Contrary to popular belief, most companies that require that a person pass a background check before being hired for a position with the company are only looking for a limited amount of information associated with the person's past. In fact, when researching a person's criminal history, many companies will only conduct a felony background check because felony convictions are the only criminal acts that will disqualify a person for employment.

A felony background check will search criminal records from across the nation for the person's name, date of birth, and social security number to return any records that are relevant to that person. Although many individuals have never had a felony conviction and nothing will appear on their report, companies make passing a felony background check a condition of employment for everyone to remain fair to all employees.

Generally, a felony background check for employment reasons can only be searched back for a certain period of time, which is typically 3 to 5 years for non-sensitive employment positions, 10 years for sensitive or important positions, and for the person's entire life for employment opportunities with the federal government. If the felony occurred outside of the timeframe limits, it is generally not considered for employment eligibility.