unintentional. The problem is, one of those dates is about 5 months off, and there was some time in between jobs, so it will look like I was trying to cover that. I want to speak with the HR representative who sent me all the information and try to clear this up prior to the background check. I was off by only a month or so on two other positions (stemming from my initial mix up), but the 5 month gaffe has me extremely worried. Is this something HR will help me correct if I am honest about my mistake?

Thank you,
S

Just send a new application with a cover sheet detailing your information.

They can decide not to hire for this, or even, if found, later, fire you because of it.

Update: It looks like I may have been worried for nothing. I went in and discussed this with the HR office today, and they allowed me to update my application. I should know for sure in a few days if there were any issues, but they were very accommodating and I was very honest. Lesson learned: always check, recheck, and re-recheck all documents before submitting!

Thanks to those who answered.

S