Want to know about someone’s place of employment but prefer not to ask directly? Perhaps you would like to be aware of your classmate’s success in their career, or you may be intrigued by your new acquaintance’s job and question its veracity.
Whatever the reasons are, you can employ some simple and effective methods we will discuss below to find out a person’s place of work without much hassle.
In 2023, there were 134.06 million full-time employees in the United States. At large, all employment information for U.S. citizens is publicly available and can be accessed through various methods, both online and offline.
To pick one that best fits your requirements, be sure to take your personal expectations into account. Think of what kind of information you would like to find and how you intend to use it.
Here are some effective ways to find the work details of a person in question.
Google is definitely one of the most common ways to find public records online, and this also includes information on someone’s employer. It uses certain search criteria and scans multiple online resources, from online directories to social media platforms, to find the right match.
Just enter the full name of the person you are searching for with some other personalized information. If you put your keywords in quotation marks, you will see the pages indexed by Google with those exact phrases.
Algorithms from Google are remarkably efficient concerning their search functionality. Google search is a free yet very effective way to find an individual’s work details.
It is, however, able to turn up only very basic information: employers, positions, and social media accounts. This is why we also recommend using other search methods.
Due to the staggering quantity of active users across a wide array of demographics, networking platforms can become effective online tools for finding employment information.
It is estimated that 246 million users log into their accounts every day in the U.S., which is about 72.5% of the country’s entire population. Therefore, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X (Twitter) can help to a great degree in locating at least some words defining a person’s workplace.
You can initiate your search for such information on LinkedIn, a business-related networking site where professionals put up their resumes, seek job opportunities, build up industry connections, and develop knowledge and skills.
On LinkedIn, you will find details of a person’s work history, including information on past employers and a current position.
Many social networking sites, like LinkedIn, offer search bars that are useful in accessing information by name. For those profiles that are in private mode, you may have to send a friend request and be connected first before you can see a full profile.
If the information you need is still unavailable, check through their lists of followers — there you could find a common friend, an associate, or a relative who would help enlighten you with more details.
A people search tool will turn up more detailed workplace information than any web search tool or popular social networking site. They save time, too, as the information of interest is generated in the form of a compact report, so you don’t have to sift through page after page of web content hoping to stumble on what you are looking for.
These specific tools seek out public records from reliable sources and collate them into a searchable database to make searches faster and more convenient.
For example, Nuwber People Search delivers to your fingertips information on more than 300 million U.S. citizens, including their phone numbers and email addresses, and 27 million businesses, among many more. Perform a free search by first, last name, location, company, job title, and several other search criteria.
The information that people search platforms can get can even go beyond a person’s employment status and other job-related information.
Besides contact and address details, they provide social media handles, information about relatives, associates, and property owners, as well as criminal records. But you should note that it is illegal to use people search engines in employment evaluation and pre-employment background checks.
While choosing a search platform that could give reliable results, consider the size of its database, methods adopted to check for data accuracy, and the depth of information it would provide.
Besides, be aware that not all people search tools are free. Some of these search services may include direct payment or even hidden charges. Therefore, always check their terms and reviews left by users before you sign up for any paid service.
Currently, most employers run background checks on their potential candidates with the help of specialized services. Such agencies specialize in digging deep into a person’s job history leveraging credible sources to get precise data while staying legally compliant.
The drawback to this approach is the fact that such services can be pretty expensive. Thus, they are more appropriate for any critical decisions.
It may be that you need to know who somebody works for and you are short of time to handle all the groundwork involved, or maybe the information is just not easily found online. In that case, it is worth hiring a private detective.
These guys can conduct thorough investigations, but the price needs to be determined based on what kind of data you are trying to seek.
So, before you turn to the services of a private investigator, be sure to nail down precisely what you are going to find out, and ask for advice from people you know for a reliable PI who might deliver results.
For employers, deep background research into the work records of an individual is an absolute must if they are willing to avoid pricey hiring blunders.
Learning about someone’s place of employment can, however, be handy in many everyday situations. Like when interacting with a commercial traveler or even when online dating and trying to decide whether you should go on a date with someone or not.
Luckily, with AI and other sophisticated technologies today, there are ample tools and techniques to uncover information. We would advise starting with search engines such as Google or social media sites. These methods are free and generally available with few, if any, restrictions.
On the other hand, people search platforms offer more sophisticated results that are verified. What is critical to note is that this method may come at a cost and is not available for employee screening purposes.
Other means of finding workplace information include working with a PI and opting for employee vetting services. You can turn to them if search efforts from your side are relatively fruitless, or if searching for particular employment details becomes tricky due to compliance or accessibility challenges. These alternatives are more expensive but can be relied upon to find accurate, verified data.
Human Resources departments can disclose some information about those working in the company, provided you have a credible reason for the information needed. Thus, if you are aware of someone’s workplace, calling the organization’s human resource department could pay off.
You also need to be aware that not every employer will respond positively to the demand for information asked for. Or the amount of information they can divulge to you will still be minimal because of their employee data privacy policies.
The answer is no. You can’t trace a person’s employment details using their SSN. It can only give you the state of an individual’s SSN and the issuing date, their aliases and associated names, and addresses linked to this particular Social Security number. But the obtained information can be used to identify the person in question, therefore forming a basis for a background check.
It varies based on the kind of information you are seeking and the reasons for which you need it. As a rule, anybody can perform a public record search if the information is provided by reputable sources that comply with regulatory standards.
However, every platform has its restrictions. For instance, people search websites strictly forbid their use for employment checks and verification purposes.
It is always good to know the laws that apply and the specific terms involved when getting an individual’s details on a particular platform.
When you willingly publish where you work and in what capacity in your social media profile, that kind of information becomes public data. But employees’ salary or personal data a company has doesn’t.
A person can easily falsify employment information on their resume, personal website, and other resources.
For instance, they could exclude some employers with whom they have had a small work experience, lie about the duration of the work or the job title, or overstate their duties in a LinkedIn profile. It is essential to verify details and use reliable sources to ensure the accuracy of the information you obtain.